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Spelling bee
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Blue Devils finally win 'battle of the blues' in NBA**
Not many people might have noticed, but the Duke men's basketball program did have a major victory over its arch-rival last week. Obviously we're not talking about the game on the court--we all saw how the three extra Tar Heels on the court clothed in black and white helped North Carolina capture a one-point win.
No, the win I'm talking about didn't even occur at the collegiate ranks. It came in the NBA. Not in a game, but at the polls. And in many ways, it was an upset as large as what could have occurred last Wednesday night.
For the second year in a row, Duke's own Grant Hill was the leading vote-getter for this year's NBA All-Star game. Last year, with no Michael Jordan, Hill was the NBA's newest star, and it was understandable that he earned top honors then. But this year, with His Airness deciding to give up on baseball and headed back to the hardwood, a repeat as leading vote getter looked impossible for Hill. But the fans disagreed.
In many respects, Hill's win is illogical. First, many fans often vote by the best teams, and right now there is no team better in the NBA than the Jordan-led Bulls, who held a 41-5 record through Tuesday. The Pistons were 18 games behind Chicago and just one game above .500.
Then if they don't vote by teams, surely fans go by the stats. And the stats say Jordan is having a better year, leading the NBA in scoring at 30.6 points per game. Hill's 21.6 points per game is nothing to laugh at, but by the numbers alone, Jordan deserves the vote.
[Before I go on, let me make sure you understand something. This is not a column on why Michael Jordan should have won the voting by the fans. Actually, I despise Michael Jordan, the Nike-wearing, bald-headed wonder that most fans across the nation would pay zillions of dollars just for the chance to touch his Gatorade sweat rag.]
It really doesn't matter why Grant Hill was named the leading vote-getter by the fans. It's simply the fact that this happened that has shocked much of the world. A Duke Blue Devil in the NBA getting more attention than a North Carolina Tar Heel? Inconceivable.
Come on, you remember what it was like in high school or in the early college years when you would come home and brag about Duke basketball in its prime.
"Duke won two straight national titles. How many has UNC won?"
"So. How many superstars from Duke are in the NBA?"
Silence. You couldn't respond. You think back to 1986, the beginning of the Blue Devils' streak of seven Final Fours in nine years. The '86 team had Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie and Phil Henderson. The first two were first-round picks, but by their bad luck they were seniors in 1986, otherwise known by NBA fans as the year of the haunted draft.
Sports Illustrated recently did a feature on the fate of those drafted in 1986. Dawkins and Alarie were among the names of those who never lived up to their potential--bad knees prevented both of them from becoming the superstars they were in college. A Tar Heel, Brad Daugherty, was the first player chosen in 1986. And while he is considered one of the worst first-round picks in recent history, at least he was an All-Star.
Henderson began the string of Duke second-round picks who never made it in the NBA--Brian Davis, Thomas Hill to name a few. Antonio Lang was on the verge of joining this category, but he has recently emerged from the injured list to have some impact for the Cleveland Cavaliers. All we can pray is that Erik Meek comes back from Turkey and finds a home in Houston, or the list may lengthen.
The mention of the Cavs brings a shudder down your spine. The Tar Heel aficionado you've been arguing with throws one of the biggest jabs in Duke basketball history in your face:
"Yeah, well, at least we didn't have Danny Ferry."
Danny Ferry--he had to be mentioned. All that talent in college, and all that time on the pine in the pros. The only time Ferry has appeared in SI is when opponents are blowing by him. He may top the list of Duke disappointments in the pros.
So far, Cherokee Parks has done little to prove his No. 11 pick of the Dallas Mavericks in the draft. And the word is still out on Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley--Laettner because he's shown some talent, but he still has that whiny attitude and Hurley because it's really not fair to judge a player after he went through a near-death accident. His survival is a miracle enough.
Meanwhile your Tar Heel friend has listed two teams' worth of UNC players who have made the NBA since 1984: James Worthy, Jordan, Sam Perkins, Daugherty, Kenny Smith, J.R. Reid, Rick Fox, Hubert Davis, George Lynch, Eric Montross, Jerry Stackhouse and, of course, Rasheed Wallace. Whew. Those are just the players that are well-known. Pete Chilcutt, Kevin Salvadori, Joe Wolf and Scott Williams were also on opening day 1995-96 NBA rosters. And here's a little known fact of the day--Matt Wenstrom, the back-up to the back-up when he played at Chapel Hill, actually made the NBA. Sad, but true.
It doesn't get much better in the future. Jeff McInnis, Dante Calabria and perhaps Serge Zwikker will most likely make the NBA soon--that's three more to add to the list. Duke's Chris Collins will find a home in the pro ranks somewhere, for how long no one can know.
So Blue Devil fans, take pride in this small victory. Grant Hill has won the hearts of enough Americans to overtake who many consider the NBA's greatest player in the polls. Right now that's all we have to cling to. But like most of you, I'd take Grant's class over 16 Tar Heels any day.
John Seelke is a Trinity senior and associate sports editor of The Chronicle.
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