Wooden Award travels to Durham for Duke-North Carolina

The John R. Wooden Award traveled from the Los Angeles Athletic Club and arrived in Durham last Friday for a weekend full of exciting events leading up to the big Duke-North Carolina game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

On Saturday morning, the Wooden Award made a stop at the Carolina Museum to take photos with past winner trophies, including John R. Wooden Award recipient Coach Dean Smith, who received the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award in 1999. Past winners Phil Ford (1978), Michael Jordan (1984), Tyler Hansbrough (2008), and Coach Dean Smith were featured.

The Wooden Award also had the opportunity to meet Tyler Hansbrough in person and return his All-American Letterman jacket, which he left at the club in 2007 when he was chosen for the All-American team.

Next, the trophy visited the Duke Basketball Museum, where it had the chance to see the past winners' trophies awarded to Christian Laettner (1992), Elton Brand (1999), Shane Battier (2001 - 25th Anniversary silver trophy), Jason Williams (2003), J.J. Redick (2006), and Zion Williamson (2019).

The next stop was the highly anticipated game at Cameron Indoor Stadium between Duke and UNC. Each team had one athlete on the Top 25 watchlist: Cooper Flagg from Duke and RJ Davis from UNC. The trophy enjoyed courtside seats and had the honor of meeting Coach Mike Krzyzewski, the 2000 John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award recipient.

Another highlight of the weekend was meeting past winner Jay Williams, who won the Wooden Award in 2002.