Christian Laettner and the Christian Laettner Theory
A co-worker of mine stopped by my desk today and told me that there was somebody famous taking physical therapy at the joint next door. Paraphrasing, she said "He flew in from Miami, I think he's a basketball player and my husband says he's only really famous for one thing, or one play, or something like that..."
"Christian Laettner?" I asked.
"Yeah! That's the guy!" she replied. I then proceeded to tell her about Duke vs. Kentucky, 1992, in the national championship semifinals, the OT shot, how not many people remember that Grant Hill inbounded that pass, the whole 9 yards. She wasn't impressed, but that didn't concern me. That shot, that arching fadeaway (swish) was the first truly memorable sports highlight of my life that I watched live. What a game.
If you had asked me yesterday what team Laettner played for right now, I either would have said the Minnesota Timberwolves or Duke. I had no clue. Apparently he's on the Heat. Good for him.
The whole point of this post though was to introduce what I have discovered to be the Christian Laettner theory, and goes like this: ask any guy between the ages of about 25 and 40 to name all 12 members of the 1992 USA Men's Olympic Basketball Team (aka The Original [and only] "Dream Team"). Most can get 4 or 5, some up to 10 or 11 and the odd person will give you all 12, but every single time they'll get Laettner. Why? The guy played what, 8 minutes that whole tournament? Answers usually go like this:
"Let's see, um, Jordan, Magic, Bird... Pippen... Laettner... uhhhh... was Barkley on that team?" and so forth. But Laettner's always there! ALWAYS!
And there you have the Christian Laettner theory.
Incidentally, since he's supposedly taking PT next door, if I ever see him you'd better believe I'm getting a picture with him. I'll post it, if it happens.
FYI: the other 6 guys from the Dream Team were: Robinson, Ewing, Malone, Stockton, Mullin and Drexler (most people don't remember Mullin, and nobody gets Drexler).
posted by BJC @ 7:51 PM
Your thoughts (2 so far)
2 Comments:
It's because Raquel Welch referred to him as "Christine" Laettner at the first ESPY awards. Or because he's a tremendous pot head.
And I knew every member of DT1. Of course, I was in college.
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