30 for 30: I Hate Christian Laettner (2015)
**** (out of 4)
Excellent documentary from ESPN's "30 for 30" series takes a look at perhaps the greatest collage basketball player as well as the most hated one and both honors belong to Chistian Laettner. The Duke player made a splash in college by making it to four Final Fours, winning to Championships and perhaps hitting the most famous shot in basketball history against Kentucky. Laettner has four current NCAA Tournament records, made the original Dream Team and played 13 years in the NBA.
So why is he so hated? Well, the film breaks it down to five reasons as to why he's hated and this is the fun of the picture. We get interviews with Laettner, Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Bobby Hurley, Jalen Rose, Jim Calhoun, Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas and even the likes of Ken Jeong and Ric Flair among many others. All of these people tell you why they either hate Laettner or respect what he was able to do. Obviously, Kentucky fans hate Laettner because he broke their hearts with a terrific shot that is shown each and every year.
The documentary does a fantastic job at not only asking why Laettner is so hated but also what makes people take sports so serious. I mean, it's clear that if a player is cocky and people like him then that cockiness is looked at as a strength. If, like the case of Laettner, people don't like you, then being cocky is looked at as a bad thing. I really loved the way the documentary broke this hatred down by various categories and managed to make you realize that the reason for much of the hate wasn't necessary. We learn a few facts about Laettner including the fact that he wasn't a rich spoiled kid like so many thought. We even take a look at the Kentucky game where many people believe he shouldn't have been around to make "the shot" because earlier in the game he stomped a guy's chest. What people forget about this is that the player earlier someone hit Laettner in the back and sent him to the floor and if this here hadn't happened, well, then Laettner wouldn't have done what he did.
I HATE Christian LAETTNER is one of the better films in the series because of its subject matter. There's no question that Laettner can get people's blood boiling because of his attitude and the fact that he was a pure winner. Getting to hear from those who played against him and for him was a lot of fun and there's some great footage here from various incidents where Laettner had to go into opposing team's gyms and take quite a bit of abuse. This one here is certainly not to be missed.