Excerpt of the speech made by Duke University President RICHARD BRODHEAD at our end-of-season banquet:
Naismith invented something that was incredibly absorbing, it’s one of the perfect inventions of all time. And I ask myself: what would we do all winter if basketball had not been invented? But, I do not know the answer to that question.
And then what about this year, you guys were so incredible. There’s a famous sports university that has a fight song that begins, “Hail to the conquering hero, hail to victor valiant,” but you know the conquering hero is us, the conquering hero is the people who are sitting here. But, I just want to say what we all know who were here all year, which is this season was so fun at the end, but this season was so fun since the first minute of the first game. And I’m specifically remembering the blue-and-white scrimmage, even before any of you came out on the court, and the videos. I first was introduced to Mason Plumlee in his role as Mini-Me. Nolan’s unexpected talents impersonating people of one sort or another from Titanic, the dunking contest that night, Nolan’s appearance in the shorts of Johnny Dawkins. You know if nothing else had happened all year, it would’ve been a fun year at least to that extent. But then it got more and more fun, and then it went on and it went on and on.
And then I can pause over the evening of just inexpressible joy in here when we not only beat Carolina, but if I may say demolished them. On that occasion a wise man looked into the stands, this was Lance, and he said, “We’re not done yet, we still have a lot left to do.” And that was literally true. You didn’t have a little more to do, you had a lot more to do. And you won the ACC Tournament, you won round after round, then it was the Final Four.
I’d like to thank the couple here
who gave me the badge that I still have, it’s a vintage thing that says, “The Final Three and Duke again.” And then you won it all. And I’d have to say, I wasn’t President last time you guys won the tournament so I had no idea how hard it is or how supremely satisfying it is, and I congratulate you all.
But here’s what I really want to say. You know basketball at Duke works a little differently from basketball at some other great basketball schools, because this isn’t a university that happens to have a great basketball team, this is a university whose deepest values are symbolized by its basketball team. Everything about basketball tells us things about the larger activity we engage in here. Who are the players in basketball? They’re talented, young people. Universities are all about talented young people coming there. But, what kind of people? Not just people with talent; people who have something added to talent, which is the desire to take their talent and live up to it, to take it to the fullest extent
of its realization, to work, work, work in the name of some self-invented idea of excellence. Then there’s something else I’d say about it, which is you guys worked hard to get as good as you were, but you would not have gotten as good as you became by yourselves because this sport is also all about teaching. And I remember Mike, one of our early times together was at a press conference, and I told the national audience of sports writers that the reason you belonged at this university was because you are a natural teacher. And I think this year we all saw just how true that is, and we saw what a great teacher you are. You had a lot of help and I thank all the help, but there’s really no one who’s quite like you with your amazing ability. You know you can’t go out and play, you can’t, you’ve got to take somebody else and help them see what they can do, so that they can live up to their ideal and make it all work.
And then the last thing, and this is the simplest, which is you guys are great individuals but that’s not why you won. You won because you put yourselves together and made a team out of yourselves. And you did something together that none of you could’ve done on your own. So I’m just going to say, when I think back to the year 2010 -- I was amazed I came home the night after the game and I did probably what everybody else did, I watched the game over again. I’m visualizing my retirement years where I can just watch it over and over and over again. I think that will be just fine. But I will tell the guys on this team: we will always remember you individually. And I’ll just tell you my mother-in-law remembers you individually, my mother, my father, my sister, the whole world remembers you. I’ll tell you how I remember you, because I’m a fan. I’ll mostly mention seniors but I’ll pick out a couple others. Kyle Singler, I think of you as the battler. I always see you down under the basket fighting your way up like coming to the surface, and I will say to you too, “P.S. great decision!” Then I will say of Nolan -- Nolan you’re a battler too, but when I think of you in my mind the picture I see is just the look of pure joy. I’ve never seen a face capable of projecting the emotion of joy quite as much as yours. After you won in Indianapolis, I picked up your mother and swung her around, and I really hope I didn’t break her ankle.
Steve Johnson, Jordan Davidson -- where else are there people who come in the game as late as often as you did, who got the kind of ovations you get here? Everybody loved you and no wonder. You were just the real Steady Eddies. Whenever it was time for you, you were ready to go and you were just as fresh. It was just marvelous to see you bound out there in that state. Lance, there was a famous general in Europe whose famous line
191 WORTHY CHAMPS
was, “Ils ne passeront pas,” “They shall not pass.” And that’s what I see when I see you and even more I actually see this look on your face like, “What were you thinking?” Brian, you were always such a talented player, but I think you accomplished something that no one else in this room and few people in history have accomplished. You took yourself as being very good, and with all the challenges in your career you made yourself go so deep down. You came up and became the player you could’ve been, but you couldn’t have been if you didn’t work as hard as that. That was a source of such joy to all of us and it looked like it was a source of some joy to you too. And Jon Scheyer, you know I saw your video so I realize my image is only one image, but this is the one I have of you. I just can’t imagine how you were so calm out there all the time. You just always seemed so calm and so composed. It always seemed to me like you were just computing everything around you and thinking like three or four minutes ahead, and then thinking back from there and figuring out, “Well, then here’s what I can do or here’s what someone else could do,” and from there on it was all pretty easy.
Okay, so my point is this. We will remember you and we will remember you individually or singly as they say here, but we will remember you individually because of what you did collectively, because of the way you came together and the way you lifted yourselves and each other through your life as a team. A wise man once said, “Two are better than one, if two can play as one.” Five are even better than two, if they can play as one. And you guys played as one. And there’s one other thing that I’d quote from that wise man, he taught me once upon a time that teaching is about making people better. Right? You don’t say how they’re going to be better, you don’t say how you’re going to make them better, but that’s what it is. We had a good team, and with your help and with the help of everyone connected with this operation, good became better. And then at the end, better became the only thing it had left to be; better became best. On behalf of Duke University, I thank the players of the Duke Basketball team of 2010. Duke is proud of you and Duke will never forget you. Thanks.
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