" Because people hate Duke, and star white players at Duke get the reverse-McNabb treatment, that is, people want to hate Duke players don't want to be called a racist for publicly hating a black player, so the best white player on Duke becomes the lightning rod for all their vitriol."
Yea , this is more or less what I figured . But - when is the last time a white guy was the best player on a Duke squad ??? Laettner was good , but he was not the best . He wasn't hated , was he ?
What, are you too young to remember?
Laettner was very much hated. And you're right, the white player doesn't even have to be the best player, Wojo was always the most hated player when he was at Duke.