In the summer of 1992, Team USA assembled the Dream Team, a squad of NBA giants bound for Barcelona. But one name stood out — he was the only amateur, Christian Laettner, the national player of the year, was the lone college player handpicked for the original Dream Team.
He rubbed shoulders with Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. That alone says everything about what kind of player he was in college — transcendent. No one was better as a college athlete.
Laettner’s legacy built in Durham
Laettner’s pro career might not have soared to the heights expected of a third-overall pick. 13 seasons, one All-Star appearance, and multiple jersey swaps didn’t quite match the mythology of his college days. But according to former college teammate, Grant Hill, that’s missing the point.
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“We look at his pro career and it didn’t quite pan out with the expectations,” Hill said of Laettner. “But he was just as good of a college basketball player that I’ve ever seen. I’m talking starting from 1982, I didn’t see before that … from the modern era, in terms of accomplishments, in terms of just like stepping up to the challenge. Shaq’s even said it before — Christian busted his a**.”
Laettner played for Duke from 1988 to 1992, during the height of coach Mike Krzyzewski’s rise. By his sophomore year, he had helped take the Blue Devils to the NCAA championship game. He had already been to the Final Four as a freshman. And then came the back-to-back national titles in 1991 and 1992 — the school’s first-ever titles.
He played in 23 out of possible 24 NCAA tournament games, winning 21 of them — both NCAA records. During that run, he scored 407 points in tournament games alone, placing him among the top scorers in March Madness history.
Those were legendary numbers by collegiate standards. He averaged 16.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in his career and hit nearly 50 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. In his senior season, he posted 21.5 points per game and swept every major national player of the year award.
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Duke retired his No. 32 jersey the same year. And when the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame opened its doors, Laettner’s name was put in early.
A college legend
Laettner had a handful of moments that enshrined him in college basketball history, and nearly all of them came in during pressure-packed NCAA tournament games.
The 1990 East Regional Final against UConn was one. Duke trailed by one in overtime with two seconds left. Laettner made the shot. In the 1992 East Regional Final against Kentucky, with Duke trailing again in overtime with just 2.1 seconds on the clock, Hill hurled a full-court pass. Laettner caught it, faked right, spun left and nailed a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer.
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It’s often ranked the greatest college basketball game ever played. Laettner finished with a perfect stat line: 10-for-10 from the field, 10-for-10 from the line, and 31 points. This sent Duke to the Final Four again, where they would defeat Michigan and claim their second straight championship.
“Christian was competitive,” Hill said. “Christian brought it and he had some good players around him too that helped and he got it done. And we rode him those years.”
He was NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1991, a place on the All-Tournament team in each of his four seasons, and the Wooden Award, the Naismith Award, and the AP Player of the Year all in 1992.
He might not have the NBA resume of his Dream Team teammates, but in college, he was the final boss—the one every rival coach feared—the one who always got the ball when it mattered most.
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