Now hate This: The Duke Edition

by JL Blue on Jun 7, 2007 10:24 AM EDT in News

Oh, with all this hatred and schedenfreude for ole Florida, we almost forgot about our old pals at Duke University, where the "mystique" is thick as the cheerleader's love handles.

And before you call me classless for writing that, I call you stupid for not realizing already how small, petty and classless I am!

To keep it brief, a famous e-mail exchange from a then-departing Elton Brand to a haughty Duke student enraged at his deciding to forgoe the "Duke Experience" for the "I Can Buy Your Mom's House And Burn It Down If I Want To Experience."

According to Scoop Jackson, probably the only time I'll ever quote him, Brand has admitted to this response, which is a smart thing to do, because his Q Rating just went through the roof!

Enjoy!

From: Taylor, Jennifer
Sent: Friday, April 16, 1999 2:55 PM
To: Brand, Elton
Subject: Leaving Duke

I graduated from Duke last May and just wanted to express my disgust for your decision to leave the Duke program after only two years. As an alum, not only do I hold the school in high regard, but the basketball program as well, especially since both have deservedly garnered such a great deal of respect for their accomplishments.

As part of our basketball program, you represent Duke as a whole. We are first and foremost an academic school, you clearly did not belong at Duke in the first place if this was the extent of your commitment to Duke and a college education in general. You have not only insulted the current students who are putting in four years at a school they love, but also the thousands of alumni who have realized the value of a Duke education and what an honor and privilege it was to be there for four years.

If you do not realize the opportunity you has infront of you to play for Coach K and at the same time attain a Duke diploma, then that is certainly your loss. I just wish that you has spared us the notion that you were continuing in the tradition of being a Duke student-athlete, in emphasizing excellence in both academics and athletics. You will not be considered part of the Duke family, in my mind as well as many others. You have by no means proved yourself worthy of that title.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Taylor

From: Elton Tyron Brand
Sent: Sunday, April 25, 1999 8:05 PM
To: Taylor, Jennifer
Subject: Re: Leaving Duke

Thank you very much, for reminding me of the reason why I left Duke. People like you can not and will not ever understand my situation. I'm sure daddy worked very hard to send your rich self to college. While real people struggle. I would also like to extend an invitation for you not to waste your or my time ever agin. Never being considered a part of your posh group of yuppies really hurts me to the heart. Yeah, right. Because I don't care about you or your alumni.

Sincerely,
Elton Brand #42 NBA

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As full of hubris ...

as all us UK fans can sometimes be, I can honestly say that, as a group, Kentucky fans and students fall under the rubric of "real people". While we are justifiably proud of the academic efforts of our flagship university, and of Dr. Todd's efforts to make UK a top twenty research university, we have yet to reach the point of snottiness about anything except basketball, and we have absolutely earned that right.

It is one thing to be uppity about a game, and another thing altogether to act all superior about real life. I wonder if Jennifer learned anything from her exchange? I hope so, but I'm betting against it. Some forms of bigotry are still acceptable in our society, and Brand made that point resoundingly.

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 7, 2007 11:09 AM EDT 0 recs

Doubtful

I'm sure if was humbling to leave school and start earning a fat paycheck.

say what you will about hard work and real life, but there are geniune perks to attending the Duke, Vanderbilt, Ivy League school, and much of it is based on connections.

To be fair, I don't fault folks for those connections any more than I would fault folks who use the Good Ole Boy network in Kentucky business or their local church family in a small town.

But this to me illustrates more than anything the gross differential between the student and the student-athlete (particularly the prominent African-American basketball player) at some of these top tier universities.

It's not all that different at plenty of state schools, Kentucky included. But the magnitude certainly is ...

The Online home of Big Blue Nation ...

by JL Blue on Jun 7, 2007 11:31 AM EDT up 0 recs

I don't fault anyone ...

for having been born with a silver spoon in their mouths, or having connections to get them into good schools. You are absolutely right about the advantages of attending fine academic institutions such as Duke and Vanderbilt.

I am put off by haughty attitudes, though. For her to rebuke Brand for leaving without understanding his circumstances is, to me, the very pinnacle of arrogance. We may all rightfully bemoan the potential short-sightedness of dropping out to join the NBA, but sometimes it is the best course of action for the given circumstances.

Certainly, there is nothing preventing Brand from earning his Duke degree once his NBA career is over, or even during it. Whether he avails himself of the opportunity is more instructive, to me, than his early exit.

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 7, 2007 12:10 PM EDT up 0 recs

To be fair ...

While we don't know for sure her age, my guess is that the author of the original letter was a young woman student, probably under 21.

To say that kids under 21, be they rich or poor or somewhere in between, don't understand the complexities of life outside their small world is hardly an indictment of Duke or Stanford.

More likely, it's the case almost anywhere.

The Online home of Big Blue Nation ...

by JL Blue on Jun 7, 2007 1:19 PM EDT up 0 recs

Of course not JL.....

rich kids are always stupid. They lack the lessons learned from finding a way to afford those "under-the-counter" drugs while in college.

by blueblood on Jun 7, 2007 5:29 PM EDT up 0 recs

Priceless.

Simply priceless.

a perpetual state of bliss

by piketaylor on Jun 7, 2007 11:30 AM EDT 0 recs

Tru

Had to respond to your Dr. Todd and the Top 20 research institution. I dont know when you graduated but as a recent graduate I really cant stand the whole top 20 research institution deal. To be fair it was a state mandate and not an invention of Todd's but it has been NOTHING but a burden on the vast majority of students at UK who see double digit tuition increase every year and dont receive adaquate funding for their programs because UK no longer cares about Education.

I was an education major and I am a little bitter about the whole research program as many of the social science and liberal arts programs have really suffered at the hands of the hospital. I think the state is really doing the university and most of the students a vast injustice.

by davw83 on Jun 7, 2007 11:45 AM EDT 0 recs

My college experience ...

was back in the mid-1970's at Western Kentucky, so I really can't comment on it from a student's perspective. I appreciate your point of view, though.

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 7, 2007 12:03 PM EDT up 0 recs

Liberal Arts

As an English grad frm UK ('96), the funding disparity between the sciences, business and engineering and the arts at UK -- just like many big public schools -- is gross, and negligent in my opinion.

That said, it's business and engineering, or science, grads that turn around and donate millions, not English or Education grads, so there's a bottom-line quality to it.

Sadly, it doesn't HAVE to be this way. Witness Indiana, Michigan or North Carolina, all schools with strong liberal arts programs AND good reputations in the sciences.

The Online home of Big Blue Nation ...

by JL Blue on Jun 7, 2007 1:18 PM EDT up 0 recs

Engineering funded poorly too

As an Electrical Engineering grad from your class, I found the EE program was very poorly funded too. The lab equipment barely worked, with us students buying and sharing our own gear just to get our homework done.

Now, the mechanical and some of the other engineering programs were (and are) funded better, but a lot of that comes from direct partnership (read- dontations) with industry.

So unless you can get J.K. Rowling likewise to pony up some of them megabucks, that's just how it's going to be.

And let's face it, a oscilloscope costs a lot more than a copy of Finnegan's Wake.

Still, pretty good deal for a grand a semester. But even when I was there and they started raising tuitions, I was for it. The University really needed to raise its level (and still does) for the good of the commonwealth.

by EEWildcat on Jun 7, 2007 10:41 PM EDT up 0 recs

Million

If you had twenty million would you go back to get your degree.

you might but I doubt Brand will. I like school but since I was a history
education major I would probably just go visit where all that history happened instead of listening to a professor talk about it.

by davw83 on Jun 7, 2007 1:17 PM EDT 0 recs

Jl

Good point about the disparities in donations. I think thats a pretty accurate assesment.

by davw83 on Jun 7, 2007 1:57 PM EDT 0 recs

Haha

This post absolutely made my day.

It is shockingly unintentionally appropriate for my life: this very morning, while Tru was posting it, I was busy graduating from Harvard, where I am a part of the small minority of students who receive the maximum amount of financial aid (I figured up once that I am in something like the bottom 2% of family incomes here, and I'm definitely quite a bit below all my friends).

I gotta say, I don't feel quite this bitter, but I completely understand where Brand is coming from, and I am with him all the way on this one.

No one does it intentionally, and everyone generally means well, but stuff like this happens basically all the time.

by cambridgewildcat on Jun 7, 2007 3:48 PM EDT 0 recs

HEARTY CONGRATS!

Hey, jealousy is a bitter beer. I would love to say I had the opportunity to attend a school like that. So bravo!

Now go earn some money before Uncle Sam comes calling!

The Online home of Big Blue Nation ...

by JL Blue on Jun 7, 2007 5:53 PM EDT up 0 recs

Indeed ...

congratulations are surely in order! You should be proud of yourself, and I feel certain I can speak for all of us at ASoB when I say that.

But hopefully, some of the others will want to speak for themselves.

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 7, 2007 7:44 PM EDT up 0 recs

Wow, cambridgecat...

That is amazing. Congratulations! I know your family must be so proud of you.

So go represent for all us non-silver-spoon havin' Kentuckians when you're a major captain of industry, okay? : )

by blue kentucky girl on Jun 7, 2007 8:20 PM EDT up 0 recs

hee hee

Thank you everybody, but I am unfortunately an English major, and flagrantly unemployed.

I'm going back home to work on the family farm.

I aspire to be the most educated tobacco hand east of Lexington.

by cambridgewildcat on Jun 7, 2007 10:05 PM EDT up 0 recs

as a fellow English major...

I congratulate you on your future career in the food service industry! Just kidding : ) Working on the family farm sounds wonderfully bucolic and appealing to me--I'm looking forward to getting back to my rural old Kentucky home someday soon myself.

Underpaid, over-read liberal arts people rock! Best of luck to you.

by blue kentucky girl on Jun 7, 2007 10:40 PM EDT up 0 recs

Speaking of spoiled little rich BrITCHES...

Paris Hilton should have been locked up in the cage with all the degenerates for the whole term. I mean seriously guys, let her out early because she's uncomfortable? That's just ridiculous. If that's all it takes, maybe I shouldn't worry so much about going to jail. If all I have to do to get out is get a rash and fake a nervous breakdown, I'll just go rob a bank and off a few dirty politicians.

by blueblood on Jun 8, 2007 11:58 AM EDT 0 recs