Laettner Shot 92’
On March 28, 1992, Duke University played the University of Kentucky in the East Regional final of the 1992 NCAA basketball tournament. It is widely regarded as the greatest college basketball game of all time. Led by their charismatic and controversial leader, center and power forward Christian Laettner, the Duke Blue Devils found themselves in a tough spot. In overtime, with only 2.1 seconds left on the clock, the Blue Devils trailed the Wildcats. Kentucky point guard Sean Woods had scored a one-handed 2-point shot only moments earlier. Duke’s now retired legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski called his final timeout. Krzyzewski drew up a final play, in hopes of a miracle at the buzzer. Duke had practiced this same exact play and ran it once before in their loss earlier in the season against Wake Forest, but it had been unsuccessful. Everybody in attendance and watching on national television, including almost everyone on the Duke bench, assumed that Duke’s mission to repeat as national champions had fallen far short of lofty preseason expectations.
Well, everybody except for Christian Laettner. Laettner had led the Duke Blue Devils to a National Championship in 1991, a season in which he was selected as the NCAA tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. That season, Laettner and Duke had managed to knock off the defending national champion UNLV Runnin’ Rebels. In a rematch of the 1990 NCAA National Championship Game, in which Laettner and the Blue Devils were blasted by that same UNLV team by 30 points, Duke ended the fourth-longest winning streak in NCAA Division I basketball history. UNLV’s 45-game winning streak during the 1990-1991 season has understandably been widely recognized as solid proof that the UNLV team of that season was the greatest team to never win a national championship. And now, in 1992, Laettner and his Duke Blue Devils, loaded with two future 1st round NBA draft picks in Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley, were eyeing a second consecutive national championship.
Unlike Wake Forest earlier in the 1992 season, Kentucky decided not to guard the inbounds pass, instead electing to pit an extra defender on Laettner. Laettner’s performance up to that point in the game warranted such attention. His performance in this game is viewed by many as one of the greatest in NCAA tournament history. He was perfect, going 10 for 10 from the field, and 10 for 10 from the free-throw line. During the second half, Laettner was assessed a technical foul for stepping on the chest of Kentucky forward Aminu Timberlake, an action some believed should have resulted in an ejection. Upon replay of the foul, Laettner’s antagonistic image is aggressively championed. His antics could have cost his team a shot at a consecutive national title. However, to the dismay of the Kentucky Wildcats, Laettner remained in the game.
Duke’s small forward Grant Hill, whose father was a legendary Super Bowl champion running back for the Dallas Cowboys, was responsible for inbounding the ball following Woods’ made floater. What occurred next was a sequence of magic. A sequence that has been played repeatedly, on various media platforms, for nearly four decades. It effectively elevated the status of Christian Laettner, already a highly polarizing and villainized figure, to almost mythic levels. It elevated the Duke Blue Devil brand to beyond merely just a college basketball cinderella story. A neat, feel good story about the rise of a small, secluded, wealthy private university in North Carolina. Led by a disciple and protege of the controversial, legendary basketball coach Bobby Knight. What occurred next not only kept Duke’s 1992 championship hopes alive. It helped establish Duke as a legitimate college basketball dynasty.
Hill launched the basketball almost 80 feet across the court, which was caught by Laettner near the opposite foul line. Laettner then dribbled once to his right, turned back to his left, and shot a turnaround jumper over Kentucky forward Deron Feldhaus just as time expired. The ball swished through the net as the buzzer sounded, giving Duke a 104–103 victory. Laettner exploded in joyful bliss, as the Duke bench erupted in astonishment and euphoria. They toppled and collapsed over him in celebration, some even in tears. The Kentucky players and coaches, staring on in complete shock and disbelief, many with their mouths fully wide open. March Madness in its purest form.
Duke went on to defeat the Fab Five and the Michigan Wolverines, featuring future NBA stars Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, and Jalen Rose, to capture the first back to back national championships since UCLA accomplished the same feat in 1972 and 1973. Today is my 34th birthday. Born on March 29, 1992, I drew my first breaths outside of the womb only hours after this iconic moment in sports history. It was a play that I would always see on ESPN’s SportsCentury or on CBS during its coverage of the NCAA Tournament when I was growing up. It is a magical sequence that I have grown to appreciate. Laettner’s immortalized heroics are a powerful reminder that even when hope seems all but lost, miracles do happen.
