PHILADELPHIA — Not far from the scene of one of the most memorable moments in the history of sports, Sen. Rand Paul recalled a story he might want to be careful about telling in his home state of Kentucky.  

During March Madness in 1992, the Republican senator was living in Durham, N.C., where he attended Duke Medical School. So like just about everyone else, Paul was tuned in to the East Regional final, which was played at the old Spectrum here that year, and featured the buzzer-beating jump shot by Christian Laettner, leading the Blue Devils past the Kentucky Wildcats.  

“We’re watching the game, that shot’s about to come up. Kentucky makes a long three-point shot. They go ahead by one, 1.4 seconds to go,” when the telephone rang, Paul said. “This was in a day when you actually had landlines. There was a cord on it, that was attached to it.”  

Paul told the story at an event Monday morning in an auditorium at the National Constitution Center, in a preview of his upcoming book, “Taking a Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America.” The book’s due on the shelves next week.  

“My wife runs to pick it up. About the time she answers, Laettner’s shot goes through, and we’re all screaming and yelling and she comes back, and she says they hung up,” Paul said. “It took about 10 years for her brother to admit that it was him calling to give us a hard time about Duke being beaten.”  

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