Duke basketball: The 10 most hated Blue Devils of all time

The most hated Duke basketball faces: Grayson Allen

True, Grayson Allen asked for the hate by poking out a leg or two in the heat of battle, particularly as a junior but extending into his NBA career.

Allen has admitted as much in the past and reiterated those thoughts during his candid talk with JJ Redick:

“I had friends send me all these videos…they would photoshop me laying on the ground with my leg up and just sliding through all these different videos, like, tripping random people and whatever. It’s funny now, but at the time, I was so annoyed by it.”

But is Allen, who had come into the spotlight after scoring 16 points off the bench as a freshman during Duke’s win over Wisconsin in the 2015 National Championship Game, truly a bigger target than Redick? Well, here’s what Allen had to say about that:

“The only reason I would say myself is because of social media. I became a meme for months.”

Of course, had Allen not been born with that indescribable certain face of a Duke basketball star — he amassed 1,996 points for his career — folks wouldn’t have paid much attention to his shenanigans.

Redick’s podcast partner, Tommy Alter, weighed in with what we’ll view as the deciding take:

“I agree with Grayson. I think he was [more hated]…I think the constant drumbeat on all of these platforms, where everybody is conditioned to look at Twitter, look at Instagram, look at Snapchat, or whatever it is…where every time you look at your phone, you’re a meme, or you’re this, or someone is talking [expletive]…that’s hard for anyone at any age to deal with.”

The next Blue Devil on this list didn’t need social media, though, for the extreme hate he received to grow and live on some 30 years later…