To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever
A book review as we wait for Duke to lose and UNC to win:
Will Blythe didn't really write a book about the UNC-Duke rivalry, and the result is much better than the standard sportswriter's history. The rivalry's there, of course. Dean Smith's wry humility and Mike Krzyzewski's corporate enthusiasm are still the opposing tent poles of the book under which a parade of players, sportwriters and fans pass under. But the book itself is about families - individual and collective ones.
Blythe devotes a good chunk of the pages to his own family, and their role in his basketball loyalties. His late father was a UNC medical professor with an incredible pride in his alma mater and home state, but no real interest the games the students are playing in shorts, while his mother is an adopted Carolinian and a rabid hoops fans. They're contrasted to Melvin Scott's extended family, supporting him as he adjusts to a smaller role on a championship team. Interspersed among this is a parade of players (including Shavlik Randolph, who comes across as extremely sympathetic in discussing his playing time, Caulton Tudor's column, and his mother cuttin gup his food) fans with more of a familial relationship to their teams than their blood relatives, and assorted media types doing their media typing.
The book is remarkably balanced with regards to the rivalry, from stating its biases on the cover to freely admitting there are times when the matchup isn't the biggest thing in sports. But it also elevates the bad blood to the importance it does hold in most people's hearts, detailing the stresses it puts on the author's own relationships in New York and discussing the overarching implications of Duke hatred with Buddhist professors and Methodist ministers on Franklin Street. And while Art Heyman slings his usual bullshit, and J.J. Redick can't realy hide the side of him that irritates opposing fans, Blythe has a love for everyone on both sides of the divide that seeps through in his writing. This is a book that's enjoyable to both Carolina and Duke fan alike. But keep in mind Blue Devils, in the last chapter only one team cuts down the nets in St. Louis.
Will Blythe didn't really write a book about the UNC-Duke rivalry, and the result is much better than the standard sportswriter's history. The rivalry's there, of course. Dean Smith's wry humility and Mike Krzyzewski's corporate enthusiasm are still the opposing tent poles of the book under which a parade of players, sportwriters and fans pass under. But the book itself is about families - individual and collective ones.
Blythe devotes a good chunk of the pages to his own family, and their role in his basketball loyalties. His late father was a UNC medical professor with an incredible pride in his alma mater and home state, but no real interest the games the students are playing in shorts, while his mother is an adopted Carolinian and a rabid hoops fans. They're contrasted to Melvin Scott's extended family, supporting him as he adjusts to a smaller role on a championship team. Interspersed among this is a parade of players (including Shavlik Randolph, who comes across as extremely sympathetic in discussing his playing time, Caulton Tudor's column, and his mother cuttin gup his food) fans with more of a familial relationship to their teams than their blood relatives, and assorted media types doing their media typing.
The book is remarkably balanced with regards to the rivalry, from stating its biases on the cover to freely admitting there are times when the matchup isn't the biggest thing in sports. But it also elevates the bad blood to the importance it does hold in most people's hearts, detailing the stresses it puts on the author's own relationships in New York and discussing the overarching implications of Duke hatred with Buddhist professors and Methodist ministers on Franklin Street. And while Art Heyman slings his usual bullshit, and J.J. Redick can't realy hide the side of him that irritates opposing fans, Blythe has a love for everyone on both sides of the divide that seeps through in his writing. This is a book that's enjoyable to both Carolina and Duke fan alike. But keep in mind Blue Devils, in the last chapter only one team cuts down the nets in St. Louis.
--T.H. Saturday, March 11, 2006
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