Dueling Autographs
We recently moved after nine years in our former home. My wife and I had vowed to never to move again but, of course, never say never. And while moving is no fun, I’m excited to have a little office space upstairs to write and hang up some Duke stuff I’ve accumulated over the years. I hadn’t looked through any of my memorabilia in a while, so it was fun to unpack last week, and it gives me a chance to tell this story.
As a college sophomore in the fall of 2003, I was coaching age 9-10 youth basketball for the local recreation department. In my mind, this would obviously be the first step in a successful coaching career that would end in the Final Four. To aid in that journey, I registered for the Duke Basketball Coaches Clinic and drove up to Durham early one Saturday morning in October to watch Coach K lead practice. Despite the fact that I was in Cameron with experienced coaches from all levels and probably had no business being there, I was giddy with excitement. I sat as close to the court as possible, and ended up sitting right behind Doug Collins, who delivered an awesome talk. I had no idea how to take clinic notes at that time, but I did my best - and did my best to act like I belonged. What I didn’t expect was the chance to meet Coach K during the lunch break. He offered to make himself available for handshakes and autographs before the afternoon session. While I had no expectation of this opportunity, I was definitely going to take advantage of it. Other coaches seemed to have come prepared to get a signature, with books and basketballs ready for Coach K. I had nothing, but fortunately kept a cluttered mess in my car from ages 18 to 30. I had a white Duke hat in my Ford Explorer that was in less than mint condition, but certainly passable. I nervously waited in line and got to meet Coach K - we shook hands, he asked me where I was from, and I asked how his family was doing (no clue why I said that). I handed him the hat and instinctively requested for the autograph to be made out to my dad. There’s no way I’m a Duke fan without him, and the only thing better than meeting Coach K, would have been meeting him alongside my pops.
My dad loved the hat and as he would often do, left me a short, handwritten note the next day. “Raif, Thanks for the cap. Love, Dad.” It was super cool to be able to have that exchange, and do something nice in return for my dad, who had taken me to all those Duke games and talked basketball non-stop with me for the last 15 seasons. But a couple of months later, I opened a Christmas present from him. It was a copy of Five-Point Play, Coach K’s book on the 2001 National Championship season - what a great gift. It got even better when I opened it to see Coach K’s autograph inside the cover. “I wanted to return the favor,” he said. We joked that he didn’t want me to catch up on the autograph scoreboard. The ACC seniors used to come barnstorming through our hometown and speak at Johnston County Basketball Camp to earn extra money in the summer, so he’d gotten me signatures from Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, and Antonio Lang a decade earlier. The hat made it three autographs to one, and Dad wanted to pad his lead. And I was happy to let him. Thanks, Dad - for so much more than a few autographs.
Here are some of my other favorite items to be displayed in the The Duke Basketball Project office, also known as my daughter’s playroom.
Growing up, I thought Sports Illustrated was the greatest thing ever. I couldn’t wait for that magazine to arrive every week, and they’ve had some iconic covers over the years. I had the 1992 and 2001 covers framed when I was a high school senior, officially starting my Duke collection.
My buddy, and lifelong North Carolina fan, gave me this Adidas ad from 1992. The caption is “$2.99 buys you a net. 34-2 earns you one.” Years later, he also gifted me the 1991 “Wish Granted” SI cover for my collection. He represents the best of the Duke/UNC rivalry (and the best of friendship).
Thanks to my mother, I have the original News & Observer front pages from Duke’s back-to-back titles. She always saved newspapers for me over the years, and these are cool as shit (sorry, mom).
My wife gave me this framed photo of the Laettner shot one year for my birthday. As much as I like SI covers and autographs, I like sports photography even more. I have a list of Duke Basketball photos I hope to add to my collection, but this freeze frame of Laettner’s follow through with the ball in the air and 0.2 on the clock was the perfect1 gift.
I was a high school teacher and assistant basketball coach during Duke’s 2010 run to the National Championship. I asked our librarian to laminate the front page before hanging it in the center on the whiteboard in my classroom. And it was awesome to add “Back on Top” to the SI collection,2 but I’m even more fond of that one now that it is Coach Scheyer on the front.
The 2015 season was so special - 1,000 wins for Coach K and Duke’s fifth title. I taped “Krown ‘Em” on one of our kitchen cabinets, and my wife generously let it hang there all summer. And at nearly 70 years old, Coach K was still expressing raw emotion, as he had done throughout his career, pumping his fist while Duke was in the midst of erasing a nine-point second half deficit. It might be my favorite Duke photo ever.
Duke replaced the floor in Cameron Indoor Stadium in 1997 and sold small pieces of the old court - the same court Dad and I walked on after my first college basketball game, and where so many great players competed. The same court where Coach K and Dean Smith stood on opposite ends, surrounded by the Cameron Crazies.
Thanks for reading, Go Duke!
Pun intended. Christian Laettner finished the game against Kentucky without a miss, going 10 for 10 from both the field and the free throw line.
Here’s two more SI covers I recently added, and two favorites from my non-Duke collection.
I really enjoyed reading this!