{"id":79783,"date":"2026-04-11T13:25:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isport.com.ng\/?p=79783"},"modified":"2026-04-11T13:25:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:25:45","slug":"grant-hill-reveals-what-made-christian-laettner-the-blackest-white-guy-at-duke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isport.com.ng\/?p=79783","title":{"rendered":"Grant Hill reveals what made Christian Laettner \u201cthe blackest white guy\u201d at Duke"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Grant Hill reveals what made Christian Laettner \u201cthe blackest white guy\u201d at Duke: \u201cHe was portrayed as this goody two-shoes kid\u201d<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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Laettner was the face of the Duke Blue Devils that won back-to-back national titles.<\/p>\n

The Duke squad of the early 90s is in the conversation as one of the best collegiate basketball teams of all time.\u00a0Grant Hilland\u00a0Christian Laettner\u00a0formed a formidable forward combo, while Bobby Hurley was always a steady hand at point guard.<\/p>\n

The problem was that any Blue Devil ensemble would instantly become villains in the eyes of college basketball fans. The race factor was, well, always a factor, since Duke was always thought of as a predominantly white institution. It\u2019s always a thing in sports \u30fcalways has, always been.<\/p>\n

Plus, the\u00a0Blue Devils\u00a0exude a sense of entitlement and a notion of privileged status that people love to hate. Take everything into account, and right in front of everyone to see was the most hated team in America.<\/p>\n

Laettner was the guy everyone loved to hate<\/strong><\/h2>\n

That villain perception needed a face, and Laettner fit the bill too perfectly. He was clean-cut, aggressive, and what he did on the basketball court rubbed people the wrong way. Christian also constantly delivered in big moments, which made it easier for everyone else to root against him.<\/p>\n

However, looks can be deceiving. Hill was teammates with the dude for two championship seasons, so he could definitely tell people were reading Laettner wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s because we had some really good white players,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Hill\u00a0said\u00a0on \u201cThe Chris Webber Show,\u201d trying to explain the hate Duke players get from fans.\u00a0\u201cWe had Danny Ferry, who was National Player of the Year, and then that became Christian and Bobby. I don\u2019t know. Maybe it\u2019s more than that, but I mean, I know there\u2019s been documentaries that tried to debunk the myths and all of that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
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\u201cChristian, at the time, was the blackest white guy I\u2019ve ever been around. We had what we call the \u2018black\u2019 bench at Duke. In-between classes, for 20 minutes, the black students would congregate. It was under a big tree, so there was shade. He\u2019d be the only white person there\u2026 I remember I came on my visit, I stayed with Brian (Davis) and Christian, and Christian was playing the Jungle Brothers,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0added Hill.<\/p>\n

For context, the Jungle Brothers were an All-Black hip-hop trio. They have been around since 1987 and have still not disbanded to this day, making them the longest-running hip-hop group in existence.<\/p>\n

At the time, hip hop was not as accepted or as mainstream in the 90s as it is today. It was associated with African-American culture more than with a genre enjoyed by people of all races. For Hill, it was proof that Laettner was anything but the neatly-packaged stereotype people tried to pin on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow he was portrayed as a goody two-shoes kid, I was like, \u2018No, this is not him at all,’\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Hill stated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grant Hill reveals what made Christian Laettner \u201cthe blackest white guy\u201d at Duke: \u201cHe was portrayed as this goody two-shoes kid\u201d Laettner was the face of the Duke Blue Devils … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":79784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[437],"class_list":["post-79783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-grant-hill"],"yoast_head":"\nGrant Hill reveals what made Christian Laettner \u201cthe blackest white guy\u201d at Duke - iSport<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Duke squad of the early 90s is in the conversation as one of the best collegiate basketball teams of all time.\u00a0Grant Hilland\u00a0Christian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/isport.com.ng\/?p=79783\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grant Hill reveals what made Christian Laettner \u201cthe blackest white guy\u201d at Duke - 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