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As Thomas Beller read a new book on Duke University’s basketball program during the Mike Krzyzewski years, Five Banners, it was a decades-old memory from an ice cream shop 2,500 miles from Duke that came to mind.
Beller, a longtime contributor to the New Yorker and The New York Times, has plenty of anecdotes from years writing about basketball to draw from. So why this one?
To him, it snapped together some of the pieces that show “the conundrum of Duke, and all the issues of privilege and excellence and depravity and entitlement that swirl around that particular institution in a way that, for better or worse, sets it apart.”
The Glory Days of Coach K (and College Basketball)
A new book provides the ultimate insider’s view of Duke’s success before the money became gigantic, but this lullaby is just as noteworthy for what it leaves out.
He’s Baaaaack
When Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson greeted his fellow members of the Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies over Google Meet last week, his screen name raised some eyebrows—and a few giggles.
There at the bottom of his window was the online handle heard ‘round the world: minisoldr.
Earlier this year, Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign came apart after an Assembly report on his years frequenting Greensboro porn shops followed by a bombshell CNN story tying him to years of offensive posts on a pornographic website. Those posts used the handle “minisoldr,” which Robinson has used for years across multiple online platforms.
Joe Killian has more on the return of minisoldr.
Have a news tip for our team? You can reach us at scoops@theassemblync.com.
What We’re Reading
Label Maker: Sen. Thom Tillis (R) and Rep. Don Davis (D) were among the speakers at last week’s D.C. meeting of the centrist group No Labels, The Carolina Journal reports.
Fed Up: Washington Post reports that only about 15 percent of households in the part of North Carolina most affected by Hurricane Helene have applied for FEMA aid, a surprisingly low number that experts believe represents a distrust of the agency.
Crystal Clear: Crystal Mangum, who famously accused three Duke lacrosse players of rape in 2006, admitted that she lied and asked for forgiveness in a podcast interview released last week, per Duke Chronicle.
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