With his teammates lined up behind him and a large crowd of reporters waiting anxiously in front, Michael Dunleavy Jr. took the podium at Jesuit High School in Portland, Ore., yesterday to make the most important announcement of his young athletic career.
Dunleavy is going to play basketball at Duke.
"I like challenges, and this definitely is going to challenge me," Dunleavy said after choosing the Blue Devils over North Carolina and Stanford. "This is the toughest decision I've had to make."
The 6-foot-7 Dunleavy signed and mailed his national letter-of-intent to play for Duke yesterday morning, bringing to four the number of Blue Devil commitments in the early signing period that ends tomorrow.
Dunleavy, a consensus top-25 recruit and the son of Portland Trailblazers head coach Mike Dunleavy, said he made the decision abruptly last Thursday.
"I was stuck in traffic, and suddenly it hit me that Duke was a perfect fit for me," Dunleavy said.
He waited until Sunday night to call the coaches at the three schools on his list, just to give himself time to be certain about the choice. Dunleavy dialed Bill Guthridge at UNC and Mike Montgomery at Stanford first, leaving Duke's Mike Krzyzewski for last.
"He was pretty calm when I told him," Dunleavy said of Krzyzewski. "But I think it's safe to say he was pretty excited."
And Krzyzewski should be excited. Dunleavy, a polished wing forward, joins an already impressive recruiting class which includes two top-20 players, Jason Williams and Casey Sanders, and top-100 prospect Nick Horvath.
The Blue Devils are still pursuing one player who may be the best of the bunch, 6-9 Carlos Boozer of Juneau, Alaska. Boozer, who is rated among the top five players in the country, says he will wait until the spring to decide between Duke, UCLA and St. John's.
Yesterday, though, the center of attention was Dunleavy, who said that making his final call became "a real dilemma." His back-to-back recruiting visits to Duke and UNC last month only served to make the choice harder.
At Duke, a first encounter with the Cameron Crazies left an indelible mark.
"That really impressed me," Dunleavy said of the crowd at Duke's Blue-White Scrimmage. "And I think I've always wanted to play in the ACC."
But when the ensuing trip to Chapel Hill went nearly as well, Dunleavy wasn't sure where his future lay. His father, a friend of former Tar Heel coach Dean Smith, said he never pushed Michael towards either school.
With the NBA locked out, Dunleavy Sr. had plenty of time to help his son cope with the pressure.
"I was there for him to answer questions, but I did not try to influence him at all," the proud father said yesterday. "I've always felt a part of growing up was teaching your children to make their own decisions. He was mature and asked the right questions."
The (Portland) Oregonian contributed to this report.
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