J.J. Redick has been bombarded by the media, taunted by opposing fans and even stalked by an entire Wal-Mart staff while grocery shopping.
He has been labeled as the most hated player in college basketball, and also witnessed masses of girls screaming his name and holding up signs asking the star to marry them.
Two years ago, however, 31-year-old Lara Lee decided the sharp-shooting Duke guard just was not getting enough attention.
After scouring the internet for information on Redick, Lee, now a database marketing supervisor in Los Angeles, bought the domain name for the website she would create to showcase Redick and his accomplishments-www.jjredick.net.
"I was out there myself looking for information online about him, but it was scattered everywhere," Lee said. "Nobody else has done it, so I just decided I would. He is the focus of so much animosity. That's been focused on a lot, and I knew there had to be a lot of us out there who support him. We didn't have any place to call our own. It's a counter-balance."
Lee said she initially spent three or four days putting together the website, which focuses solely on Redick, and has consistently updated its content since it was launched March 20, 2005, nearly a year after she bought the domain name. The website-which eventually grew so large Lee was forced to rent her own server to support it-now contains announcements, news articles, photo galleries, video clips and forums. And despite the conflicting attitudes he invokes, the site is strictly for Redick's fans-as Lee said, "haters are not allowed."
Even so, there's no lack of interest in Lee's project. Currently, the website has registered more than 294,100 visitors-approximately 4,000 of those hits came over the past weekend.
"The negative attitudes toward Duke and toward me get publicized more, but there are people that like me out there," Redick said. "When we go on the road, there's always people and fans and signs for me.... It's been something that over the past four years I've learned to deal with."
Redick's fan base spans all demographics. Through the website, Lee gets approximately 70 emails per week from fans of all ages and backgrounds. Although she works full-time, Lee spends several hours per week-and between $200 and $250 per month-maintaining www.jjredick.net for an ever-increasing number of fans.
"When I started this website it was just kind of a thing-I had no idea," Lee said. "I get emails from all over, from 10-year-olds to 75-year old women, from all over the country and from all over the world. It's unbelievable how many fans he has. It's unbelievable what he inspires in people, it goes beyond the average player. There's little kids, 12-year-old boys who look at pictures of him shooting and tell me they want to be him, and then there's 65-year-old women who just see him as that good Christian boy."
Hundreds of other web pages devoted to Redick exist on the Internet, mostly as personal home pages.
Redick has his share of admirers in the real world, too. Although he said he is not usually approached by his fellow students on campus for autographs, Redick said he draws attention wherever he goes.
"I mean obviously any time we come to practice there's usually people hanging around Cameron-visitors or the eBay guys, chilling out around by K-ville," Redick said. "Now in Durham, stuff happens.... At Kroger a few weeks ago some girl followed me around saying that she was my bodyguard, and then you know, it's normal autograph stuff."
Lee, a graduate of Drew University, has been a Duke fan for 16 years, but made her first-ever trip to Durham to see Redick play against North Carolina March 4 in his final game in Cameron Indoor Stadium. She has never met the athlete she has spent so much time researching, though.
"Not yet, anyway," Lee said. "We'll see."
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