North Carolina Tar Heels: Maye’s Ironic Yet Appropriate Fan

The North Carolina Tar Heels got some unexpected congratulations on their win over Kentucky in the South Regional.

The North Carolina Tar Heels escaped the Regional final against the Kentucky Wildcats on a last second shot by Luke Maye. That fact was not lost on one Christian Laettner of the Duke Blue Devils, who had done something very similar to Kentucky twenty-five years ago.

Laettner noted that both shots had beat Kentucky, both teams were from Tobacco Road, and the winning player wore number thirty-two each time. He laid out all this in a concise tweet with a Star Wars reference.

In fact the Star Wars reference made it even more perfect. The ‘Luke’ memes would be fairly obvious with Maye’s name, but Laettner went further. He called Luke his son (not impossible given the age difference though Mark Maye and a birth certificate would beg to differ) and thus set himself up as Darth Vader to Maye’s Luke Skywalker.

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That too is perfect since for many Tar Heels fans, Laettner remains the ultimate villain of the Duke-UNC rivalry. He is Vader, not the puppet master (Coach Mike Krzyzewski) but rather the tool of destruction. Laettner’s embrace of his villainy is one of his redeeming qualities, and we often forget that Laettner went on to a lengthy NBA career afterward. Yes, he still exists lurking in the twitterverse. No doubt he would pounce on Tar Heels fans too if the moment offered.

In this particular moment, it shows how much bigger a person Laettner is than some of his detractors. He took the time to congratulate a player at a rival school when he did not have to. The day was all the better for it too, because we got a great tweet out of it.

Next: Maye the Shot Be With You

The Tar Heels still have work to do to replicate the rest of Laettner’s accomplishment. He and the Blue Devils went on to win the national title that year after all.