National championships are the ultimate goal. But Duke basketball fans value more about former players than just their title counts.
Some Blue Devils, such as Steve Wojciechowski, specialized in grit. Guys like Trajan Langdon and Mike Dunleavy earned reputations as quiet assassins. And, of course, there was Christian Laettner, who cemented his legacy with a supreme level of confidence fueling one clutch bucket after another.
Spoiler: None of the aforementioned players made the cut for this list.
In order to land on this list of the program’s three all-time greatest showmen, one needed to have high marks across the following three categories:
- Mesmerizing highlights — mid-air tricks, fancy handles, in-the-zone moments, or a combination of all three
- Flamboyance — cocky expressions, trash-talking, animated reactions, etc.