Summary Of I Hate Christian Laettner

He’s Not All Bad

The ESPN 30 for 30 documentary titled, “I Hate Christian Laettner” chronicles Duke basketball standout player, Christian Laettner. I enjoyed this documentary and I felt that it did an amazing job at explaining the sports culture at Duke.

The first major player in this film is Mike Krzyzewski, better known as Coach K. He had a unique ability of harnessing Christian Laettner’s passion for the game. Coach K recognized that Laettner made him a better coach. Christian’s family is very present in the documentary, his parents Bonnie and George speak highly of their son and confirm his work ethic and blue collar upbringing. His older brother, Christopher, gives insight to how he helped shape his brother’s resolve by being rough and

The first pain point of privilege is easy for for me to understand. I am an African American who grew up only going to inner-city public schools, until I went to an all-boys Catholic college prep high school. I understand the perception others can have of students and specifically athletes at schools like Duke. The documentary highlights that glorification of hard work runs deep in American culture. While many people thought Laettner came from a family with a lot of money, he was in fact a member of a lower-middle class working family. Many people just assumed that because he went to a prestigious school like Duke that he “had it all”. I feel that there is a resolution to this issue because now people can see the truth in Laettner’s upbringing, he had to work very hard to become such a great basketball

While Laettner was playing at Duke, there was a lot of racial tension. The Duke team the he played on was framed as being “the establishment” and a closed off suburban mindset. This, like the first pain point, was not completely the evil it was made out to be. While it’s true that Duke is primarily a white school, Laettner did not have control over that perception. The things he did have control over, like being close with his black teammates, shattered this racial ideologies. Although most of the black opponents hated Laettner, they respected his game and tenacity.

The third pain point mentioned is that Laettner was a bully. I felt that was not a resolution for this issue because I think people have a right to not like Laettner because he was a bully. Laettner said that he would do anything differently as an athlete at Duke. Laettner was unapologetically a bully. He stepped on a player during a game, he constantly trash talked and he verbal abused his teammates with the excuse that it raised their level of