photo courtesy http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/
By LARRY VAUGHT
Reader Glen Story of Lincoln County does not agree with a reference I made in a column about Duke’s Christian Laettner “stomping” on Kentucky’s Aminu Timberlake during the memorable 1992 NCAA Tournament game that Duke won in overtime on Laettner’s buzzer-beating shot.
Here’s what Story sent me: “I still believe that Laettner should have been tossed for stepping on Timberlake, but he wasn’t. I do believe that if he had literally stomped on Timberlake that the referees would have done no less than remove him from the game. That episode still gets our (UK fans) dandruff up. Duke isn’t very popular with UK fans. Someone once said, ‘The human race must find the equivalent of war if we are to survive.’ Sports is a great outlet for that. We don’t even have to sensationalize when talking about Kentucky basketball. Just bring up the subject and an audience is quickly gathered.”
Story certainly is right about UK basketball quickly igniting passion in fans as it does even 20 years later when mentioning the Laettner stomp. Was it a stomp? Was it merely stepping on Timberlake without any malice? Should he have been ejected from the game?
Since I was sitting courtside for the game, it still seems to me that if it had been any player other than Laettner he would have been ejected. But since Laettner was the face of Duke basketball and the Blue Devils were the nation’s No. 1 team, I’ll always believe he got a break that someone like UK’s Deron Feldhaus would not have got if he had done the same thing to Laettner in that Philadelphia game.
That’s one thing I am hoping to ask Tom Clark next month. He’s a former college basketball official who worked that 1992 UK-Duke game and he will be one of the speakers at the annual Ohio UK Convention July 21 in Franklin, Ohio. It’s one of my favorite days of the year and having a chance to hear him talk about this historic game from an official’s perspective is going to be interesting to say the least. Maybe he’ll have a different take on what the officials saw than I did. Maybe he’ll have a logical reason for why Laettner wasn’t ejected. Maybe he’ll admit now that Laettner should have been tossed.
But I also want to get his take on the game’s intensity and if he ever expected anything close to the type of game he was part of and how much he thinks back to that particular game.
But what about you? Was it a stomp or step? Many of you also saw the game. Let me know if you remember it as a stomp like I did or a merely a step as Story remembers.
23 Responses to Did Duke’s Christian Laettner stomp on Aminu Timberlake or merely step on the Kentucky player?
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I think it was neither a “stomp” nor a “step.” It was an “intentional tap with a foot.”
Laettner’s intention, to me at the time, didn’t seem to be to hurt Aminu. But he wanted to remind him who was boss. It wasn’t painful, but it also wasn’t accidental.
I certainly wouldn’t characterize what Laettner did as a “step”, but I would not call it a “stomp” either. My idea of a “stomp” is trying to put my foot through something. He intentionally made contact with Timberlake and should have been tossed from the game. I totally agree with Larry about Laettner’s status as the face of Duke basketball , etc. and that he certainly received special treatment. Obviously, that would have turned the tide of the game, possibly changed NCAA history, and UPS might be looking for some new ad material. Remember, you can’t have dUKe without UK! Go Big Blue!
Great comments here. I just keep thinking back from that game that if it had been any other Duke player — except maybe Grant Hill — or any UK player doing the same thing he would have been ejected
It was intentional and he should have been ejected. That game created for me the greatest high I ever had watching a UK game, and then the lowest of lows. I remember my wife had to leave the room early in the second half because she couldn’t stand the tension . Even though we lost, it is still the greatest college game that was ever played.
Added thought, Laettner not being ejected is in the same officiating category as John Wooden running out to the middle of the floor during the 1975 NCAA Championship, shaking his finger at Rick Robey, and the refs escorting him back to the bench without calling a technical.
I agree that is was intentional, but Laettner was not trying to hurt our player! I think he was just trying to send a message and assert his dominance! He should have been thrown out of the game, but I think that the refs were as shocked as the crowd about the stomp. Nothing can ever change that now! The best players alway get the benefit of the doubt. Nothing is really fair in this world.
Stomp or step, Laettner himself admitted he did it on purpose.
yeah it was on purpose. and anyone else in the country would have been thrown out of the game. thank god for replay, because the officials would have to go to the monitor now for such crap. it was a punk move then and it still is in my book. what mankes it worse was he was still in the game to make the shot in the end. So it really sticks in my craw. Punk!
Oh hey i have a good story on this. As normal every summer my dad and i go back down to campbellsville for a week or so in the summer. But we sneek up to lexington for a day and go in to memorial for to see if we see somebody from uk. Well, as we’d hoped the uk training room was full of uk players. Kenny Walker, Ed Davender, Reggie Hanson, And Travis Ford were all in there. Ford had just had knee surgery, walker was back from the knicks rehabing and injury and the ed and reggie were just hanging out. I believe ford had yet to play for uk, his leg was in ice. So anyway this deal with laettner had already happened and my dad told walker that when the next season starts he wants him to give him one of “these”. “These” Was and elbow gesture that my old man showed walker . Hell now you talk about funny. Walker got a chuckle out of it too.. But once again right place right time. You never knew who you might run in to at memorial in the summer. I have this on tape as well. But i think its vhs.
Grant, would love to see that tape sometime
Step Stomp . If I am going on “INTENT” it was a stomp. His intent was to sent the message “I WILL STOMP YOU TO WIN”. But I like how the Cats responded. They did not back down and they kept coming at the them.
Here is a better question IMHO! !
To cover the inbound passer or not to cover that is the question? LOL! ! !
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. GO BLUE OR STAY HOME! ! !
Still very well remember the game it was a stomp from my point of view,he should have been tossed out of the game. That was the last game that the legendry Cawood Ledford call for the cats.
Larry note under the rules that govern NCAA basketball it’s unsportsman conduct and yes he should have been ejected. You are probally rightwith the face of Duke Basketball as the reason he wasn’t.How ever as we look back Christian Laettner was an cocky 20 years later it’s crystal clear he was not the face but the ass of Duke Basketball . Christian Laettner was an cocky ,big headed, fake with basketball talent .His statement was you are beneath me . The refs let this go as an no call and were wrong and lacked doing there job .Now Larry i can handle the lost this Duke Team by far was the best teami the NCAA that year.However an very good Kentucky team took there ass to the wire and this game should have never have depended on this last shot period because our cats had it won and messed up. Win Loose just like our final four lost an couple years ago .Howeveri hate an two face pc of trash whom to hear him talk he has NCAA printed on his heart that is full of love for the sport THE PRUNE . Note an real coach would have sat his ass on the end of that bench and never looked at him again .Does anyone consider this an win outside of the crying prune ? Kentucky won this game in every aspect and had style and class . I unsure if everyone is following Christian’s life today maybe he’ll be on Judge Judy soon . Larry did you hit an tender spot or what?
It shouldn’t have mattered what it was called. It was a deliberate striking of another player. If he had just tapped Timberlake on the chin with his fist with just a little force he would have been tossed. So why wasn’t he tossed for the step/stomp? For the same reason UNLV got hit with about 15 penalties in the 1990 season causing half their team to be gone most of the time. Yet they went on to demolish that same Duke squad sans Grant Hill. The next season UNLV just didn’t come to play. They thought they had it in the bank after winning by 30 the year before.
It looks like racism to me to be honest. Duke was almost entirely white at the time. And the media wanted to make them the face of college basketball. I know the entire UNLV team thinks it was racism how Duke got treated so much better than they did. And looking at the record I can’t disagree. The Rebs were called thugs and every other name under the sun. Duke was idolized. The media is so two faced about such things it’s amazing. They lecture people about racism then they obviously practice it themselves. They make UK out to be the great Satan of racism but Duke still plays more white players than black.
I am not one to cry racism all day like some do. I very, very rarely say it. But in this case it is very obvious that race has a role in this. Why else does the media love a team that isn’t really from their region? Duke is more popular among the media elites than they are in much of NC. I hate racism personally. My parents hid the fact that I was bi-racial from me their entire lives. I only learned it from other sources. My mother’s grandmother was Cherokee and there were other Cherokee in the family and a Blackfoot. Let me tell you it was pretty bad to find your own parents lied to us about our heritage. I remember my brother asking them about it when we were kids and they told him to never bring it up again. They never answered him. They just didn’t want to talk about it. I hated it then and I hate it now. There’s no one thing wrong with being part native American but they treated it like a curse probably because our neighbors would have hounded us about it had they known.
No doubt there should have been an ejection over that play. It’s obvious. And that makes it obvious how crooked sports can be. If anyone saw the Manny Pacquiao / Timothy Bradley fight recently they should know sports are a joke at times. I’m still waiting for the NBA to be investigated for fixing games the way UK was when it was a few players who did it. They tried to send Rupp to jail even though he knew nothing about it. And now they hound Cal endlessly.
If sports aren’t fair they’re a joke. And the more I see the more I realize they are a joke. It’s only when the hated teams (like UK and Cal) win that you know things were fair. I’ve seen the rules of football be changed half an hour before a conference title game. That was done to hurt the Bengals. I’ve seen baseball owners hounded out of the sport because of alleged racism. That was done to hurt the Reds. I see free agency put the power of the big market in charge of who wins baseball championships. As far as I can tell I have never seen a sport that hasn’t been touched by corruption. And Duke is the epitome of the favorite team. I don’t get why people don’t demand equal treatment. We pay for those big arenas those teams play in. And we let them be used so big name schools and media darlings can cheat small schools and the teams the media (and the governing bodies) hate. The article I wrong a couple of months ago here says it all IMO. It’s not my article really. It’s the facts I found. When Duke is allowed to play 26 times in their home state in the tournament while UK plays NONE there’s something very, very wrong. Some of those Duke games were 11 miles from their campus. That would be like UK playing in Nicholasville. Games could be played at Richmond. EKU has a gym.
Clearly UK got more out of that game than Duke. That thug Laettner lost millions of dollars with that stomp. UK took in millions because of it. Because UK was seen as the team that could win with a tenth of the talent of a K coached team. They nearly won the greatest game ever with a team of rejects (except for Mashburn of course). The truth is the game was great but it only became “the greatest game ever” because Duke beat the mighty UK and the media wanted their white boy team to do well. I hate to put it that way but I really think it’s true. I’ve seen better games to be honest. The lead changed hands about 5 times in the last minute of that Duke game so it certainly was a great game. But watch the end of this game and tell me it wasn’t a better ending. Yes it’s Duke and UNC but it was still great. Bobby Jones was a tremendous basketball player and this game is astounding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO445W4mtZI
There are things about the UK / Duke game that make people think it was the best ever. Laettner shooting perfect for the game was a big deal. And UK playing with the rejects from the sanction team. But for sheer basketball greatness I’ve never seen anything that came close to that Duke / UNC game in the video here.
PS i need to proof read my response before posting
Imagine if Timberlake and got up off the floor and retaliated for being stomped. Both players would have been tossed and the magical shot never would have happend. I blame Timber for lying down and taking the stomping!
Intentionally and he admitted it…bottom scum sucking, sleazeball, imbecile, jerk!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AwYVTB2rZw
Watch this one too…funny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPMo14XTTvE
Gary, moderate me and approve my previous post! LOL
dang, now it’s gone!
Well it was an intentional step.I don’t think the Duke player should have been ejected but a technical foul should have been called and the player shoot’s free throws and ball to UK. We Win, but it is what it is,and what a lost to be proud of.That UK team played it butt off in that game
YOu are exactly right BozCats about the effort in that game
By law anytime the shot is mentioned the stomp should be also mentoined
By law anytime the shot is brought up the stomp should be also brought up!GO BIG BLUE!