Laettner Teaches the Art of Replacing Himself

It was only a Blue-White scrimmage in Cameron Indoor Stadium, but the place was packed and the post play was fierce.

Christian Laettner, the 6-foot-11, 245-pound Duke center who was the most valuable player of the 1991 NCAA Final Four, was leaning and shoving one of the Blue Devils’ two huge freshman centers. The freshman was aggressive in turn, and soon enough, Cherokee Parks--6-11 and 235--went sprawling. The crowd booed Laettner.

“Later, everybody came up and asked me, ‘Do you and Laettner hate each other?’ ” said a delighted Parks, who is from Huntington Beach Marina High. “That’s just him.”

Erik Meek, the Blue Devils’ other freshman center and Parks’ roommate, smiled in approval.

“It looked as if they didn’t get along,” said Meek, 6-10 and 240, from Escondido San Pasqual High. “Basically, that’s the way it is every day in practice.”

The two Californians have walked into a seminar on post play. Three years ago, Laettner was 25 pounds lighter, and Danny Ferry was the instructor. Now Laettner is the latest and one of the greatest of the Duke big men. Mike Gminski, whose No. 43 is one of five retired Duke jerseys, finished his career before the arrival of Mike Krzyzewski. But under Coach K, as they insist on calling him here, the list has gone on: Mark Alarie, Ferry (another retired jersey), Alaa Abdelnaby, Laettner. Parks and Meek are supposed to be next.

Cameron Indoor Stadium is a long way from Huntington Beach--”I’m adjusting to the cold,” Parks said as he arrived in Duke’s basketball offices this week carrying a brown box. “I just got a coat, right here. It came in today.”

Durham seems even farther from the Bren Center in Irvine, where Gary McKnight, the Santa Ana Mater Dei High coach, watched Parks score 30 points--20 on dunks--in Marina’s playoff victory over Mater Dei last season.

It reminded him, McKnight said, “of when I play Nerf ball with my kids against the door.”

Those days are gone.

“I’m getting burned every day,” Parks said. “I’ve got to take into consideration that this is an All-American, this is a lottery pick, one of the top five players in the nation. I’m doing better in little spurts. I’ll do all right a couple of times down the floor, and then I’ll hit a lull and not do anything.”

Although Parks is considered ahead of Meek, Krzyzewski is pleased with his other freshman, too.

“(Meek) is doing a very good job. He’s better than what I thought,” Krzyzewski said. “He’ll fit in.”

Meek, who traded the Avocado League for Tobacco Road, is doing well despite the lingering effects of a June 9 accident, when he was hit by a car while jogging in Escondido, breaking his left shoulder blade and puncturing his left hamstring.

“I was just running on the right side of the road, and a drunk driver hit me from behind,” Meek said. “My body slammed against the car and my head busted up his windshield. After he hit me, he thought someone had thrown a rock at his car. A guy who was following him and had seen him weaving followed him and stopped him. I don’t run on the streets very much now.”

His calf was “smashed,” he said, and scar tissue still prevents pushing off strong with his left leg. Recently, he slightly reinjured a knee that was hurt in the accident, but he is practicing normally now.

Laettner, who has taken Meek and Parks under his wing, said the similarities between this year and his freshman year behind Ferry are not as strong as they would seem.

“If you got to know us, you’d see I’m close to Cherokee, and I talk to him,” Laettner said. “Danny didn’t really talk to anyone except Quin (Snyder, the point guard who was Ferry’s classmate) when they were seniors. Later, in January and February, (Ferry) talked to me. I’m trying to talk to them from the beginning.”

People like to talk about Laettner’s choirboy face, but don’t overlook the roguish sideburns and the challenging gaze. Also a body that is eight pounds heavier, mostly in the shoulders and arms, than it was in the Final Four victories over Nevada Las Vegas and Kansas.

He still looks thin--”I could weigh 270 and people would say I looked thin,” Laettner complained--but don’t be deceived.

“A lot of players get angry at him,” Parks said. “He’s so good at using his body effectively--in a way that the officials don’t notice.

“He’s so good at the little things. Things you might not think are important, he does so well. He doesn’t really have any wasted moves. All his moves are to get to the basket or to defend.”

Laettner understands.

“Cherokee and Erik are about half as strong as I am,” he said. “They’re not weak. They just don’t know how to use their bodies yet.”

Parks is not a threat to Laettner--Krzyzewski likes the spacing of classes between his big men that ensures that--but he is ready to play.

“He can play for--or with--Laettner,” Krzyzewski said. “He should be a key guy for us, no question.”

Laettner likes the idea of having Parks in the game with him.

“Defensively is the big difference,” Laettner said. “If I’m the only big guy in the game, I’m the last line of defense. I have to stay at home and get the rebounds. If Cherokee or Erik are in the game, I can be more aggressive.”

Bobby Hurley, Duke’s point guard, brightens at the possibilities for the transition game with Laettner and Parks going for rebounds.

“That could really open up the break, with those two getting the rebounds and a couple of athletes on the wings like Grant (Hill) or Thomas Hill or Brian Davis,” Hurley said.

Where exactly does Parks fit in?

“He could start,” Krzyzewski said. “Will he? I don’t know.”

In any case, the freshman seminars during practice--guarding Laettner and being guarded by him--will continue.

“He makes me think too much,” Parks said, with mock displeasure. “I know what I have to do, so I do it, and he already knows what I’m going to do.”