Go ahead with the rich white kid memes… Go on.
Alright, now we got that out of our system.
Why is it that everyone loves to hate Duke basketball?
Since head coach Mike Krzyzewzki was hired by Duke in the early 1980’s, he has turned Duke basketball into one of the greatest and most successful brands in sports history. He has won several ACC conference championships, appeared in many Final Four’s and has won five national championships. Not to mention, some of Coach K’s infamous, infuriating players to lead those teams included: Christian Laettner, J.J. Redick, Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler, Grayson Allen, and Luke Kennard.
Along with its sporting success, Duke University is considered one of the most prestigious public universities in the nation. Many people would already associate someone from Duke as "smug" or “privileged.” In conjunction with a very successful college basketball team, you may open the door to a plethora of insults that I cannot print.
These qualities put Duke basketball in an interesting sporting category: The most loathed team on the planet. Whenever Duke gets knocked out of the NCAA tournament, people all over the country cheer, even if they have no affiliation with Duke or the state of South Carolina.
Many teams and players even in professional sports fit this bill in that you either love them or you hate them.
The New York Yankees; LeBron James; St. Louis Cardinals; New England Patriots; Tom Brady.
These teams and players represent elongated, sustained excellence and it seems to infuriate everybody around them.
Nationally syndicated FS1 radio host Colin Cowherd alluded to a variation of this point a couple weeks ago.
American professional sports is so incredibly hard-wired toward achieving parity that a majority of league rules are put in place to achieve that goal to help the little guy. The worst teams get the best draft picks, salary cap limits, NCAA scholarship limits, recruiting rules, etc. Society loves it because they believe everybody has a chance to win and it is the “Equality Utopia” in the minds of many.
Except, there still is no parity in American sports.
Since 1997, the New England Patriots have only had two top-10 NFL draft picks. Since then, they have won five Super Bowls. The Jacksonville Jaguars, on the other hand, have had 13 top-10 draft picks in the last 20 years; they have only made the playoffs five times.
Duke men's basketball has still won more games and national titles than any other basketball team since the 80’s. And by the way, UCONN women’s basketball has not lost a single game since November 2014.
Why do the best keep getting better? Duke basketball plays in an environment the NCAA built to ensure that other schools get a fair shot. How are they still dominating?
Newsflash: rules enacted to achieve parity do not work.
This also applies to politics and every day life. High-income Americans pay the most taxes out of any other wealthy population in the world, and there still people who believe they don’t pay their fair share.
People have this illogical disdain for success that they would rather punish it to assure themselves of their own concept of "fair." But there is none. Certain people, teams, players are just better than everyone else and there is no way we can legislate our way out of it.
Maybe that is the most infuriating part. There is no other Duke men’s basketball, and there is nothing any of us can do about it.
