Jay Williams on Kyle Filipowski tripping incident: ‘Own it and move forward'

Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz spoke to the ESPN analyst and Blue Devils basketball legend about the advice he would give Kyle Filipowski after the tripping incident against the North Carolina Tar Heels and the expectations for caucasian superstars in Duke basketball.

Video Transcript

JASON FITZ: I got to talk to you about Duke real quick, because you know Duke better than anybody, and Filipowski is somebody that's become like a hero and a villain all at once. As a Duke legend, what advice would you give him about this moment, this platform, and the right way to handle everything?

JAY WILLIAMS: You know, he trip a dude, man. Like, he tripped him. The thing I hate about it, J Fitz, to be candid with you, and Kyle Filipowski is a good dude. He's a good dude navigating a lot, frankly.

With NIL, with being one of the main faces of Duke basketball, and let's be honest about it, there is a proclivity that fans feel like if there's a Caucasian player that plays for Duke that is talented and is good, they are automatically heightened, right? Like JJ Redick, Christian Laettner, Greg Paulus. You can go through the litany of the names, they're heightened. And to do that, then all of a sudden, I end up having to answer for all Duke players for that, and when that's not the way we played.

Now, dirty things happen in the game, right? Like, I'll be first, I cheated in games. I'd grab your Jersey. I've seen Armando Bacot slip somebody with his hand and trip somebody in the game, right?

But when you're at Duke and you're positioned that way, it's going to be heightened and it fits into a narrative that the program has already had with Grayson Allen. So I think as soon as you can own it, I messed up, but I'm competitive and I just want to win, right? Get it behind you, and move forward.

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