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We hope you are ready for a season unlike any other: testing, distancing, and bubbles, oh my! Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, or whether anything actually will happen…but in the meantime we will try to restore some order with season previews featuring the best players/coaches/administrators/alumni in the country. We continue our coverage with former Duke national champ Reggie Love. He was a captain for Coach K, a national champ in 2001, and later worked for President Obama. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Reggie about bringing the President to Cameron Indoor Stadium and how the Blue Devils will do after losing so much talent to transfer/the draft.
You were born in Richmond and went to high school in Charlotte: what made you choose Duke? I grew up as a very big fan of Antawn Jamison, who was also from Charlotte, so I was a big UNC fan when he decided to go there for college. The Duke football coach said I was welcome to play 2 sports but every other football coach who recruited me said that basketball would not be in the cards for me.
You played both football/basketball: which sport were you best at, and which sport did you enjoy the most? I was probably a higher-rated football player coming out of high school but my true love was basketball. However, football is 1 of the most magical things you can watch: all 11 guys going out to execute the plan with 1 mission. 1 of the best parts of life is seeing that for a few seconds all the guys on the field are moving toward 1 common goal.
You played for Coach Mike Krzyzewski: what makes him such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? His ability to get people to play the game the right way and buy into a system. It is easy to get a bunch of great players who want to be a part of the brand, but when people buy in then they can outperform expectations. The 2010 team had some guys who really believed in the “Duke Way” and it led to a championship. Coach K taught me that the little plays matter: a lot of things do not show up in the box score like a deflection or diving after a loose ball, but they can still become winning plays. What is impactful is that they also make a difference in the culture you create within a team: people want to work harder when they see others doing so.
You were a walk-on as a freshman basketball player but became captain as a senior: what is the key to being a good leader? I was 1 of the more obscure captains for Duke basketball: Coach K picked me not because I could shoot well but because of my intensity. I tried to lead by example but fundamentally it is about getting people to believe in themselves and inspire them to play together as a unit because what they do ultimately matters. 1 of the greatest parts of working for the Obama Administration was having colleagues who made sacrifices because their work mattered to them.
In the 2001 NCAA tourney title game you had a 10-PT win over Arizona: what did it mean to you to win a title, and what was the reaction like when you got back to campus? It was a great season and a great win: we fought through a lot of adversity such as Carlos Boozer breaking his foot in a loss to Maryland that February. I played on a football team that year and we did not win a single game, so it was a stark contrast to join the basketball team and then win a national championship. When you win 1 as a freshman you think that you will keep winning them, but it skewed my perspective as to how infrequent those things are.
After becoming Barack Obama’s deputy political director in 2006 you became his personal assistant in 2007 and his personal aide during his 1st term as President: how good a basketball player is he, and how did that time working for him change your life (if at all)? I think he is 1 of those guys who helps everyone on the court be a better player: making the extra pass, communicating, etc. Nobody who ever watched us would ever say that he does not have respect for the game or does not know how to play. He was a good high school player and as an adult we had some great battles: he is a fierce competitor and loves to win. I spent every day with the leader of the free world for 6 years so I got a once-in-a-lifetime education about how to see the world. Not many people get to visit 75 countries and work on saving the financial sector or dealing with a housing crisis. I grew as an individual and learned the importance of having empathy: you need to be able to put yourself in the shoes of your constituents. He was really good at making people feel heard regardless of their status in life. He also specifically taught me to appreciate my parents because you never know how long you will have those opportunities.
You brought President Obama to the UNC-Duke game at Cameron Indoor Stadium a couple of years ago: what was that experience like, and how bad did Zion Williamson’s injury look at the time (www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqwnpJeXT04)? The injury was freakish: I had never seen a shoe explode before so it caught a lot of people off-guard! That was the President’s 1st time stepping onto Duke’s campus so for me it was very special: similar to when my 2001 team got to visit the White House after we won it all. The Cameron Crazies erupted when he walked into the gym. He thought it was pretty special but I wish the outcome would have gone better: I am not sure if I will ever be allowed to invite him back!
The Blue Devils saw Alex O’Connell transfer to Creighton and lost several players to the draft (Vernon Carey/Tre Jones/Cassius Stanley): how well do you expect them to reload this season after losing all of that talent? A lot of coaches have to deal with constantly reloading due to their 1-and-done guys turning pro and the relaxed transfer rules of today. I think that it will be even more complicated this year due to the coronavirus…but everyone will have the same amount of rust on them. It is harder to create habits/build a culture when you cannot get together as frequently but I think it will be a challenge for everyone.
After getting your MBA at Wharton and writing a memoir you became an editor-at-large for Vice Sports: how did you like the job, and what do you hope to do in the future? I am now a senior advisor at Apollo Global Management. A good friend of mine was at Vice so I helped them build out their sports section. I have done a lot of things that I never expected so who knows what the next 20 years will hold.
What is it like to be an African-American man in 2020? I have a unique point of view having grown up in the South with deeply spiritual/pragmatic parents. I understand the power of using our voices to tell our representatives what we want and am pretty steeped in African-American history in our country. When incidents like those involving George Floyd/Breonna Taylor occur they are infuriating and it feels new to a lot of people due to technology. I also think of the inequality that systematic racism has created/perpetuated: just look at the impact of the coronavirus. We have worked to solve a lot of problems but have not been as effective as possible. We need to hold our elected officials accountable for getting us on a better trajectory to reduce those inequities.