Bizarre Second-Hand Story of the Day: Greivis Vasquez Loved Duke?

Duke basketball fans have never particularly loved Greivis Vasquez, even if he did at least earn their respect over the course of a shining college career, which is a shame, because he really loved Duke.↵↵Yes, that’s correct. Greivis Vasquez, probably the player most universally loathed by opposing ACC fans -- including those at Cameron Indoor -- really loves Duke and Coach Mike Krzyzewski, according to a friend and future Duke player Joshua Hairston. In an interview with 620 The Buzz you can skip to the three-minute mark to hear Hairston talk about the point guard’s love for the Blue Devils. Transcribed interview notes from WRAL:↵

↵↵⇥ “He talks about Duke all the time, how much he loves Coach K, the staff and the program itself.”↵⇥↵⇥ [...]↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“When I first met Greivis the first thing he kept talking about was how much he loved Duke and how much he loved Coach K. I thought he was being sarcastic at first but he’s very serious about it,” Hairston said.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥When they [Maryland] were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament we were running a camp together at Montrose (Hairston’s high school for his senior season). A kid asked him who he wanted to win the tournament and he said ‘Duke all the way’. He’s always been a big Duke fan and he hopes we can pull it off. He is a true Duke fan even though he plays for Maryland.”↵⇥

↵↵↵Now, even as Hairston tried to reinforce this was the truth, I still take it with a giant grain of salt. If they’re so buddy-buddy, maybe Hairston is just trying to embarrass his boy on the radio. But if it’s true, I wonder how Maryland fans feel about the whole thing? And exactly how sick-to-their stomach did they feel when they say that Photoshop work at the top of this post? If you’re a Terps fan, you can’t be too angry. Vasquez gave them an awful lot for four seasons, so after all those years of knocking heads with the Devils, it’s natural to have some degree of mutual admiration.↵

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