During a Tuesday episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, incoming freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] got asked the hardest question a Duke basketball fan can face.
Who’s your all-time Blue Devils starting five?
Despite the litany of options on the table, Flagg actually put his lineup together pretty quickly. He settled on [autotag]Kyrie Irving[/autotag] at point guard, [autotag]JJ Redick[/autotag] at shooting guard, [autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag] and [autotag]Zion Williamson[/autotag] as his forwards, and [autotag]Christian Laettner[/autotag] at center.
It’s hard to imagine an all-time Duke starting lineup without two-time national champions Grant Hill or Bobby Hurley, but Flagg’s selections all have strong arguments. Irving and Williamson both went No. 1 overall in their respective NBA drafts, two of five Duke basketball players taken with the first pick.
Tatum might already be the best Blue Devil of all time at the professional level with three All-NBA First Team selections, an NBA title, and a potential second Olympic gold medal on the way at just 26 years old.
Redick remains Duke’s all-time leading scorer, and his 26.8 points per game as a senior in 2005-06 still sits untouched as the single-season school record.
Laettner, of course, needs the least explanation of anyone on the list with his back-to-back championships and the buzzer-beater against Kentucky in the 1992 Elite Eight. He’s scored more points in NCAA Tournament action than any other Blue Devil.