He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college basketball players ever. He holds
NCAA Tournament records for the most points scored, most free throws made, most free throw attempts and most games played. He was drafted third overall in the 1992 NBA draft behind
Shaquille O'Neal and
Alonzo Mourning, played 13 years in the NBA, and he was the
only college player on the original Dream Team! Hurley was a first-team
All-American in 1993, went to the
Final Four three times, and led the
Blue Devils to back-to-back national championships in 1991 and 1992, earning Final Four
MVP honors in 1992. Hurley remains the
NCAA all-time assists leader with 1076 assists, and Duke's single game assist leader with 16 (against Florida State on February 24, 1993).Drafted 7th in the NBA. He can't be considered a "bust" in the NBA due to the almost fatal car crash. You'd be arrogant, too if you were that good.
Laettner was this, he was that, blah blah blah. I hated him too. Great college player, but I have to admit it did give me some solace to see him become an NBA bust.
There were worse NBA players, of course, but he didn't come close to living up to his draft billing...after all, he was drafted third behind Shaq and Alonzo Mourning.
And there are a lot of players who are 'that good', and aren't as arrogant as I found Laettner to be. Lebron, Kevin Garnett, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki...the list goes on and on, and that's just basketball.
Brady, Jeter, Howard, Ortiz, Rice, Rivera, Gretzky, Lemieux, Ovechkin, Crosby, Iginla, Roy, Lidstrom, Sakic, Holiday, Santana, Pujols, Tomlinson, Favre, Sanders, Leetch...and I think I'm missing another thousand or so.
Laettner did not even come close to accomplishing what any of them did, and they manage to do it with class.
'Good' does not have to equal arrogant.
Sandra