Christian Laettner

Every Olympics, when I was growing up and playing basketball, my parents and I made it a point to sit down and watch the U.S.A. compete. To join that team later, and play and practice one-on-one with David Robinson, Larry Bird, Chris Mullens and all these guys I looked up to, was a dream come true.

I bought into everything Coach K preached to us. His whole philosophy.

For whatever reason, the people that don't appreciate Duke basketball or don't pull for Duke basketball, they have a tendency to vilify one of the players. And a lot of times, it might be a white guy. And has it happened over and over in the past? Yes.

For my entire Duke career, people were gunning for us and hating us and wanting us to lose, so I got used to that right away. Every team is going to give you their best shot. Everyone wants to beat you.

It's hard to live up to the expectations. Besides that, I think I had a very good NBA career, and I'm proud of it. I might not have been an absolute monster, but I thought I did pretty good.

As a thrill in my career, the Olympics rank right up there with my two NCAA championships at Duke.

My senior year was crazy. We were defending champions, we were on national TV just about every weekend, and we were winning. Teams always brought their best when they went up against us, and we always matched it.

The only thing I can control is winning on the basketball court.

The Olympics in '92, I didn't contribute that much. I had more to do with winning the National Championships than I did the gold medal.

Basketball is more than just strength and power.

I don't watch any NBA games today, because it makes me sad: I want to be back out there.

I don't think it's a good M.O. to disrespect your opponents, and maybe that's why the teams that disrespected me and my team lost to us.