Dave Sez

Brian Davis Is The Man

You've probably seen the story by now, former Duke basketball players Brian Davis and Christian Laettner are teaming up (again) to buy the Memphis Grizzlies. Davis and Laettner are putting up $40 million of a $252 million purchase of 70% of the club. The two found other investors to fill out the rest of the money, but Davis will be considered the owner.

Now, I remember Brian Davis as a player on those legendary Duke teams. He was a bad ass. A small forward, he could guard four positions and could score when the team needed it. In fact, it was Davis who scored the final critical basket in Duke's famous 1991 upset of undefeated UNLV.

Davis went on to play one season in the NBA and probably a few more overseas, but he really excelled in business. He and Laettner founded Blue Devil Ventures, a real estate company that has successfully rebuilt large chunks of Durham's downtown. Clearly that development was not just good for Durham, but profitable for Davis and Laettner.

We all know that Dukies are supposed to be flops in the NBA. Now it turns out that maybe they can't dominate it on the court (although that myth has largely been shattered by Elton Brand, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer and others), but they can literally own the league.

That says some pretty good things about Duke University and Mike Krzyzewski's program doesn't it? I know they hardly need any more good news and it's much more fun to hate on the Blue Devils, but you can't deny that this story is impressive.

Unfortunately for me, Davis' success says some things about my career as well. You see, I graduated from college the same year that Davis did... Let's just say I'm a few paychecks away from buying any pro sports franchises.