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I don’t really like sports.

I mean, I absolutely adore watching the Olympics. I’ll get pumped for a Red Sox game if they’re playing the Yankees or if they’re in the playoffs. Besides that, I’m not really interested in major sporting events. I go to Super Bowl parties reluctantly and for the snack food. I am endlessly perplexed by March Madness and why “brackets” matter so much to people. Which is why when my co-workers brought up the new 30 for 30 documentary, I Hate Christian Laettner, I was completely baffled about how there could be an entire documentary devoted to hating one man — especially because I didn’t know who Christian Laettner was.

My curiosity got the better of me last weekend, and I watched I Hate Christian Laettner. The documentary isn’t about Duke basketball, nor is it a smear campaign against Laettner. Instead, it’s a fascinating study of what makes a villain. As it turns out, we don’t hate people because of who they are or what they’ve done. We despise people because of our perception of them.

The documentary breaks down “Laettner Hate” into five points. It claims that people disliked him because they perceived him as being privileged, because he was a bully on the court, because he was annoyingly good, because he was annoyingly good-looking, and because of his race. Sometimes it seems that Laettner lives up to the negative hype. He admits to being a little bit of a bully and he was indisputably talented. However, the documentary also points out that Laettner did not come from privilege and it examines how his lower middle class upbringing pushed him to be the aggressive player he became known as. The film also handles the issue of race with sensitivity and how Laettner’s whiteness made him more unpopular with college basketball fans of his own race, than it ever did with black teammates or opponents.

What I found most interesting about the documentary is how it pointed out that Laettner may be a “villain,” but he’s not a truly bad person. Sure, he roughhoused on the court. Yeah, he was an arrogant college basketball star. Yes, he wasn’t the friendliest person. However, the worst crime he ever committed was smoking pot while he was in the NBA. There are countless other celebrities — sports stars, politicians, actors, and musician — who have committed actual atrocities against other people and we still love and defend them. Christian Laettner never murdered or sexually assaulted anyone. He didn’t beat his girlfriend. He never stole money or abused animals. Still, his name inspires staggering amounts of vitriol.

I found deconstructing how someone becomes a sports villain to be endlessly more fascinating than any sporting event I’ve ever seen. I Hate Christian Laettner is a must-see for basketball fans and non-fans alike. It delves into both the myth of Christian Laettner and reveals the man at the heart of all the hate.

By the end of the documentary, I was able to remember that I did know who Christian Laettner was. He was the guy I hated when I was seven years old because he took Shaquille O’Neal’s place on the Dream Team. I didn’t remember his name, but I always remembered hating him. [Watch 30 For 30: I Hate Christian Laettner]

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