Although a lot of media reports say that Duke may be leading with Jordan Smith, there’s no way to know for sure until he makes his ultimate decision. And obviously a guy at that level can go anywhere he’d like. So we’ll leave that to him and hope for the best.

However, there are some recruits who you want and some you really want. And the more we learn about Smith, the more we’d love to see him play for Duke. Why?

Because from what we can tell, he really encapsulates that particular 12-letter word that former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski assigned to players that he most admired. We’re not going to repeat that word here, but let’s say it this way: those of you who, uh, had a mother who was a trucker will get it.

Jordan Smith, in other words, is not going to be outworked and his teams tend to win.

Those guys are not common. We’re not comparing him to anyone because honestly we can’t and it’s not fair. However, consider some of the people who share those traits.

Bill Russell won the last game every year from high school to the end of his magnificent career except for one season where he was hurt and one where Philadelphia was better. Counting the Olympics, that’s 17 championships.

Michael Jordan won six NBA championships. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird got every bit out of their talent that they could.

Guys like that obviously have to have talent, but as important as that is, it’s not the only thing. Lots of guys have immense talent and never sniff the NBA.

What Smith appears to have is a deep competitive desire. He plays with grit and passion. It’s hard for guards to dominate a game, but it happens. We saw Bobby Hurley and Tyus Jones do it and in recent years, we saw Michigan State’s Cassius Winston take his game to incredible heights. He was not often the most talented player on the court, but when he played, he owned that game. He’s an all-time favorite.

We don’t know for sure yet if Smith is going to be at that level, but from what we know of him, he has the potential to be that type of player. And we’d love to see him reach for that in Cameron.