Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
Earlier today, former BBN Enemy #1 Christian Laettner tweeted this photo to his followers:
For all u UK fans—me and tony delk hangin out in Vegas !! Enjoy and please do not disown him for this!! twitter.com/laettnerbball/…
— Christian Laettner (@laettnerbball) July 9, 2012
Laettner is in Las Vegas to help cover the Team USA’s preparations for the Olympics and ran into Delk, who agreed to the picture. Allow me a little bit of hyperbole, but this picture is pretty much good vs. evil; Delk, the Golden Retriever of Kentucky basketball, mugging with Laettner, the Devil in the blue jersey. It got me thinking about the Big Blue Nation’s feelings towards Laettner. For the longest time, his name was taboo–he was Kentucky’s “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.”
But, after last summer’s Big Blue All-Stars vs. Villains game, in which Laettner coached against Rex Chapman, have our feelings towards him softened? He did, after all, agree to walk into Rupp Arena, to a chorus of boos. He made the rounds on the local talk shows, including KSR, and even though we wanted to hate every bit, he managed to make us laugh, even admitting that he enjoys coming to Kentucky to go fishing occasionally. And then, in an act some jokingly compared to groveling for forgiveness, he gamely got down on all fours and mopped the sweat off Rupp’s floor. He clearly enjoys playing the villain. His Twitter avatar is the iconic picture of him taking “The Shot,” with his bio reading “the shot … to kentucky’s heart.”
I find myself torn between three camps of feelings towards Laettner:
A) Meh, it’s water under the bridge. He hit an incredible shot, and sure it stung, but let’s move on.
B) Hey, I hated the kid. I really did. Until last summer, I grimaced every time I heard about him. But, he has a good sense of humor, and mopped the floor in Rupp, so maybe I don’t hate him…so much.
C) Once a stomper, always a stomper.
How do you feel about Christian Laettner?
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July 9th, 2012 at 5:08 pm
C. I don’t hate him for the shot. I just hate him.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Because Laettner is kindly reaching out to BBN he’s ok in my book.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:10 pm
I heard Matt jones and laettner made Out in the bathroom at Walmart
July 9th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Looking at him will always give me a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. I know many will say, “Aw, it’s been 20 years. Let it go….blah, blah, blah.” But, for many of us UK fans that were in high school/college when that shot was made, we will always hate him. I know this sounds silly, but for a lot of us, “the shot” was personal and always will be.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:12 pm
I love me.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I was obviously pained by the shot as a 10 year old kid. I spent a good part of my life despising him for it. However, as I grew older, I realize that although it’s an important part of my life, basketball is just a game. Laettner showed a lot of class last year to the BBN and seems to be an all around good dude. I admit it, I like the guy now. Seems like he’d be a fun dude to sit down and have a cold one with.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:17 pm
C. Should not be allowed in the Bluegrass
July 9th, 2012 at 5:21 pm
I’m going with B on the outside and C on the inside. He’s a human being and such deserves to be treated with a modicum of respect. But inside my head, I’m stomping on him all day long.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
B
July 9th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
hate him!
July 9th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
B
July 9th, 2012 at 5:27 pm
F$@K LAETTNER
July 9th, 2012 at 5:27 pm
If Pelphrey would have played some damn defense on “the shot” it wouldn’t have gone in.
I think I dislike Pelphrey more than I do Laettner.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Hate him….just because!
July 9th, 2012 at 5:34 pm
Time to move on. Give him credit for playing a great game that day, and making a shot that won’t be forgotten.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:34 pm
Feldhaus and pelphrey forgot what D was on that play. Didn’t try to knock pass down, then didn’t even jump 2 inches off the ground to try and alter shot..pitiful D! It was a wide open free throw!!!
July 9th, 2012 at 5:38 pm
Why dislike him for doing something to us that we were desperately trying to do to him. I like him. I do wish he had missed that shot though.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
read that book on “Greatest Game Ever Played”…i have a new found respect for Laettner, he respected UK and is the kind of guy you want on your team, period. No hate, unless you are just dumb
July 9th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
If Rick would have just put Ben carter in the game
July 9th, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Between b and c. Hated him before the shot. Hated Duke before the shot. But, as said above, he is reaching out in kindness. A douche, and a clutch NCAA player (we weren’t his only “shot” – only his most famous).
July 9th, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Let me clarify just a bit here on my previous post (#8). I don’t hate him for making the shot. If he had been wearing a UK uniform for that shot we would all have him on an alter. I did lose a lot of respect for him because of the stomp. Although, I could revisit a few decisions that I made in my early 20′s and see the same lack of maturity in my decisions. Maybe I should just…. nah. I still hate him for the stomp.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
#15 I’m with you.Remember the time he stood up to Mourning.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:58 pm
luck faettner
July 9th, 2012 at 5:59 pm
I will always hate Laettner. If he was standing right here, I’d punch him right in the vagina.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:59 pm
This sucks! I don’t care if it was 20 years ago
July 9th, 2012 at 6:00 pm
Once a jerk, always a jerk. The fact that the refs didn’t make the call on the obvious foul (stomp)was a preview of how games are to be played with refs not having the courage to make a game changing call especially as time runs out. I’m not saying they should or should not make a tough call but if they aren’t going to make a game changer they might as well stay in the locker room. If a Kentucky player had decked Laettner I think they would have called that.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:06 pm
Christian Who?
Seriously, if he hadn’t hit that shot, plus showed a low enough character to stomp on someone and try to get away with it AND played for Duke, he might be forgivable – but he did all three.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:09 pm
C. Always and forever
July 9th, 2012 at 6:10 pm
Honestly, he is the main reason I hate Duke. They have certainly done a great job at fueling the fire, but it all started with him (for me).
July 9th, 2012 at 6:16 pm
I despised the man for years because he broke my heart as a kid, but as time has passed i am leaning to A and B. Before last year time has helped, but after last year i completely forgave him and realized all he was guilty of was hitting a great shot and simply winning a basketball game.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:20 pm
EFF HIM
July 9th, 2012 at 6:23 pm
It takes a lot of balls to come into Rupp and do what he did. He’s enemy #1 on most UK fans’ list. However, it’s not his fault he had a perfect game and “the shot” was practically unguarded. Although, i do think CBS intentionally replays that moment every chance they get just to piss us off. If you want to hate someone for “the shot” then start with Pitino. He’s the one that didn’t put a body on the inbounder and therefore allowed a perfect pass to a man that was having a perfect night. If that wasn’t enough you had Pelphrey and Feldhaus just stand there and watch the ball go in.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Delk is dead to me
July 9th, 2012 at 6:25 pm
Ass Whole.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:26 pm
Stomping Timberlake in the chest was bullsh*t and I think he should have been ejected instead of just a T. But he’s certainly not the only player to ever take cheap shots and/or play dirty against Kentucky. We just remember him above all others because of “the shot”. But “the stomp” was no better or worse than some of the things we saw in the UL game a couple of years ago or at LSU last season.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:30 pm
It wasn’t just a “shot”. It was the culmination of an unconscious game where he went 10 for 10 and 10 for 10. I can’t say I care for the guy, but is was an incredible performance against a great team.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:30 pm
screw him, after all these years…every time I see that video…I hope he misses.
Screw him.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:32 pm
I too, read “The Greatest Game Ever Played” and came away with a newfound respect for him. Ultimately, as others have said, Pelphrey became a spectator and didn’t challenge the shot. That, I still struggle with.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:38 pm
I’m fine with him now.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:43 pm
I still hate the bum. He owes me at least $3.5 million from that failed real estate venture him and Brian Davis started to revitalize downtown Durham. When I went to sue him personally, he hid all of his assets.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:44 pm
UK Fans are so petty. Get over it. And the “stomp”? That was a move that Demarcus “I’m so misunderstood” Cousins would be proud of!
July 9th, 2012 at 6:46 pm
My feelings towards him are…
A) Hate him
B) Hate him
C) Hate him
July 9th, 2012 at 6:52 pm
“Golden Retriever of Kentucky Basketball?”
Really?
July 9th, 2012 at 6:53 pm
I could care too little about him to have an opinion.
Not sure why he is newsworthy.
July 9th, 2012 at 6:58 pm
Pelphrey and Feldhaus did what Rick told them to do. Research that and you will find tricky ricky told them no matter what do not foul. He later admitted he shouldnt have told them that. Anyway its hard to forgive a man or respect him when his current status on twitter say “the shot … to kentucky’s heart.”
He aint nothing. If he wants forgivness he should act like it. I would still smack his lips off and kick them under his car if I saw him today.
July 9th, 2012 at 7:06 pm
Laettner was a great college basketball player and a thorn in the UK side for that shot. But, let’s not forget the entire game, as he didn’t miss. The guy was phenomenal and the stomp did happen, although people here are making it like it was a wrestler’s stomp where it wasn’t that at all. It was a cheap shot, and not that different than the Cousins shot in the UL game. A foul should have been called, but I don’t know if it would have meant being thrown out. Anyway, I hate Duke, like to see them lose, but Laettner was a great sport for doing all he did last year in that game. He has a good sense of humor about it and as another poster said, if he was player for Kentucky we would have loved him.
July 9th, 2012 at 7:17 pm
i would hate him rather he made the shot or not
July 9th, 2012 at 7:17 pm
I’m sick of all you little crybabies still carrying on about a game that happened 20 years ago. Grow the heck up. You pathetic little whinners are why they still bring up that game, and it is why they mock us. Don’t any of you realize that we evened the score in 98? There’s nothing wrong with Laettner. He made a lucky shot, and that’s that. I’m sick of reading where grown men hate on something or someone from 20 years ago.
It wasn’t the greatest game ever played. And, UK was the little underdog that had just come off probation and who lost to the defending champions and #1 team in the nation. UK should be very proud of their achievemnt that year. There is no reason for UK to be bitter.
July 9th, 2012 at 7:35 pm
48 If you dont like what you are reading get you ass off ksr and read something else. I am not a whinner, I am not pathetic and I ten to one odds I can smack your lips off your face and make you thank me for doing it you little worthles pissant.
July 9th, 2012 at 7:46 pm
6. I bet he doesn’t drink beer. He probably enjoys a tall Mike’s Hard Lemonade.
July 9th, 2012 at 7:59 pm
C.
C.
C.
July 9th, 2012 at 8:02 pm
I don’t hate Laettner,
Pitino and Pelphrey still infuriate me.
Pitino especially
July 9th, 2012 at 8:09 pm
The wound from that shot will never heal, but I don’t hold it against Laettner. He made a shot for his team, which is what we’d want our guys to do. Further, his stat line from that game is literally perfect – gotta respect that. I begrudged the stomp for years, but it just shows no one is immune from making a boneheaded, heat of the moment, bad decision. I’m over the stomp now, just wish Sean Woods’ shot could’ve been ‘The Shot.’
July 9th, 2012 at 8:42 pm
I wish nothing short of rectal disease for him. And when I heard Bobby Hurley was in a life-threatening and “career”-ending injury crash, I wasn’t too upset.
July 9th, 2012 at 8:50 pm
I give him credit coming into RUPP and playing the villian. My heart was broken on that shot but i have really grown to like the guy for coming to RUPP in a hostile environment. I still hate DUKE and always will. It is rat face complainer not Laettner. Laettner would have been a great player at Kentucky but he made the last shot, we did not block it.
July 9th, 2012 at 9:09 pm
C. NO discussion. Pitno did not/cannot coach.
July 9th, 2012 at 9:20 pm
I don’t hate him. However, following him on Twitter would be like following Jerry Tipton on Twitter–completely unnecessary.
July 9th, 2012 at 9:21 pm
He’s broke and needs the money, only reason he was there.
July 9th, 2012 at 9:24 pm
B. If it would have been UNC and not Duke I would have let it go a long time ago. Coach K+ Duke+ every player that plays for them makes me want to puke and 80% of that is ESPN’s doing
July 9th, 2012 at 9:28 pm
A) Get over it Ol’ folks. That was 20 years ago and if your still bothered by him still its unbeleivable that you could still be thinking about “Da Shot”. As a ball palyer I look at as the the 3 on D that could of covered him or atleast challenged it.
July 9th, 2012 at 9:32 pm
I was attending Duke for grad school during Laettner’s playing years where it was known by students that he was an arrogant punk, even to his own teammates. When attending games at Cameron he would skulk, whine and play dirty, like others would at times, but given the context of him being an ass, made it worse and somehow more personal to those of us in the stands. He was disliked generally but, as the sentiment goes, he was our assh*le (When not playing the Cats I rooted for Duke the years I was in school there). I had graduated and returned to Kentucky the year of the shot, an experience that rendered the heart from my UK blue chest and Laettner was a name uttered with bile from that point on…. at least until this past year. His appearance at Rupp along with his public interviews and playful demeanor (with Chapman for example) softened me towards him. Though difficult to really determine he appears steady in the face of BBN, not from an arrogant position, but from one that grows out of mutual respect for each other and for the love of the game. At least that’s the way I’m seeing it. I half like the guy now and hope that the respectful, humorous, playful guy we’ve see in public recently has replaced the one well known at school. If so, good for him and, in kind, good for us who honor it.
July 9th, 2012 at 9:47 pm
Guard the guy inbounding and it’s a nonissue…
July 9th, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Screw him!!!
July 9th, 2012 at 10:11 pm
I’m an old fart. Those Matt Jones hates; but .. Laettner’s shot was so displaced by the improbable ’98 comeback culminating in NC, then NC on 20th anniversery of that shot. We overcame in spades. We won twice to prove our majesty. BBN, express our success after that shot. Quit whining. Turn the tables with truth! C’mon BBN!!
July 9th, 2012 at 10:18 pm
I vote A. The — likes to go to Cave Run Lake and fish for muskie.
I still like to go into Holmes Hall and break some ceiling tiles whenever somebody brings up this topic, however…
July 9th, 2012 at 10:20 pm
F….. LAETTNER!!!!!
July 9th, 2012 at 10:32 pm
C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C C !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HATE HIM!!!
We are all tired of seeing that last second shot by Laettner being shown over and over every year at tournament time. Why don’t they show him stomping on the chest of Timberlake earlier in the game, for which he should have been ejected. Click on this link to see the stomping and his admission that he did it on purpose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AwYVTB2rZw
July 9th, 2012 at 10:32 pm
B
July 9th, 2012 at 11:01 pm
One word; Timberlake. Forget Laettner.
July 10th, 2012 at 12:18 am
Seems like a good dude. Can’t blame him for being great in college. I still hate Duke, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see that Coach K is a good guy and many of their former players are decent types, Bilas, Hill, etc. I always remember the story of Coach K going to speak to the UK players after the ’92 game and telling them it was his honor to be a part of it. Duke was the big dog at the time, he didn’t have to do that.
July 10th, 2012 at 7:20 am
Pretty much sums it up. He only did what he could because the cowardly officiating let him be available to do it.
July 10th, 2012 at 8:01 am
Don’t hate him for the shot any more than I hate Grant Hill for the pass. Still angrier about Pitino’s defensive call. However, KL was a world-class prick back then, but maybe he has mellowed.
July 10th, 2012 at 8:35 am
I still hate her
July 10th, 2012 at 9:23 am
Once a prick, always a prick….for the thousandth time, it’s not the shot that we hate him for, it’s the fact he should’ve never been in the game to make the shot and if a stomp like that occurred in a game today, you know damn well that player wouldn’t be in the game any further.
July 10th, 2012 at 9:26 am
Give him credit for trying to mend fences. It’s water under the bridge and time to move on. Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
July 10th, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Don’t hate the guy. Hate the way the game ended when he should have been thrown out for the stomp. The stomp was a young and dumb move…Been there. The shot was unfortunate for us… Go figure. He should not have even had the chance to take the shot. That’s what pisses me off and I was 13 at the time of it. A horrible memory that’s for sure!!!
July 10th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
#49, My name is Rocky Colson. and I live in Aurora, KY. If you would like a shot at my lips I’ll gladly give it to you. My phone # is in the phone book–Murray-Aurora listing. I don’t believe you have the guts to call. In fact, I know you don’t.
July 10th, 2012 at 3:48 pm
Give’en hell Rocky, from your neck of the woods. Ive heard him on the radio talk now and he’s afraid to drive through Kentucky. It was a great game, instant classic, and Pitino should of had someone on the inbounds. We got revenge in 98 against Wojo! I don’t relive the moment and it will always be shown on TV especially during tournament time and it doesnt bother me now. A true basketball fan knows he was one of the greatest college players of that time though I did hate him.
July 10th, 2012 at 4:09 pm
I hate the shot but not a person. Although if he would have been called for that flagrant stomp then he wouldn’t have hit that un-guarded lucky shot. By the way why the hell wasn’t someone guarding the inbounder and was Pelphrey playing defense or sight seeing.