PJ Hairston: Duke Spells Name His TJ Hairston, He Signs With UNC

by NowPublic Staff | May 17, 2011 at 09:50 am

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Prime High School Prospect PJ Hairston Refused To Sign With Duke Because They Spelled His Name Wrong

College recruiting is a tough business, even for a big school like Duke. Prime basketball prospect PJ Hairston was heavily recruited by Duke, but said he wouldn't go the ACC powerhouse because they spelled his name wrong.

You would think a basketball program that has to spell 'Krzyzewski' all the time would be good with names, but you'd be wrong. According to Hairston, Duke continually spelled his name TJ Hairston rather than PJ Hairston.

Hairston wasn't impressed.

“The thing about Duke was, every time they sent me a letter, they wouldn’t spell my name right,” Hairston said. “They would have ‘T.J. Harrison’ or something like that. And I’m like, ‘OK. How can I go here? You can’t even spell my name right.’ It’s only two letters and HAIR and STON. I’m trying to figure out how that’s so hard.”

So where did PJ Hairston sign? He was seriously scouted by Florida, Georgetown, Wake Forest. In the end, Hairston signed with North Carolina, Duke's archrival.

Word of warning for Hairston: when you visit Cameron Indoor Stadium for a Duke-UNC game, the Cameron crazies are going to call you something much worse than TJ.

Here is some PJ Hairston video. Uh, we mean TJ Hairston Video. Well, there goes our chance of ever getting an exclusive interview with PJ Hairston.