Coach Hurley honored as hometown hero at Duke

DURHAM, N.C. — Bobby Hurley walked into Cameron Indoor Stadium early Saturday afternoon and took a quick look around.

The exhibition basketball game between Arizona State and Duke wouldn’t be played until 7 p.m. Sunday — leaving plenty of time for Hurley to stress and worry about his Sun Devils.

This moment, then, was a memory.

Of a time when Hurley helped Duke win back-to-back national championships in 1991 and 1992.

Of a time when he became — and remains — the NCAA’s all-time assists leader with 1,076.

Of a time when the kid with the scrawny 6-foot, 165-pound frame became college basketball royalty, so much so that Duke retired his No. 11 jersey on Feb. 28, 1993, just a year after his playing career ended.

“As much as I’m nostalgic about being here — and this means a lot — I didn’t need closure,” said Hurley, who is beginning his 10th season as ASU’s coach. “I think the way I left it was pretty good, but it’s like another taste, another way to say goodbye.”

Hurley would have preferred the weekend wasn’t about him. He repeatedly noted how the proceeds for the exhibition game were going to Duke Children’s Hospital, that it was an NIL (name, image and likeness) fundraising opportunity — ASU boosters were invited to a private reception with Hurley and legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski on Saturday night — and how playing Duke inside Cameron and in front of a raucous sellout crowd would help his young team down the line.

“We play some hard games really early in our schedule,” he said, “so I think this is going to hopefully pay dividends for us once we start for real.”

Maybe so, but the weekend wasn’t about basketball or boosters. It was about a legend returning home.

***

As he led St. Anthony High School in Jersey City to four straight Parochial B state titles, Hurley was certain he would play college basketball in the Big East, home to national powers like Georgetown, Syracuse and Connecticut.

Then he took his official visit to Duke. Over a weekend, after several conversations with Krzyzewski, he changed his mind.

“It just blew me away, just how impressive the visit was,” Hurley said.

“Just the feeling of camaraderie and family environment that Coach K had created. All the players were at his house on the weekend, watching football and interacting with his family.

“Then just watching the guys play pickup. I saw Christian Laettner, and as a pass-first point guard, I knew I could play with him. Then it all came down to really the relationship that I built with Coach K over that weekend.

“We found that we were similar in more ways than I even knew. He grew up in Chicago. I grew up in the city as well. And we were both point guards. When I looked at everything, I kind of got struck by lightning and that was it.”

***

As the Sun Devils began their practice, Hurley walked over to Krzyzewski, who was standing on the edge of the court. The two men hugged and shared a few words.

“Bobby was one of the greatest college basketball players ever, not just at Duke,” Krzyzewski said. “I absolutely loved coaching Bobby.”

Krzyzewski said he never coached a player who was in better shape than Hurley. He told the story of how, after practices, Hurley would climb onto a StairMaster set up near the court and try to break the record he had previously set.

“Then he’d leave notes for his teammates to try to beat that, and they couldn’t,” Krzyzewski said.

One day in practice, Hurley was putting so much pressure on a teammate trying to bring the ball up court that Krzyzewski turned to assistant coach Tommy Amaker and said, “I’ve never seen anybody work that hard.”

“And I wasn’t making him do that,” Krzyzewski said. “That was just him.”

Hurley’s accomplishments are memorialized in Duke’s Hall of Fame. His jersey is encased in a vertical glass display, along with a list showcasing the myriad honors he earned. In the display honoring the ’92 championship team, the largest photo is of Hurley, his mouth wide open, making a layup.

At a cocktail reception and chalk talk Saturday night inside the Washington Duke Hotel, Krzyzewski surprised Hurley by showing the video montage that was put together following Hurley’s senior season.

­Krzyzewski said his wife, Mickie, and two of their daughters were responsible for putting together the video celebrating each senior’s time at Duke. To celebrate Hurley’s work ethic, his highlights were accompanied by the 1984 song “The Warrior,” by Patti Smyth.

Krzyzewski also reminded everyone that Hurley made what he called one of the “great shots of all time,” his 3-pointer with less than three minutes left that propelled Duke to a 79-77 victory over a 34-0 University of Nevada, Las Vegas team in the 1991 Final Four semifinal.

“I didn’t call anything,” Krzyzewski said. “This sucker comes down the court and he’s not even looking at the bench. He’s just, boom. I get chills thinking about it.”

Hurley said the game was “definitely the best one I ever was a part of.”

Still, that was 33 years ago. Asked if any of his current players knew of his accomplishments, Hurley smiled and said, “the video is really grainy. I think one of my guys watched it and said they respect it. So, that was good enough for me.”

***

Hurley wasn’t a finished product when he arrived at Duke. In fact, he got a quick — and rude — introduction to the Duke-North Carolina rivalry his freshman year.

“I got punched in the mouth (figuratively),” he said. “I had 10 turnovers. It was one of my worst games I’ve ever played. And that’s when I knew it was different. Because of the intensity and how hard North Carolina was playing and how hard my team was playing, it was a little bit overwhelming for me. That was a wake-up call.”

***

This wasn’t Hurley first trip back to Cameron since his playing career. A few years after leaving Duke, he went to a game as a fan, sitting behind the Blue Devils bench.

But this trip was special. Hurley brought along his entire family: his wife, Leslie, daughters Cameron and Sydney, and granddaughter Rowan. (Hurley’s son, Bobby, plays for the Sun Devils.)

“Some of his greatest basketball memories (were at Duke), so to have us all here to share with him again, it’s just special,” Leslie said. “(Friday night) while we were at dinner, I said to him, ‘Bobby, did you ever think you’d be here with your granddaughter?’ He was like, ‘No, I actually never thought that.’”

Hurley said his fondest memories are of being onstage after Duke won the national championship in 1991, his senior day and having his jersey retired.

“There’s a very select number of players to get that honor,” Hurley said. “So that was just a special feeling.”

***

Duke always will be a special place for Hurley. He and Leslie were taking a long drive when she was pregnant with their first child. They started talking about names, and Hurley suggested Cameron could work for a girl or a boy. Leslie, who attended Seton Hall, was not a big basketball fan at the time, so she didn’t realize Hurley was naming their child after an arena.

“I was able to slip that one by,” Hurley said with a smile.

Hurley still wears one of his two Duke championship rings when he coaches. There’s just one problem. He loses about 10 pounds every season and twice his ring has flown off his finger during a game, necessitating a search underneath the bleachers.

“I wouldn’t say I look down at it (the ring) and it gives me superpowers, but it’s a reminder of what you’re capable of doing,” he said.

***

Hurley walked onto the floor at 6:51 p.m. Sunday, more than a half-dozen cameramen following his every move. As he approached midcourt, the crowd rose at once and gave him a standing ovation.

Former Duke teammate Grant Hill, who flew in for the game, applauded as well from his seat right behind the scorer’s table.

Hurley, smiling, raised his hand in acknowledgement.

Hurley received another thunderous ovation when he, Krzyzewski and Duke coach Jon Scheyer gathered at midcourt to receive game balls, and a video highlight package was shown of Hurley’s playing days.

“For me, it’s an honor to have Bobby back here,” Scheyer said. “I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since I’ve watched college basketball. To have that moment before the game, with Coach K, meant a lot to me, and hopefully it meant a lot to him. Having Bobby here tonight was special.”

The rest of the night wasn’t as kind to Hurley. ASU lost, 103-47, and Hurley jokingly told the media after the game, “sometimes you should leave well enough alone. That’s why I never wanted to come back here.”

But the game will fade. The weekend — including the lunch at Bollock’s, his favorite barbecue place where he always orders the pulled pork, and the time he spent with Krzyzewski — will be something he never forgets.

“For people to 30 years later to still acknowledge what we did ... things like that mean a lot to me,” Hurley said. “It was special.”