JJ Redick’s beef with Maryland was flavored by ugly heckles, prank calls, and Duke’s legacy of jerks

From 2002 to 2006, J.J Reddick attended Duke, where he was one of the best shooters college basketball has ever seen. He was also one of the most hated players college fans had ever yelled at, and at the University of Maryland, where the yelling was particularly loud and vulgar and filled with references to his family members, fans across the country felt a deep revulsion for J.J Reddick and they had no problem expressing it. Why do you need to be the most hated player in college basketball? Not so much, actually Reddick had three main factors working against him first.

He went to Duke, an elite private school exclusively for rich people who think they're better than the rest of us and sure JJ Redick didn't actually grow up rich, he's middle class from rural Virginia, but what are they supposed to do? The college students? look up the background of each Duke player when it's a lot easier and more fun to blindly hate and also by attending Duke Reddick inherited the white Duke villain role in the late 80's and early 90's it was Christian Leightoner who did things like stroking a beard invisible to opposing fans. and he deliberately stomped on the chest of the opponent of the last four and of Minou Timberlake, then was wojo with the unpleasant blow of him on the floor.

Next up was J.J Reddick, it didn't really matter what Reddick's personality was, he was white and went to basketball, so he got the Duke villain role. which brings me to the second reason why everyone hated Reddick, he was a very good basketball coach. He called him the best marksman he had ever trained, but here's the thing: Nobody likes a winner, he makes the rest of us feel inadequate and soon after. angry, so he went to Duke and was well, that doesn't really seem like it's that bad, but how about this? He was a little cocky, shaking his head, talking trash, smiling at the crowd, here he is, waving at Florida.

The state crowd after the first half buzzer sounded, Duke was up by 18. As an adult, he even called himself an idiot in college and that was all it took. Duke a good kind of idiot a college basketball fan saw that and said destroy it and no school did everything they could to destroy it than the university of

maryland

now if you didn't go to

maryland

you wouldn't think they had much of a rivalry with

duke

, especially since that's the narrative that the

duke

perpetuates, they always sing no to our rivals in maryland as if to say that maryland sucks so much that duke doesn't even think about them but they came up with something to sing in maryland just saying just saying okay the Duke of Maryland rivalry will never have the consistency of the Duke UNC rivalry.

Those schools are eight miles apart have a longer history of success in basketball and, according to Duke's student newspaper, are more academically competitive in Maryland, but historically there have been bursts of intense rivalry between the terps and the blue devils and those bursts laid the groundwork for our meat in 1984 umd ranked 16th and duke ranked 14th they met in the acc championship game duke fans wore hats to make fun of maryland coach lefty dryzell for being bald, bad but ineffective, marilyn won and loved being the underdogs who took down the rich private school kids, sure sounds like There was a rivalry to me, although now I'm forced to Admittedly, from 1985 to 1994 the Terps beat Duke only once in 22 games, so there was no rivalry for that single decade, but how about fast forward to early 2000s coach Gary Williams? they had created the maryland program and were direct rivals of duke, don't take it from me, take it from the blue devils, shane battier, maryland during my four years in our country, betty's senior year in 2001, the schools came together four times, the first would be known as the miracle minute game playing at home the terps are up 10 with 54 seconds left and feeling good then jason williams, who now goes by jay, scored nine points in 14 seconds the game was to overtime where Duke won by two outraged Maryland fans expressed themselves by throwing Refilling water bottles, glasses, trash in the Duke section of the crowd, is not the best idea because, for example, a water bottle could hit the mother of Carlos Boozer in the head, causing him a mild concussion.

This incident stays with Maryland for a while and even provides Reddick with fuel to hit back at the Terps, but more on that later, adding insult to injury to the injured mother, Maryland won their next matchup by 11. Although Duke got its revenge in the ACC semi-finals beating Maryland by 2 and taking the ACC title, the Blue Devils got even more revenge. in the final four, where they overcame a 22-point deficit to end Maryland's streak. Hey, is there any consolation in the fact that Duke won it all? The best beat you. No, I get it, at least in 2002, Maryland got its own ncaa championship. against indiana, the team that eliminated duke in the sweet 16, which felt good, of course, but according to juan dixon in this washington post documentary, it might actually have felt better to beat duke in that championship game would have been much sweeter, you know, because that's what we were all eager to know were on the other side, we knew we had some classic games in the past and the following fall, Duke's next villain came onto the scene when a reddick from Freshman year he developed a reputation as a sharper-than-diamond shooter and was even better the following year, when Reddick arrived at Maryland for the first matchup of his sophomore season.

He was the leading scorer for the nation's No. 1 team. Maryland wasn't ranked, but rankings be damned, Maryland students looked at the pieces. Duke Good. arrogant rivalry and chose to be students used the weapons at their disposal the t-shirt slogans were antagonistic, if not a little wordy, the posters were a little simpler, they got him, although some posters went uncomfortably far and made reference to sexual acts with his then 12 year old sister. I think we can all agree that it's just awful. Reddick responded by simply playing so well that he made five of six threes and after each shot he treated the fans to some trademark smiles and nods.

Reddick even talked a little trash with the Baltimore Ravens owners sitting down. On the court with 18 and a half seconds left, Reddick had a chance to put the game out of reach with two free throws, he made the first one and then Maryland hit him with a talk that wasn't exactly smart but was aggressive 63-60, but then a turnover on two missed shots and then the two fouls against riddick jj made him smile before taking the next shot, maryland lost 68-60 and the university as a whole got quite a bit of bad press. You see, the game was broadcast nationally on espn, so there was no time to censor that chant and apparently even avoiding some of the more profane jerseys was difficult from USA Today to ESPN outside the lines.

Maryland was painted as what's wrong with college fandom. The UMD administration made efforts to repair its image and even approached the state attorney general's office to figure out how to ban profanity without violating freedom of speech, they decided it was too complicated to ban profanity and, in their Instead, they held T-shirt swaps that began as a student sportsmanship committee and banned the pep band from playing rock and roll. part 2, a song that terp fans had made their own by adding a refrain of hey, you suck, directed at opposing teams, Maryland's chastened fan base wouldn't see Reddick in College Park until the next season, but they found ways to keep the bee shape until then.

I got his phone number and called him at all hours of the night, which other schools did too. Maryland simply did so in greater capacity and perhaps with more virulence. All the hostilities began to get to Reddick, but there's a chance those negative feelings were exacerbated by a drop in shooting late in the season, the Terps even beat the Blue Devils for the ACC title largely due to That drop in shooting, Reddick found renewed focus in the summer between his sophomore and junior years, got into superhero shape and became not only a great shooter but a better all-around player, and on February 12, 2005, j.j

redick

finally returned to college park maryland for a rematch with the terrapin student section before the game espn college game day aired a segment intended to generate sympathy for poor evil jj reddick discussed the animosity he faced along the way , I'm surprised by some of the things that come out of, you know, the mouths of college students directed at me and pointed at Maryland, I think the worst episode was definitely in Maryland last year, brought out the signs about their little . sister as a particular point of conflict, which yeah, fair, someone made a sign saying they had sex with her, which I thought was pretty gross, pretty sick and twisted, and then the segment got weird sitting on a dark gym, Reddick read from his diary if they were just diary entries that would be quite embarrassing but they weren't just diary entries it was his poetry November 5, 2005 I can't see what the future holds but I kept going for the strength of a condor the courage of a warrior i mean what espn thought people already hate the kid why pour blood into the water when it comes to maryland this college game day special didn't soften their hearts towards jj reddick, in fact, it made them resent him more, okay, sure, jj.

He gets hate along the way, but so does everyone, including Maryland players, DJ Strawberry, endured mockery about the private life of his father, Daryl Strawberry, and how about Juan Dixon. Grape fans chanted crack addict parents. Dixon's parents struggled with drug addiction. They contracted HIV from needles and both died when Dixon. he was a teenager but he didn't get a college game day special about how he dealt with fans so why would jj get one because he's a clean white kid who goes to duke it seemed that way despite the injustice? umd administration was not trying to have another incident before the game, gary williams asked students to behave and security staff even checked the signs on the door, while most of the signs were fine, some profane They escaped, including some showing what they learned from Reddick's college game day episode.

See, this affects both his poetry and the understandable fact that he doesn't like it when fans say nasty things about his family. The Genie and Abby are his older and younger sisters, respectively, but despite the few outliers, Maryland fans generally managed to walk the fine line between enthusiasm. and being just horrible, they booed every time Reddick touched the ball and made Duke not our opponent, I chanted back. Duke lost in Ot and JJ didn't have a great game, he even threw at the three. What a treat for Maryland as a senior, Reddick. kept the sizzling meat but completely outplaying us, I mean, Maryland Bayes slipped a little there, scoring 27 points in a big home win and in their last matchup at Maryland, Reddick scored 35 points in another big win.

Interviewed after that game, he introduced himself as above. any Maryland issue with a quote that seemed innocent enough but wasn't the first part of this quote plays with the honor of time, it's not our rival, we don't care about Maryland tradition and the second part is a complete reference to Carlos . the incident with the alcohol or with mom, Reddick might as well have said remember the worst thing these bad kids have ever done, don't let them off the hook for that and while jj was fanning the flames this meat had a date of expiration, most college meats graduated from Reddick. 2006 and was drafted 11th overall by magic and within four or possibly five years of that, the Maryland students who hated him live and in person had also graduated, but hey, expired meat can have a pretty strong smell years into his professional career, Reddick was still booed when he played against the Wizards in DC and Reddick responded when asked about alcohol.

He played the card that he wasn't our match, but as time went on and JJ began to be known as more than just a Duke star, the meat didn't stink as much. Bad, I'm sure Maryland alumni of a certain vintage still harbor some ill will toward the guy, and I'm sure Reddick won't completely leave his time at Duke behind, even if he wants to, as he said in 2020 on his podcast, it's weird being 36 years and I still get asked about Duke College

beef

isa unique cut, there doesn't have to be much substance to create rich, bold flavors that fill you up and stick to your bones long after you finish the meal, thanks for staying tuned everyone if you need more stuff to check it out and let's be honest, who No?

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