YouTube Gold: Jayson Tatum Gives Danny Green The Business

When players leave Duke and UNC, the rivalry thing, for the most part, tamps down.

It’s a different world in the NBA. Your focus has to become bigger. And some of those guys from the other school may be your teammate. Reggie Bullock and RJ Barrett, for instance, were both playing for the New York Knicks for a time (Bullock has since moved on to the Dallas Mavericks).

So you know, you adjust. As long as you never had to be a Duke guy playing for the deeply unpleasant George Karl, you were probably going to be just fine.

Of course this doesn’t apply to fans. If you show a highlight to Duke fans of, say, Cam Reddish stripping Harrison Barnes and dunk it, the Duke fans will chuckle appreciatively. And the UNC fans will mutter dark things beneath their breath.

Reverse the players and fans will react accordingly.

So as Duke fans, watching Jayson Tatum get away with basically just throwing former Tar Heel Danny Green to the ground on a failed fast break and not get called for anything is fun, not least of all since Green had just stripped Tatum.

However, there’s a reason why no foul was called: Green lost the ball before Tatum ever touched him. Still, watching him get up and complain recalls his UNC days, where he, like so many Heels, was prone to whine.