The latest ESPN 30 for 30 is on one of college basketball’s all-time greatest players — and perhaps its most reviled.
The title, “I Hate Christian Laettner” (8 p.m. Sunday, ESPN), pretty much says it all. The film, narrated by Rob Lowe, details the polarizing college career of the Duke star.
On the one hand, Laettner led Duke to four straight Final Fours and two NCAA titles. He also hit the legendary last-second shot to beat Kentucky.
Laettner, though, often played dirty. Earlier in that famous Kentucky game, he received a technical foul for stomping on a player.
A graying Laettner shows he hasn’t lost his edge with his comments in the film. He doesn’t have any regrets for inspiring hatred among Duke’s rivals.
In an interview with ESPN’s Front Row, Laettner said he didn’t have any objections to the film’s title.
“No, it doesn’t bother me because I understand how (director Rory Karpf) was trying to tell the story and why it made for a clever and catchy way to draw people in,” Laettner said. “I had to explain the title to my family as they were initially concerned about it, but they came to understand why it was a hook.”
Karpf said he was interested in exploring why fans hate a team or player in sports.
“I grew up outside Philadelphia a die-hard Eagles fan,” Karpf said. “And I despised the Dallas Cowboys and everything they stood for. It was as much fun hating the Cowboys as much as it was rooting for my team. But why? Why do fans hate certain players or teams beyond just home team loyalties? We figured this could be an interesting topic to explore through the lens of one of the most polarizing college athletes of all time … Christian Laettner.”
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