YouTube Gold: Shane Battier On Loosening Up At Duke

Didn’t drink until he was a senior?

There are some classic archetypes of Duke basketball players. One is represented by Mark Crow, Kenny Dennard and most of all Art Heyman, guys who lived hard and played harder.

Then there is the Steve Vacendak/Bobby Hurley/Steve Wojciechowski figure, the small guard who was fiercely competitive and played well beyond his natural talent level (less true for Hurley than the others, but still true nonetheless).

Then there’s the brilliant student who was also an outstanding athlete. In this camp we have Jay Buckley (who became a literal rocket scientist), Mike Gminski, who graduated high school at 16, and Shane Battier.

Battier is, without question, one of the most beloved Blue Devils of all time. He was also one of the great interviews in ACC history - eloquent, polished, and confident - and Duke fans created an all-time great cheer for him: “who’s your daddy? Battier!”

But by his own confession here, he was seriously too serious when he got to Duke.

He tells a story of rooming with Elton Brand and Will Avery as freshmen, both of whom were more, uh, socially adventurous.

He also tells a story of his wife, who dumped him in high school for the quarterback, who was somewhat less serious than Battier.

Most of us go off to school and ultimately become more serious people. For Battier, that journey was in reverse.