"30 for 30" on ESPN is always worth a watch. On
Sunday, they aired a show on why people hate Christian Laettner. For
those who never saw him, he was a 6-foot 10-inch center who in the
'90s was the dominant player for the dominant team, Duke
University. He was a tough kid with Abercrombie good looks. While
he looked like a choir boy, he played like a street kid. The show
points out his contradictions. First and foremost, Duke is and was
an elite school and the assumption was that he was a rich hid. His
dad is a printer and his mom an elementary school teacher. He grew
up in Buffalo, not Beverly Hills. He went to a prep school but did
janitorial work to defray the cost of tuition.
We face these issues as lawyers. The megastar who is actually
shy. The Gatsby, a self-made man who comes across as
royalty. Teaching a jury who your client is represents the art of
trying a case. If you cannot peal back the layers and present the
real person, perhaps you should be
