Death of a Legend...

***WARNING: THIS IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE LONGEST POST EVER. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! ***

As those of you who know me (which, if you are reading my blog, is a good indication) realize how much of an obsessive basketball fan I am. And you also know that this time of year (March) is when I go insane.

(Random point I need to make: someone needs to clearly define when "March Madness" begins. People say "March Madness" and they mean the NCAA National Tournament. But there is so much leading up to that. What about the conference tournaments? What about the NIT? I seriously follow all that stuff, but only about 4 other people in the world do too. But technically, that’s when tournaments in March begin; meaning that the conference tourneys are signal the beginning of "March Madness" right? Right?) Back to my thought.

College basketball is an enumerable amount of time better than professional basketball (though I love pro ball too). The fans are better, way more excited. I think that’s because people can actually afford tickets to college games. There is also a community feel to the college game atmosphere. You KNOW these guys, you have class with them, and they live in your dorm. You don't get that person ability with pro ball, you just can't. And yet I digress.

You also realize (if you know me), that I am an HUGE Duke University Basketball Fan. There does not exist a finer program in the nation in any sport (ok, so I'm slightly biased on that one). You also realize (because of me talking about them) how much I hate the Blue Devils rivals, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. This rivalry between Duke and UNC, I feel, is the best rivalry in sports. Nothing compares too it.....but more on that in a minute.

All of you, I'm sure realize now, I have a favorite player on the Devils. J.J. Redick. He is without question the best shooter I have ever seen in my entire life. This being J.J.'s senior year and all, senior night at Cameron Indoor Stadium (home of Duke's "Cameroon Crazies") was sure to be the place to be. ESPN had blow out the budget coverage of this years season finally, Redick's last home game, against hated rival North Carolina. ESPN was airing the game on ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNU (a pay per view service) and ESPN 360 (an online service), with 3 different camera angles (ESPN & ESPN360 showing the traditional view, ESPN2 having an "Above the Rim cam (which I thought was a neat view) and ESPNU airing the "Cameroon Crazies Cam"......which was quite possibly the coolest thing ever.....they stuck a camera in with the Crazies.....brilliant!).

The fact is, J.J. Redick is a legend for Duke basketball (notice, I do not call him a hero. Athletes are not heroes because they do not save lives, protect people's freedoms, or put their life on the line for their job every day.......but that’s another post at another time). Redick has more 3pt shots made than any person in NCAA basketball history. He is the all-time leading scorer at Duke (surpassing assistant coach Johnny Dawkins this season). He is also the all-time leading scorer in the Atlantic Coast Conference (the conference to which Duke belongs).

J.J. has always been the target of the harshest of cheers from opposing fans. At the University of Maryland, fans have signs of obscene things about him and his family. The curse in various chants that they do. If you look up "J.J. Redick" on goggle, 7 out of 10 sites will be about "hating J.J. Redick." Look up the "Sheldon Williams" (Redick's senior teammate) and he only has 1/3 the number of websites, much less the directed hate.

He is the object of so much hostility because of how well he performs. All the scoring records and the near flawless form make opposing fans (and some players) simply because of his excellence. His Freshman and Sophomore years he was known a bit for his trash talking and taunting of some fans. So maybe he had it coming. But his past two years, he has toned it down a lot, realizing how bad it made him look.

Why care so much about one guy who plays for my favorite basketball team? Maybe because he reminds me of someone who I used to love to watch to play........my older brother Jayson. His senior year of high school, we went to all his games, home and away. I have some very fond memories of watching my brother play. I remember when he played at Twin Valley, a team that had seemed to always have our number. The game started as normal. Jay was playing around the top of the key, as Twin Valley was in a zone, so Jay took a step back so he was bout 3 feet behind the line now. When he got the ball, TV's coach yelled out to his players "Don't go out past the 3pt line till he proves he can beat us." Well Jay heard that and took exception. He launched the shot, and hit noting but net. The next time down the court, still well behind the line, Jay hit another deep three pointer. 20 seconds later, same story. By the fourth deep shot he hit in a row, and LCA being up 12-3 at this point, Twin Valley's coach called a time out to try and restratergize. But the coach didn't call the TO until Jay looked over at him and yelled: "Go ahead coach, leave me open, I'll kill you single handedly!" Needless to say, as an impressionable 8 year old, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Maybe there was the game against arch rival Mt. View were Jay scored 38 points, and hit a 3 (his 7th of the game) to put LCA up 9 with under a minute to go. Jay knew he was in the zone, but still couldn't believe it, and he looked at me, 2 rows behind the bench, and did the Michael Jordan "shrug of the shoulders." It may have been the game against High Point when his teammate and and smaller point guard friend Will, got taken out in a thuggish way. Jay stepped up, got in the guy's face and told him to pick on someone his own size. The "thug" was 6'4" and weighed about 250lbs. Jayson is only 5'8" and maybe weighed 175lbs.

I've seen Redick do these things. I've seen J.J. absolutely carry the team to victories (like against Texas this year where he hit 8 out of 13 3 pointers, scoring a career high 41 points onto a Win over the #2 ranked team in the country). Maybe it’s that when J.J. doesn't score, Duke can't seem to win, they are so dependant on him, and he gets open shots for everyone else.

But when Duke plays UNC, it’s a different story. Duke must win at any cost. The schools are separated only by "Tobacco Road" a mythical road that separates many of the ACC teams, but Duke and UNC by only 8 miles. Duke is a private school admitting only 8 thousand people a year, preppy in a way, with high academic standards. UNC is a public university with almost 20 thousand people attending, most of them being dumb redneck hicks out of the south (with the exception of my main man Guni Li.....I talk as though I know how these people in North Carolina are. I have no clue).

The Rivalry is huge. I think it is the biggest rivalry in sports. Even when one team is having a down year, the game will still be close. The last 14 games have all been decided by less than 5 points each. Carolina was supposed to be in down year. When Duke played at Chapel Hill, we were up 17. We ended up winning by less 5 after J.J. hit a clutch 3.

Being Senior night, being against UNC, and being J.J.'s last game ever in front of the Crazies...this was big. I had my Duke sweatshirt on, over top of my "Cameron Crazies" t-shirt, wearing my Duke hat (the outfit which my older broth calls "preparing for worship at the temple of J.J."). I went to the student center, prepared for Redick to score about 50 points, and a Duke blowout.

It started as I had planed. J.J. had 7 of Duke's first 13 points, going 3-3, with 1 3pointer. I was beside myself. Could my prediction of J.J. scoring 50 be true?

Well sadly, it all went down hill from there.....

J.J. went almost 30 minutes (remember, college games are only 40 minutes long) without scoring. And Duke lost. The freshman crew for UNC prevailed. What was supposed to be J.J.'s greatest triumph turned out his greatest failure (in my book).

His last few games he has struggled mightily. While shooting just 28% from the field (on the season, he's a 42% shooter) and just 22% from 3pt land (on the season: 37%). Maybe he is so tired from always going up against the best defender on the team every game. Maybe it's been all the media exposure, breaking the records (broke all 3 in the course of 12 days, each shot he took bearing weight because it counted toward the record). Maybe he is just losing his legs after a long season, for the 4th year in a row.

I'm not sure what it is, but I know the J.J. Redick I watched on Saturday night was not the same J.J. Redick (or recreation of my older brother) that I had seen before. Those first few moments of the game came so easily. Then after a timeout, everything just collapsed. He looked fatigued, he looked discourage, he looked like everything he normally did just would not work.

It’s a sad thing to watch a legend not be able to perform at the same level that made them great. There are so many examples I could give, yet, I know I've wasted all of your time just with this. My biggest problem is that J.J. is young and seemed poised to really carry this team and should be able to carry the team. But all this stress.......or something has just made it to much for him to do. The last 4 games leading up to this were a big indication. That's when the struggles began. It all finally culminated in the biggest game, seemingly at the wrong time.

The picture is from before the game started, when J.J. came out to acknowledge the crowd as they gave him a standing ovation for all the hard work he has done the last four years. The Crazies remained faithful even after the game, while J.J. seemed to be holding back the tears for letting them down, they still chanted "Let's Go Duke! Let's Go Duke!" just as they would before and after any game.

It’s just sad that we had to watch Superman interact with his kryptonite right before our very eyes.