Originally Posted by
jimsumner
I apologize if I misrepresented your intent. But I'm sensitive to the phenomena where Duke fans inflate expectations of young players to unrealistic levels and then turn on them when they fail to meet those expectations. On the front page of this board, we're comparing Ryan Kelly to Christian Laettner and Austin Rivers to Pete Maravich. And this is the rational Duke board.
How many posts have we had where Greg Paulus was lambasted for not being Bobby Hurley, where Brian Zoubek was lambasted for not being Mike Gminski? Wasn't Gerald Henderson the next Grant Hill, Lance Thomas the next Shane Battier, Josh McRoberts the next Danny Ferry?
So, yes, call it a pet peeve, call it a sore nerve. But I don't think comparing Tyler Thornton to Tommy Amaker does Thornton any favors.
Has any player at Duke ever replicated a previous player's accomplishments and in the same manner? I'd say no. And yet there is still the phenomena of someone being the next <insert past player here>.
Actually I think you could say this about every program out there and every level including the nba. Does anybody ever really become the next <somebody else who played years ago>? Isn't every player pretty much unique?
"Just be you. You is Enough."