RALEIGH, N.C. — Dean Smith had Durham on lock.
North Carolina's legendary head coach was beloved in the Black community in Durham, and it wasn't just because the Tar Heels won a lot of games. Smith's recruitment of Charles Scott as the first Black scholarship men's basketball player at UNC and Smith's efforts to integrate the town of Chapel Hill put him in high regard.
With a parade of star players who were Black marching through the program, it was, frankly, a lot easier for Black people in Durham to identify with, and root for, Carolina. Duke was still viewed as a "white" program. Danny Ferry and Christian Laettner were viewed as the prototype players for the Blue Devils more than players like Johnny Dawkins.
Even Black players like Grant Hill, as evidenced by "The Fab Five" 30 for 30 documentary on ESPN, were viewed with a skeptical eye because of his privileged background.
"When I got to Duke, the stigma was still there — you know, the white guys that could play like Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley," said Ricky Price, who played small forward for Duke from 1994-98. "Then you had Grant Hill, who they questioned, 'Is he really Black?' because of his circumstances and what he came from."
Mike Brey, who was an assistant coach at Duke from 1987-95, recalled throughout the early part of coach Mike Krzyzewski's tenure at Duke, his teams, if not the university itself, received only a lukewarm reception.
Brey, who has been Notre Dame's head coach for 22 seasons, intimated that the public, state school down Highway 15-501 seemed way more attainable than the private school in their own backyard.
"My time there, the Black community of Durham — and I was there eight years — was all Carolina," Brey said. "And maybe I think at that time, Duke was a little bit, we have fought it here, a little bit in our town. That Notre Dame or Duke, they're like a gated community that maybe that part of Durham or South Bend (Indiana) aren't able to have as much access."
That Krzyzewski changed that dynamic is one victory that shows his legacy stretches well beyond the national championships, Olympic gold medals and NBA first-round draft picks.
Krzyzewski will leave Duke after 42 years when the season comes to an end. And with it, he'll leave the Duke brand in a much better place than when he started.
"I don't think there's one thing, I think we've embraced Durham," Krzyzewski said. "Whether it be — whatever race, whatever gender, whatever part of Durham, we've embraced Durham. So has Duke."
Little things mean a lot
The school's connection with the Black community in Durham started to resonate from some of Krzyzewski's small gestures.
When Krzyzewski reached his first Final Four in 1986, Duke commissioned Durham native Ernie Barnes to commemorate the feat. Barnes was best known for painting "The Sugar Shack," which Marvin Gaye used as the album cover for his 1976 release, "I Want You." The popularity of his work grew when it was featured as the background when credits rolled on the '70s television show "Good Times."
Barnes created "Duke fastbreak," which was a limited edition print of 300 copies. The painting depicts Duke playing a nameless team wearing Carolina blue uniforms in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Former Blue Devils guard Johnny Dawkins, who is the head coach at Central Florida, currently owns the original painting.
Former N.C. state senator Floyd McKissick Jr., who was also once the chairman of the state's Legislative Black Caucus, said Krzyzewski earned respect from the community in a different manner than Smith.
"Everybody was aware of his (Smith) outreach efforts, particularly in terms of trying to groom African-American players, being involved socially in the Chapel Hill community, and being out there supporting efforts involving civil rights," said McKissick, who was in law school at Duke when Krzyzewski first arrived. "I commend Dean Smith for all that he did. The era at the time was a bit different when Coach K was coming along. I think Coach K helped in ways that he could."
HBCU connection
Krzyzewski regularly scheduled Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The Blue Devils played South Carolina State for a six-year stretch from 1993-94 through the 1998-99 seasons. They also played N.C. A&T for a six-year term from the 1997-98 to 2002-03 seasons and twice played in Greensboro.
That morphed into Duke playing a team from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) as an exhibition game for the better part of this century. N.C. Central, when it was still competing in the Division II conference, Winston-Salem State, Shaw and St. Augustine are among the HBCU's Krzyzewski has welcomed into Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Duke and Central have been linked in basketball since The Secret Game in 1944 when students from Duke's all-white medical school team played the Eagles while collectively thumbing their noses at Jim Crow laws.
Krzyzewski and N.C. Central coach LeVelle Moton built quite the friendship to where he spoke for free at the Eagles tipoff banquet back in 2017.
Moton said his biggest regret as Central's head coach was losing to North Dakota State in the 2019 NCAA Tournament's First Four. Had the Eagles won, they would have faced Duke in the first round in Columbia, S.C.
"If we were able to play Duke, it would have set the city on fire," Moton said. "And even after that game, he texted me, 'Hell of a job, I'm so proud of how you represented your school and your city.' "
Class of 1997
Price pointed to the 1997 recruiting class that included Elton Brand and William Avery as when things started to change. Up until that point, Duke differed from most elite programs because its best players stayed four years. Brand and Avery left after their sophomore seasons, and Corey Maggette left after just one to enter the 1999 NBA draft.
"The narrative started to change and then Duke became cool," Price said. "It wasn't cool to go to Duke, it was always cooler to go to Carolina up until that point. But late '90s, early 2000s. It was cool to go to Duke. Then after we got Kyrie (Irving) and then we entered into the one-and-done era, it officially took over where Duke is the place to go."
Len Lilly agreed with when the change started. Lilly, the owner of 40 Below barbershop, has been cutting hair in the Lakewood Shopping Center located about two miles from Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1993. He said the majority of his clientele used to be Carolina fans, but now it's more of an even split.
"(Duke) started to get a different kind of player," Lilly said. "They became more athletic and they were getting the kids that had that real struggle."
Lilly added that it helped seeing Krzyzewski hire former players Dawkins and David Henderson, who are both Black, to his staff.
That made the program feel more accessible, which was a far cry from when McKissick grew up going to games. McKissick won Duke season tickets for selling the most magazine subscriptions at Carr Junior High School as a kid.
"There were very few blacks there," McKissick said. "Hardly anybody."
Emily K Center changed the game
All those basketball-related reasons were certainly enough to sway a generation of Black Durham whose parents probably preferred Smith and Carolina over Duke. But when Krzyzewski established the Emily Krzyzewski Center, which is named after his mother, he reached a different stratosphere of respect.
The Emily K Center is a nonprofit founded in 2006 that "implements four distinct programs designed to build on the academic, career, and leadership potential of students who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education," according to its website. They serve more than 2,000 students annually.
"For me, the single biggest thing that's been done for not just the Black community, but for low income is the Emily Krzyzewski Center," Mike Krzyzewski said. "I mean, we've been in existence for 16 years and really have touched thousands of youngsters. Hundreds have gone through our program and have gone to college. And a number of them have come back into the community and made the community better."
Bill Bell served as mayor of Durham from 2001-17 and prior to that was on the Durham County Board of Commissioners for 26 years starting in 1972. Bell, who is Black, said the center will continue to win hearts long after Krzyzewski leaves the sideline.
"If you go there, and you see the kids that attended the schools and know the type of environment they've been exposed to that will last a long time when he's gone," Bell said. "If we talk about where his legacy will be in terms of the community outside of sports, and what he's done in a civic way, it's got to be the Emily K Center."
