MIAMI — There is one and only one perfect ending that can come out of this men’s NCAA Final Four, and it is Coach K up on a ladder just before midnight Monday, snipping pieces of the basketball net in his final game as Duke coach. (A falling tear will be glistening on Mike Krzyzewski’s cheek, if you will allow the embellishment.)
This will be the all-time great at his craft, a man literally standing tall and going out on top in the kind of farewell more suited to heart-tug drama than real life. It will be what we don’t get much, not in sports or in life: The perfect goodbye.
Any other finish will be a colossal disappointment. This is not open to debate.
Of course I speak as a sportswriter, not a sports fan. We both love the games, but here is the difference: I don’t root for teams. I root for stories. Moments. Memories that will be transcendent. I root to see history happening.
Note: I expect objection, not agreement, in and around Lawrence, Kan.; Villanova, Pa.; and (lord knows) Chapel Hill, N.C.
Come to think of it, I expect an argument to my premise just about everywhere in America outside of Durham, or wherever Duke alumni reside and wear armor against the constant disparagement aimed at their Blue Devils.
This is an historically great Final Four, the first ever in which all four teams have won multiple national championships, 17 combined including nine since 2000. It is more evidence of Cinderella a fallacy. Cream rises. But never like this.
It also is a great Final Four because, almost shockingly, it is the first ever NCAA Tournament meeting between Duke and North Carolina, arguably the greatest rivalry in sports. The Tar Heels won the regular-season finale at Duke, spoiling Coach’s K’s home farewell before the Cameron Crazies.
But it is mostly a great Final Four for the historic ending it is teasing us with. Krzyzewski avenging that bitter home loss the only way he can: Not just by eliminating North Carolina in Saturday’s late semifinal. But by being up on that ladder Monday night.
You probably hate Duke. I get it. UNC fans have made a life’s work of the animus, an art form. Heard.
I certainly get why Chapel Hill feels that way. Or any fans in the Atlantic Coast Conference including those in Miami, where Duke also is villano numero uno. It is the vilification of Duke by college hoops fans in general that I find amusing and bizarrely irrational.
To call it jealousy or envy is too easy.
UCLA’s 11 national championships, Kentucky’s eight and, yes, North Carolina’s six all top Duke’s five crowns, according to the official NCAA tally. And yet none of those top three are viewed with the snarl that the word “Duke” inspires.
The hatred is passed down, surviving generations of Dukedom, but surely founded during Coach K’s 42-year reign now coming to an epic end.
Christian Laettner, J.J. Redick, Danny Ferry, Jon Scheyer, Grayson Allen. Hatred Hall of Famers, every one. The former Heat favorite, Shane Battier, must be included after setting an NCAA record for most charges taken while at Duke, which to the rest of America meant he was King Flopper.
If you discern an arrogance to the program, consider it is richly earned.
Heck, there was even a documentary made titled, “I Hate Christian Laettner,” about the player who helped launch Krzyzewski’s career, dynasty and legacy. In an ESPN online poll Laettner was voted the most hated man in college basketball ... 20 years after graduating.
“The funny thing is, I don’t understand that I still have that power over [the haters],” Laettner said in a recent interview. “Just let it go. I would never let anyone have that power over me. It’s letting another person occupy your mind. I won’t hinge my happiness.”
Redick took the hatred harder, more personally.
“It [bleeped] me up. It forced me to take on a persona that wasn’t me,” he has said. “It made me into this maniac on the court. [Opposing fans] were saying things you never heard said about you. Things about my sisters. I wanted to quit my sophomore year. I really struggled those first two years. I spent three years at Duke seeing a therapist.”
The question is, can America hate Duke while at the same time respecting Coach K’s career enough to feel good it had the perfect ending?
Ha. Of course not. What was a I thinking!
Sports is best when there are polarizing teams. Villains. Jimmy Johnson’s Miami Hurricanes were. The LeBron-era Big 3 Heat were. The New York Yankees forever. We need giants to hate.
The Duke Blue Devils will beat North Carolina on Saturday and then on Monday, Mike Krzyzewski, scissors in hand, will climb as high as he can possible go.
So much of America will hate that. And it will be glorious.
