• Head men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski
We’ve had such good guys here over the years that they want the current guys to do well. They’ve always been unselfish, and they carry that over after they play. The fact that Grant has been here quite a bit because he’s done his treatment here. He come here more often than he normally would, especially if he was playing. He’s gotten to be good friends with some of the kids, and has talked to the team twice this year. It can only benefit. It benefits me when I talk to him, it makes me feel good. I can imagine what it does for Luol, who idolizes him. When Grant was a freshman we won the national championship, but he had three or four games where he didn’t score. No one would ever think that. When Luoey was playing okay, but not really well like he is now, Grant just reminded him that there’s a process that you go through. You must have scored 30 points a game. No, no. I was young. I needed to develop and someone had to talk to me about it.
• Nick Horvath
I think the best thing that Duke has is sort of a basketball family. A lot of people that graduate...a lot of these guys like Grant Hill and Carlos Boozer, Elton—people that go on and play great and make zillions of dollars in the NBA—they come back to Duke, and they still say this is where basketball is at its highest. Guys that are playing at the highest and making the big bucks, this is where they enjoyed it the most. So I think that’s really a lot of credit to Coach, and the program here. Because of that they like to come back.
• Horvath on Christian Laettner
I like Laettner a lot. He was a tall white guy just like me, and we got a long. He lived in Minnesota. I just remember in the preseason a lot he would take me under his wing. You know coming in you had this stigma that Laettner is an intimidating guy. But you know he’s a great guy. I actually like Laettner a lot.
• Horvath on Grant Hill
He basically told us to enjoy our experience and get the most out of it because they’re will be ups and downs. In 91 when they won it, they lost seven games, and it wasn’t like they were the greatest team throughout the year. He just gives us a few stories on how to really get the most out of it and bond as a team. He also tells us to tape our ankles.
• Associate head coach Johnny Dawkins on being a former Duke star player and an assistant coach
A star player as coach can bring a lot of positives, and can ease some of the negatives. Coach can help a player avoid a lot of pit-falls. It’s kind of like a parent for a child. The coach can guide a player away from a lot of the mistakes a young kid can encounter.
• Daniel Ewing on having former players as assistant coaches
You know whatever they tell you, they’ve probably experienced it themselves. It helps you a lot with them being former players and students at Duke University.
• Sean Dockery on Grant Hill
It’s great him coming over. It feels like he’s part of our team he talks to us so much. It’s a great thing. The Duke program is a family, and that’s it.
• Lee Melchionni
After the Texas game in New York we were allowed to go home for Christmas break, and my family was spending the night. I was walking with my family on the street and we see Bobby Hurley. He introduced himself like, “I’m Bobby Hurley.” I was like, ‘Come on man, you don’t have to introduce yourself to me.’ It just goes to show you that no matter who you are it’s such a family environment.
The coaches always say [basketball after Duke] is so different. There’s a lot more individual stuff. They really miss it when they leave. You don’t want to take it for granted, because when you leave here you’re never going to experience again.
• J.J. Redick
I talked one time with Hurley about the crowd. On his senior video there’s this clip of him yelling at someone profusely going back to the huddle. I asked him about it, “I was like who were you yelling at?” He was just like, “The fans for Wake were talking trash, and we went on a 20-0 run so I was just giving it to them.”
• Luol Deng on Grant Hill
[Grant’s] been through what I’m going through. I looked up to him growing up, and modeled my game after him. I just ask him a lot of questions, especially early when I was struggling a little bit. He just told me to go out there and play you’re heart out. That’s what I’m trying to do.
It’s back and forth, he calls me. One of the times when I had a bad game. That’s the way we started.
When I was around 12, 13. I was back in England watching tapes of him at Duke and with the Pistons just watching him playing. That’s one of the reasons I started dribbling the ball. I always played inside, but watching him gave me the confidence I could dribble the ball.
• Chris Duhon
It shows what type of program this is. It’s a program built on a family atmosphere and everybody feels part of it, even if you’re not out there playing.
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