When a basketball program has as many legends as the Duke Blue Devils, it’s incredibly fun to debate which five players would create the best starting lineup.
On Wednesday, returning starters Caleb Foster and Tyrese Proctor became the latest players to build their all-time Blue Devils lineup.
Proctor went first and named Kyrie Irving, JJ Redick, Jayson Tatum, Zion Williamson, and Christian Laettner as his team.
Laettner, of course, helped Duke win consecutive national championships in 1991 and 1992, and he’s still the school’s all-time leading scorer in the NCAA Tournament. Irving, the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft, won an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and returned to the Finals with the Dallas Mavericks this past season, where he lost to Tatum and the Boston Celtics.
Tatum, who made his third straight First Team All-NBA squad, also made program history as the first Duke men’s basketball alum to win multiple Olympic gold medals in Paris this summer.
Foster also included Irving and Williamson in his starting five, but he added Jason Williams and Orlando Magic star Paolo Banchero to his lineup. The most recent of five No. 1 NBA draft picks in school history, Banchero led the Magic to the playoffs this past season.
Foster also earned some potential points with the Duke staff when he included head coach Jon Scheyer, who won a national championship with the Blue Devils as a player in 2010, on his team.
.@DukeMBB All-Time Starting 5 😈
What do we think??? pic.twitter.com/dk1shZLVqH
— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) October 9, 2024
Top-ranked freshman Cooper Flagg answered the same question on The Brotherhood Podcast this summer, and he went with the same lineup that Proctor rolled out.