Quotes from Christian Laettner

I pursued to have my team win as much as we could, and it doesn't happen without great teammates.

I'm sure I was insensitive. I'm probably still a jerk at times. But my priority as a freshman was to be good in basketball and play a lot. Not to be the nicest person in the world. I was one-track-minded. I still am.

I love muskie fishing in the summer time.

I can't say I go through life liking it and that I pursue to be hated, but I did pursue to be a good basketball player.

I did pursue to be a good basketball player.

I used to tell my mother, 'Mom, when they write really flattering things about your son, don't believe it all. And when they write really negative things about your son, don't believe it all.'

Everyone says I was real cute as a kid, but from 8 to 19, I was horrible-looking, freaky.

My whole freshman year at Duke, it was drilled into me that nothing was given to you, and you have to earn it, and this is a dog-eat-dog world, and blah blah blah, and blah blah blah. And you buy into it, 100 percent. You end up loving it. That's the way it should be, right?

I'm very close with Brian Davis, Thomas Hill, and Marty Clark.

As a thrill in my career, the Olympics rank right up there with my two NCAA championships at Duke.

This is something people don't realize about me, but I can laugh - and laugh at myself.

Given the way Duke plays its offense and defense, in high school I was very interested in playing for Coach K. Then when you get there and see how good he is, you buy into it a hundred percent. He has a recipe for how to be successful on the court.

I don't think the world hated Duke basketball before me.

For my entire Duke career, people were gunning for us and hating us and wanting us to lose, so I got used to that right away. Every team is going to give you their best shot. Everyone wants to beat you.

It's very important to know how to dribble and pass and catch and cut at a very high level if you want to be a good basketball player.

No one thinks more highly of me than probably myself. I think that's fine.

My biggest regret in life - well, one of them - is that I wasn't muskie fishing from '92 to '96 when I was not married.

Well, my last year was 04-05 with the Heat, and I relaxed for a few years, and I said, 'Well, what am I going to do?' I've got to do my passion, and my passion is basketball.

My problem is being brutally honest. People don't like that.

Sometimes you've just got to will it into the hoop.

How many people get to say a '30 for 30' is being made about them?

I'm not gonna say I'm the greatest guy, but the reason I don't hate is I know what it feels like to be hated. So I always pull for Tom Brady.

All I wanted to do was win. People have to remember that when I came to Duke, they'd started to get a reputation that they can't win the big game. We were aware of that, and we hated it.

I think if you are a player going to Duke, you have to expect a little bit to be not liked when you go and play in opposing team's gyms. Like, when I signed with Duke out of high school, I knew it would be playing in hell where they hate you. That's what I loved about it.