Deshaun Watson’s Duke Dream

No, not football.

Deshaun Watson had a sensational career as Clemson’s quarterback and is now in the NFL although out for the season with an ACL injury.

When he was younger though, growing up in Gainesville, Georgia, he had a different dream: he idolized JJ Redick and wanted to play basketball at Duke for Coach K.

Things worked out for him pretty well in that other sport so clearly he made the right decision. But it’s an interesting what-if and it partially answers a question for us.

When Redick chose Duke, he talked of seeing Christian Laettner’s epic shot to beat Kentucky in the 1992 Eastern Regional finals as an eight-year-old and deciding, then and there, that he was going to play basketball at Duke.

When he finished at Duke, we wondered about what we called the Laettner Effect and and wondered if there would be a Redick Effect. Lately we’ve been wondering if there would be a Zion Williamson or RJ Barrett Effect although we’re more likely to see something like a Kyrie Irving Effect before that.