Laettner whining about Fab 5 documentary

[biggunsbob]

Problem is CL's team smoked the Fab 5 in the Finals. It sucked.

 

[rumseyhouse77]

I don't get it. Why make a whole 30/30 about this? The Fab 5 hated Duke and Laettner. They made it clear in the previous 30/30 and why they felt the way they did. What more is there to say that is worth saying or listening to?

 

[TheVictors]

FWIW ...the producer of the Laettner 30/30 said the idea came after a relatively recent survey of who is the most hated college hoops player of all-time and Laettner won it going away ...all these many years later.

So ...the premise of the film was born

 

[rumseyhouse77]

FWIW ...the producer of the Laettner 30/30 said the idea came after a relatively recent survey of who is the most hated college hoops player of all-time and Laettner won it going away ...all these many years later.

So ...the premise of the film was born

Ah, I see. So it is not just the Fab 5, everyone hated him.

 

[TheVictors]

Yes. Everyone hates laettner and Duke.

They suck.

 

[Sbee]

Yes. Everyone hates laettner and Duke.

They suck.

I don't hate Duke, I wish the other elite programs were more like them and we'd have a much better, cleaner sport. Duke doesn't cheat, graduates players, does things the right way, wins with class. I don't really understand the hate other than the fact that white fans tend to really hate white players.

 

[TheVictors]

But not as much as everyone hates Sbee.


For the same reason.

 

[rumseyhouse77]

I didn't hate Laettner except for his whining about this shit.

 

[MSUMatt28]

People hated Duke because of the squeaky clean image and the media love they inspired. People hated Laettner double because he was lumped in with all that praise while at the same time being the ****iest, most arrogant, and dirtiest (case in point, the stomp on Aminu Timberlake's chest vs Kentucky) player around, which was mostly ignored by said media.

 

[TheVictors]

The thing people forget is the context of the time.

Most notably, MICHIGAN won the NCAA title with Rice, Robinson & Mills in 1989. The 'Fab Five' was hardly some historical anomaly aside from what happened after and how it all came together involving Ed Martin.

Duke had already lost to/battled the GrandMaMa UNLV team who, I believe, were the true originators of the baggy shorts and counter-cultural hoops (r)evolution.

As depicted in the F5 30/30, it was more than just college hoops, it was cultural. The baggy shorts, black socks and thug mindset was new to college hoops and was in stark contrast to what was going on at Duke ....Johnny Dawkins, Duke successes before ...Duke was the hoops institution of the day (though not 89 NCs or even runners up).

The reason everyone hate(d)s Duke is because given all possible advantages in every way, they had them all. For a kid like me, who was a 4.0 public school kid, I identified more with public enemy and the F5 than I did with Hurley or laettner. The one kid from my TCHS class who went to Duke came back after Freshman year as a total DBag ...arrogant ad all hell because he went to Duke.

So when the revisionists talk about how acclaimed the Dukies were, or how the F5 never won a title, I think also about that era. The F5 were upstarts who the (Duke) NCAA establishment didn't want to win. The anti-Duke movement wasn't borne of hate, resentment or jealousy as much as it was from the same sentiment that gravitates to the underdog ...the ones without all the advantages.

So perhaps Christian Laettner was caught up non something that wasn't his fault - maybe he was a great guy and even better basketball player.

But in 1991 ...he was emblematic of the Haves and the F5 the HaveNots. Looking back now (haters aside), the anti-Duke sentiment was the majority opinion and the F5, the counter cultural movement against Duke.

So sparties now with the benefit of two decades of Izzo (thanks to Ed Martin) can talk smack, but many then were as obsessed with Webber as anyone else. Peplowski was fAt and slow and Jalen a thug .....still, nobody then like Duke.

Not outside of Durham anyways.

And then there's the whole lacrosse team thing years later.

 

[Sbee]

What if Laettner was black? My guess is that he wouldn't be looked at the same way.

Also, I love when UM fans say that Izzo can thank Ed Martin. Michigan was involved in the biggest pay for play scandal in college basketball history & owns the record for the most forfeited games but somehow the ego of some fans still makes excuses. It's like saying, if we never got caught for years of cheating we would have been better....no shit. If you wouldn't have cheated who knows how good you would have been to begin with?

Also, Martin's involvement with the program goes back way past the fab five. The records show that he gave money to Terry mills who reported it and returned it, but who else did he give money to? The grand jury investigation only went back so far.

I think some Michigan fans, the ego centric ones like Vic can't seem to conceptualize that they're holding on to an extremely tainted past and that era isn't something to be proud of.

The reason izzo hates michigan so much is that he was the assistant out there losing on detroit recruits who were getting paid. He was our primary recruited for webber and got a silent commitment from him until uncle ed, watson, and rose got involved.

 

[biggunsbob]

The whole Fab Five area was fun to watch but in the end it ****ing killed Michigan hoops because of the cheating.. But There is some gray area in regards to Jamal Crawford and his suspension because at that time period a lot of colleges Duke included were doing the same thing with players and I am pretty sure only Michigan was punished for JC..

 

[Sbee]

The whole Fab Five area was fun to watch but in the end it ****ing killed Michigan hoops because of the cheating.. But There is some gray area in regards to Jamal Crawford and his suspension because at that time period a lot of colleges Duke included were doing the same thing with players and I am pretty sure only Michigan was punished for JC..

Crawford was punished but I don't think michigan was, that's a one off, not Michigan's fault. My point on th fab five is that they wouldn't have been as fun if it wasn't for the cheating.

 

[MSUMatt28]

What if Laettner was black? My guess is that he wouldn't be looked at the same way.

Also, I love when UM fans say that Izzo can thank Ed Martin. Michigan was involved in the biggest pay for play scandal in college basketball history & owns the record for the most forfeited games but somehow the ego of some fans still makes excuses. It's like saying, if we never got caught for years of cheating we would have been better....no shit. If you wouldn't have cheated who knows how good you would have been to begin with?

Also, Martin's involvement with the program goes back way past the fab five. The records show that he gave money to Terry mills who reported it and returned it, but who else did he give money to? The grand jury investigation only went back so far.

I think some Michigan fans, the ego centric ones like Vic can't seem to conceptualize that they're holding on to an extremely tainted past and that era isn't something to be proud of.

The reason izzo hates michigan so much is that he was the assistant out there losing on detroit recruits who were getting paid. He was our primary recruited for webber and got a silent commitment from him until uncle ed, watson, and rose got involved.

It depends regarding Laettner. People hated Duke for all the stated reasons, and people at the other end of it loved Duke. Same thing in reverse regarding the Fab 5. But at least the Fab 5 was interesting at the time. I never got a sense from the media that Laettner was all that hated by the average college b-ball fan back then, unless that fan already hated Duke for being Duke. But again I think those same people that hated Duke hated Laettner x 2 because he kind of was a punk, but got a free pass by the media on that because he was at Duke. The fact that he always seemed to end up on top in the end (with a couple of near miraculous game winning shots) I'm sure also added even more to it.

I hated Duke at the time as much as most because I thought they walked around and acted like their shit didn't stink and they always seemed to be there in the tournament even though they weren't always the best team (usually getting into the F4 as 2 or 3 seeds). I remember when they didn't cut the nets down after making the Final Four in 1989 because they said they weren't doing that unless they won it all. So I took extra pleasure in seeing Seton Hall blast them in the F4. I hated them the next year when Laettner hit the shot to beat UConn as that UConn team had become one of my favorite teams at the time (the team where Tate George hit the game winning shot vs Clemson), and I took pleasure in UNLV destroying them that year, and I was no fan of UNLV. The next year I was again no fan of UNLV, but the last team I wanted to see take them down was Duke. And the by the time Laettner was a senior, well enough was enough. Though that Duke team that won the second championship still might have to rank as nearly the best team since I've been following college basketball. Maybe not the most talented, but only 2 losses in a stacked ACC (when I think they had a few injuries midseason) and repeating as champs counts for a whole lot.

 

[Sbee]

Some people just hate success when it doesn't happen to them. I have a lot of respect for duke, I won't say I'm a fan because I'm only a fan of one team but I like them a lot more than kansas, Kentucky, unc, and ucla, all elite programs and all known cheats. I like izzo ' s comments on coach k, about how he's recruited against him a lot and never thought anything bad went down.

As for most hated, just think about the most hated cbb players if all time and most are white, a lot from duke too like hurley and Reddick but also bird and mchale.

This isn't scientific but look a t this list if the 30 most hated and a huge percentage are white in a sport that's mainly black.

http://grantland.com/features/a-tou...ted-college-basketball-players-last-30-years/

 

[TheVictors]

What if Laettner was a single Black mom in an urban area?

How would you vote then?

What if Laettner wore aqua socks out to a hockey house party in Dec 91 on S State and almost got his ass kicked by a UM Hockey player ....?

Wait, that did happen



If Laettner were black he'd be Grant Hill ...Boozer ...another 'Uncle Tom,' at least according to the F5 30/30 anyways. Lol

 

[tinselwolverine]

What if Spartacus had had a piper cub?

What if Eleanor Roosevelt could've flown?

If my uncle was a woman he'd be my auntie.

 

[erg57]

sbee,

No clue as to how old you are but when I went to MSU I saw poor hoops players driviing 30K vehicles in the 80s when Jud was coaching. There's no moral equivalence in big time sports...now or beak in the olden days.

 

[Sbee]

sbee,

No clue as to how old you are but when I went to MSU I saw poor hoops players driviing 30K vehicles in the 80s when Jud was coaching. There's no moral equivalence in big time sports...now or beak in the olden days.

Wow, a message board poster said that he saw MSU players in a somewhat expensive car in the 90 ' s. I guess that's the same as the biggest pay for play scandal in the history of the sport and the most forfeited games in the NCAA. I can see your point, that's the same thing.

 

[biggunsbob]

Wow, a message board poster said that he saw MSU players in a somewhat expensive car in the 90 ' s. I guess that's the same as the biggest pay for play scandal in the history of the sport and the most forfeited games in the NCAA. I can see your point, that's the same thing.

Defensive a bit sbee..
Jeez he is just making a statement which is true. Flashback early 90's living in Vegas.. Sitting at the apt whirlpool. I whole group of Running Rebels Pulled up in nice fancy cars..

I also know a tutor who help MSU football players this would be before Mark D era.. She said and I quote.

'I have know idea how 90% made it into college'
Don't worry she helped them pass as she graduated from MSU as a engineer and now works at University of Michigan LOL..

Don't be so na?ve to think it did not happen all the time around the NCAA landscape.