Naturally, there are athletes on both sides of the Duke-UNC rivalry that the other will never like. The rivalry is fierce. Makhtar N’Diaye and JR Reid come to mind for Duke supporters. We imagine that Christian Laettner and Grayson Allen would be on the list for UNC supporters. Gerald Henderson may also never forgiven.
However, there are always guys who are respected and admired by their counterparts on the other side. Respect for Grant Hill is almost universal. And so was Eric Montross, we believe.
When Duke was playing at its best ever—winning back-to-back titles—Montross was at UNC. Despite never having been a particularly gifted athlete, at 7-0 and 250, he was strong and a diligent worker. And he truly embodied the qualities Dean Smith valued most in his players: devotion, passion, and a focus on the team before the individual. You can’t truly appreciate basketball if you can’t see the beauty of the UNC team from 1993, which won the national championship following Duke’s back-to-back run. That group was much more than the combination of its members. It was truly amazing.
The reason we say was in the past tense is that Montross, who received a cancer diagnosis earlier this year, passed away on Sunday. He was only fifty-two.
It’s ironic because Montross’s devotion to Jason Clark, a teenage cancer patient he met while playing for UNC, was one of the things that moved a lot of people who weren’t even supporters of the university. Montross went above and beyond the custom of players visiting the Children’s Hospital for PR purposes, truly bonding with that child. It’s not meant as a jab at UNC. It’s a PR issue far too frequently, but not in Montrose’s case. He was genuinely concerned about Clark, cared about him, and was very saddened by his passing.
He leaves a large number of friends and supporters behind. Although it was unpleasant to watch him play for your team because he would exhaust someone, no one questioned his
Leave a Reply