Which basketball team was more hated: Duke or the Heat?

 

First of all, this notion that no one hates the Heat anymore because they won a championship (in a lockout-shortened season) is poppycock, and I’ll admit this sentence is here mostly so I can type the word ‘poppycock.’ But that aside, Shane Battier is in a unique position. He’s played for two of the most hated teams anywhere — Duke and the Miami Heat. So everyone would like to know, in your opinion Mr. Battier, which squad would you feel was the most despised?

“The biggest difference was when I played at Duke I never saw one Battier jersey in an opposing arena. Being the guy at the time, I looked around and never saw one. At least in these arenas that we go to now, in every city there’s some LeBron and Wade jerseys out there so the vitriol was pretty thick but talking to the guys it wasn’t as deep-rooted and as thick as it was a year ago.”
“I think people appreciated, if you’re a basketball fan there’s no way you couldn’t appreciate the way our team played especially LeBron and the year that he had, so I think we won a lot of people over with our style of play.”

So Duke hate was worse, because LeBron and the guys won over the opposing fans with their style of play? Umm … discuss.
To me, people hate Duke because they win. And because of the way they play. With Miami, it is (or was) the other way around. It’s kind of a specious argument to begin with, because I don’t think the “hatred” of either team is as widespread as it is made out to be. Just as in politics, the minority on the opposite extremes make it seem bigger than it really is.