Brian Keith Davis was born June 21, 1970, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His family moved to the Washington, D.C., area when he was young, and he attended Bladensburg High School in Bladensburg, Maryland — a public school in Prince George’s County, not one of the traditional D.C.-area basketball powerhouses like DeMatha or Gonzaga or Dunbar. Davis earned his way to Duke on talent and toughness, arriving in Durham in the fall of 1988 as a 6-foot-7 guard-forward who could defend, rebound, and do the unglamorous things that championship teams require.
His freshman roommate was Christian Laettner. The two bonded immediately and would remain inseparable for the next three decades — through two national championships, business ventures, financial catastrophe, and a $7 billion bid for an NFL franchise.