Greater Respect For Christian Laettner

While my level of respect for Bobby Hurley plummeted (after his weak comments challenging the words of the University of Michigan players following the airing of the Fab Five documentary on ESPN), my respect level for Christian Laettner increased tremendously.

While I didn't always like Laettner as a player for Duke University (admit it ... unless you were a diehard Blue Devil you hated Laettner in college), I did come to like him much more as a professional player. Full disclosure: I respected the hell out of his game as a college player though. He earned all of the accolades he got in college (although some question his spot on the 1992 Dream Team over Shaquille O'Neal).

While Hurley whined and tried to act like Jalen Rose and the Michigan guys could not have played for Duke or would not have played much for Duke, Laettner took the high road and seemed to understand the greater context and bigger picture of what was being said in the documentary (either that or he figured it was not worth being a Scottie Pippen).

Here is some of what Laettner had to say from the Bay City Times (Mich.):

Referred to by members of the Fab Five as "soft, overrated, pretty boy" — and far worse — Laettner said he found it all "kind of funny."

“When you’re competing against people, trying to cut their heads off and beat them, you can’t expect them to love you — or even like you," Laettner said. "All you can ask is they respect you after the game and say the game was decided fair and square.

“Jalen Rose has always been a good guy to me. Chris Webber has always been a good to me... But I don’t expect them to love me. I can’t even get Grant Hill to love me all the time.”

Laettner and the Blue Devils defeated Michigan during the regular season and again in the national championship game when the Fab Five were in their freshman year in 1992.

In the Fab Five documentary, former Michigan center Juwan Howard said "Duke was America's team and Christian Laettner was like God. And I did not like him."

Laettner took the high road and realized that, in the end, it was all about respect and the comments were more about initial impressions and honesty. In the end, Laettner and Duke earned the respect, victories and championships.

Laettner earned more respect. Too bad Hurley stopped learning when he left Duke.

Scottie Pippen = Bitchassness

To all my friends from Chicago or fans of Scottie Pippen ... turn away right now.

Quite frankly, I've never been much of a fan of former National Basketball Association player ... ho ass Scottie Pippen.

Yeah, he was a pretty good basketball player and he enjoyed a lot of success ... riding the coattails of Michael Jordan's greatness.

Pippen was one of those guys who always talked big game, but did so on the strength of success he achieved thanks largely to Jordan's greatness.

This all brings me to some current bitchassness coming from Pippen who, 20 years later, is still hating on the Detroit Pistons.

In the truest sense of what it means to be a hater, Scottie just can't let it go ... two decades after Jordan (you too Scottie) finally beat Detroit and ultimately started a string of NBA championship success.

Here is some of the bullshit Scottie had to say recently about the Pistons:

‘‘The Pistons were a nasty team,’’ he said. ‘‘You always had to expect them to play dirty because, remember, they were the Bad Boys of Motown. They’d go out of their way to be mean and try to hurt you. And because we had better athletes, coach Chuck Daly just let them play the way they had to play to win.

"Bill Laimbeer was no real athlete. The same for Rick Mahorn and Joe Dumars and James Edwards. We were faster, quicker, more competitive and smarter."

So, Scottie (who was known to take his shots at people ... see right) ... if you were so much smarter, quicker and faster ... how did the Pistons keep getting to the NBA Finals, win two championships and keep beating that ass all those times?

You couldn't have been that much quicker, faster, smarter and more competitive if you couldn't beat them. You should have been killing them if that was really the case.

Secondly, how can you take a shot like that at Joe Dumars, who is about the most sportsman-like guy in all of sports?

Dumars discarded more class the last time he clipped his toenails than Scottie Pippen ever had as a basketball player.