The excellent ESPN "30 for 30" film series from ESPN Films will include a documentary called "I Hate Christian Laettner" that is scheduled to air during the middle of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in March.
Yes, it's really called :"I Hate Christian Laettner."
Much of Laettner's reputation was crafted at Duke, where he helped lead the Blue Devils to a pair of NCAA titles before he was drafted by the Timberwolves, for whom he played from 1992 until being traded to Atlanta midway through the 1995-96 season.
The ESPN press release states: "He made perhaps the most dramatic shot in the history of the NCAA basketball tournament. He's the only player to start in four consecutive Final Fours, and was instrumental in Duke winning two national championships. He had looks, smarts and game. So why has Christian Laettner been disliked so intensely by so many for so long? Maybe it was the time he stomped on the chest of a downed player, or the battles he had with his teammates, or a perceived sense of entitlement."
Laettner was the third overall pick in the 1992 draft -- after Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning -- and isn't remembered in Minnesota as much for his scoring prowess as the conflicts he had with other players, including a very young Kevin Garnett, and coaches.
"You need certain people to shut their mouths and you need other people to take over the team," Laettner said shortly before he was traded. "You've got to have the rookies and the young kids shut up. And you've got to have the coaches and the veterans take care of the team."
A few years back, Laettner told the Star Tribune's Michael Rand: "I did a few dumb things (with the Timberwolves) and they killed me in the press over it. ... I made some mistakes. I swore at one of our assistant coaches right in front of the media, and they slaughtered me over that. I missed a practice and they suspended me a game, and (the media) slaughtered me over that."
So even though the film will be geared toward his college days at Duke, Timberwolves fans will probably take a special interest in what's being billed as explaining "why the polarizing basketball player was—and still is—so disliked."
