Going Through The Summer Issue: 1992 Outtakes

Over the next few days, we'll highlight material from our gargantuan summer issue, with links and excerpts to our many articles with the hopes that you will find it all a little easier to digest. Today and tomorrow we focus on Duke Men's Basketball.

I wrote an article about Duke's strategy for repeating this year by talking to the Duke team that did repeat—the 1992 Blue Devils. As with all articles, there were some great quotes that didn't make the cut for some reason or another.

Brian Davis, a very funny and interesting interview, gave a great quote which did make the cut that has gained a little bit of fame online. Here's the full version:

We didn’t appreciate all the shit everyone was talking about us. We [Christian and I] were pissed, and Grant was pissed, and we felt we had something to prove. We said to ourselves, ‘We’re going to win this shit again’…. We played that year not with a chip on our shoulder, but a boulder. Everybody thought Duke was soft, and we wanted blow everybody else out. Which, if you’ll look at the record, we did.

We think we were the greatest team ever. We’re the only team ever to make five straight Final Fours.

[On the current team]: All these players are really, really great dudes. They aren’t flashy bullshit. They play defense, have camaraditie. They love each other, and it shows on the court.

[On chemistry]: We had issues just like anybody else. We just didn’t talk about it to anybody else. We had a lot of meetings our senior year. We were very mature, and we wanted to be champions. If they have the same focus and manage each other, they can win it again.

UNLV carried the rest of our careers. The only time I’ve ever shed a tear was after that game. I was embarrassed. Me and Christian committed ourselves to working harder than any player in America. That’s why we went back-to-back—the two captains worked harder than anybody.

[Advice]: Allow the leaders to be leaders. Don’t pay too much attention to what the papers say. Stay focused like a family, pretend like you have haven’t won anything, like someone beat you up and took your money, and you’ll win again.

We wanted to come out strong and make a statement that we were good [in 1992]. St. John’s, I think we took them apart early in the season in the Big East-ACC Challenge. A win against Michigan in December with the Fab Five was another thing we wanted to accomplish. Then we just handled our business through the meat and potatoes of the season in the ACC. We at times weren’t tested. Both of the games we lost were by one point.... We weren’t challenged really for the most part.

[On the external hype that came from being on that team]: I’ve always been a basketball player-- that’s what I do. A lot of those young girls liked Christian [laughs]. But in general, I’ve been a ball player, so I enjoyed the times when people came up and said, 'Hey you’re doing great.' That was fine. We had a real 'Let’s take care of business' approach to that season. We went about it trying to show people that the year before wasn’t a fluke and that we wanted to show how good of a team we were.

I went to both Final Fours as a fan. The first one, similar to this one [in 2010], was a shock. We couldn’t believe they had done it, and we were stunned. A lot of people went out to Indy to scalp their ticket, because it was legal then. That drove the prices down so a lot of people went to the [semifinal] game because they couldn’t sell their ticket.

The first [national championship] was surprising, the second was gratifying. It wasn’t a shock... but [winning was] not easy to do. The main thing I appreciate about Coach K is that it’s hard to be on top and take everyone’s best shot. They came into the year with Laettner on the cover of SI, and they still won.

[On Laettner's shot:] Believe me, I didn’t think they were going to pull it out. Calvin was the only one that thought Coach K had a plan.

[On the young Blue Devils suddenly being called "old"]: They beat Indiana on Saturday night. The final game was between Duke and Michigan, who started the Fab Five freshmen.... Although Grant was a sophomore, he and Chris Webber played against each other on AAU teams. Grant was coming back from the high ankle sprain, and Brian Davis also had suffered a sprain, but managed to play in Minneapolis against Michigan. The press in Minneapolis was speculating that these old guys from Duke couldn’t beat the Fab Five. I’m thinking, wait a minute. These old guys won the year before when the Fab Five was in high school. And they’re the same age! I remember reading that and getting angry.