Antonio Lang grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and attended LeFlore Magnet High School, where he was both the basketball star and the valedictorian. That combination — elite athlete, elite student — would define his entire career. As a senior in 1989–90, he earned first-team All-State honors from the Alabama Sports Writers Association and the Gatorade Alabama Player of the Year award while leading the Rattlers to the state Final Four. He was named a third-team Parade All-American.
Duke recruited Lang as a long, versatile forward who could defend multiple positions and finish around the rim. He was not the headliner of his class — that was Grant Hill, the son of an NFL star — but Lang was the kind of player K prized: smart, unselfish, willing to do the dirty work. He arrived in Durham in the fall of 1990 alongside Hill, and the two became roommates for three of their four years. Hill later joked that he spent the first two weeks unable to understand a word Lang said because of his thick Alabama accent, and gave him the nickname ‘Cotton’ that stuck for life.