A lot of people would feel that was harsh, and it was harsh, but it was the truth. His career started seven months after the fall of Saigon in 1975, and ended five weeks after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. ), The 1992 Dream Team coaching staff, from left: Lenny Wilkens, Chuck Daly, Mike Krzyzewski and P.J. Krzyzewski is at far left. Its clearly about more than just wine. He actually wanted them to think less. It was about him coming to my home and telling me to change that plant, Spatola says. By next spring, Mike Krzyzewski will make the full transition out of coaching when Jon Scheyer takes over the Duke program. Because guys can be dirtbags.. It keeps the party going, but its also another social experiment. Krzyzewski grew up on the North Side of Chicago, and even after his quarter-century in Durham, N.C., you can still hear, in his nasal voice, inflections of the old neighborhood. Because what does Coach K actually want from this? The friendships can, on the one hand, be viewed as rich, successful guys wanting to hang out with each other -- and C.E.O. Krzyzewski was a savvy high school point guard but not talented enough to attract scholarship offers from the big basketball powers. ACC Now Podcast: How many ACC players will go in the NFL Draft first round? So it was a relief later when a Wake Forest classmate named Steve Frasher admitted he had no idea who her father was. They weren't playing "fast enough," he said. He still has an athlete's build, but he walks stiffly after a series of orthopedic surgeries: two hip replacements and an operation on his back. He will effusively thank his wife and daughters Krzyzewski calls his family the Starting five for supporting and loving him for so many decades, even as basketball commanded his attention and occasionally drained his joy. ", What I said to Krzyzewski, precisely, was: "You know what, you manage like a girl, basically." "', That's not something a lot of coaches would heap on young players. Hes somewhat intimidating, and you dont want to do it. Not to Krzyzewski, an avid gardener whose luxury Escalades interior is often littered with leaves, mulch and assorted yard waste. We've received your submission. Almost everything in leadership comes back to relationships. Scheyer has a young daughter, too, and Krzyzewski seems to feel a tinge of envy that his understudy has so many experiences ahead. This story was originally published November 7, 2021, 6:00 AM. Krzyzewski's early teams at Duke struggled. That may sound trite or unimportant, and Redick's comments are of the type that could easily fire the imaginations of anti-Duke partisans who already like to taunt Duke players as soft preppie types. A strong high school principal might be a big man whose booming voice resounds down corridors, or a small-boned woman who once taught English and barely speaks above a whisper. On an early date, to a Chicago Bears football game, he somehow revealed that she had been his third choice, after two others turned him down. Father might still know best, but now he has to explain himself. He has the right to his own standards. Krzyzewski's toughness and his wisecracking, just-one-of-the-boys manner are certainly part of his leadership style. His forays into the corporate world are a way to stay engaged and, to some extent, to keep from getting bored by basketball. Krzyzewski (pronounced sha-SHEF-ski) has been doing about 30 corporate speaking gigs a year for about $50,000 a pop. A post shared by Duke Mens Basketball (@dukembb). You could certainly break a kid like that by giving him more than he could handle, but it would not be easy. Krzyzewski looked shaken as he walked away., After Knight addressed the media in a postgame news conference, he congratulated the waiting Duke players, but walked right by (Krzyzewski) without saying a word or shaking his hand., Knight wrote that if Krzyzewski wanted to sever their relationship, that would be easily arranged, OConnor wrote. A trinket from West Point? His mother and father had a quick (and, as Krzyzewski recalls, angry-sounding) conversation in Polish. I tell my daughters this is before they got married I never want you to be solely dependent on a guy, he said. Jamie was caught in the middle of this, essentially two rams clashing over a tree nobody liked. "There's an empathetic part of leadership, and this is where my wife and my daughters have had a huge impact on me," Krzyzewski says. Shes worked at Duke since 2002, currently as an assistant athletics director for special events and director of the basketball programs Legacy Fund. So Krzyzewski sends his sons-in-law into his massive wine cellar to select another bottle or two. In an era of rapacious C.E.O. A Sports Illustrated article from 1987 caught Knights attention ahead of Indianas meeting with Duke in the 1992 Final Four. during a 2019 interview with The Washington Post, announcing last year that he would retire after this season, New York Times story, and scatological and anatomical references., beat North Carolina and win the mens national title. But as Krzyzewski took the reins at Duke and became a rising star in the coaching ranks, the tone gradually shifted. Alan D. Schwartz is the president of Bear Stearns, a Wall Street firm that generated more than $7 billion in revenue last year. But damn, I was in the arena for a long time. (The word "this," for example, comes out sounding more like "dis.") J. J. Redick says he felt disappointed when his sophomore season ended with a loss (to Connecticut) in the semifinal game of the N.C.A.A. To players who may leave after a year or two for the National Basketball Association, he says: "If you come here, for however long, you're going to unpack your suitcase. He spent the next year taking a three-times-a-week remedial swim class with about 30 other city kids. Debbie Savarino, the oldest, is an assistant athletic director, and Lindy is the staff counselor for the men's basketball team. His daughters admit feeling unmoored, considering their dad has led the Blue Devils since two years before Jamies birth. It wasn't even a contest. Sixty-three years later, its all over. They came together in the nick of time, delivered those remarkable five endgame minutes against Michigan State in their second NCAA Tournament game, and sent Coach K on this wild ride. (He has another, much bigger office in a building next door.) Over all, he has coached 19 high school all-Americans and seven national college players of the year. Krzyzewski likes to call West Point "the greatest leadership school in the world." I try to dismiss her, but I'm thinking, There's probably something bothering him. Krzyzewski softened long ago, those close to him say, but his response to losses can be no less extreme. Frasher, who is also a high school teacher, explains to me that the Krzyzewski women provide more than a soft cushion of support. "Having the talent that Mike has -- the best, the brightest -- makes some things easier and some things harder," he says. Coach K and Bobby Knight: A season on the bench, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. What the manifesto demonstrates, mainly, is how satisfying it can be to hate success and, even more so, to hate success linked to virtue. It was the opposite of the guidance you might expect -- which would be to counsel young players to slow down and think about what they were doing. (USATSI), Krzyzewski is greeted by adorers after walking off the court and winning the 2011 ACC tourney. ("Joe Torre's Ground Rules for Winners," Rick Pitino's "Lead to Succeed," Pat Croce's "Lead or Get Off the Pot!," Donald T. Phillips's "Lincoln on Leadership.") It was that bad.. He later took up gardening to further connect with Gods gift to landscaping, he jokes, to better show deference while also standing his ground. Michael William Krzyzewski then resigned his military commission, worked for one year as a graduate assistant to Knight (who had taken over at Indiana) and then -- without ever having served as a full-fledged assistant coach in college -- accepted a job as head coach back at West Point. If he hadn't enrolled at Duke to play basketball, he could have played football at Notre Dame. ", One definition of leadership is, simply, the ability to give constructive criticism -- to demand better performance in a way that inspires rather than deflates. "How much better did that make us as a team?" https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/magazine/follow-me.html. Here he is in 2006, while coaching Team USA Basketball. How do you take a group of people like that and say, 'Some of you are actually better than others? "They're like my little brothers, and I'd kill someone on their behalf if I had to.". How can you have that?, It was a bad Weeper, he said. Yes, it is impolitic in some circles to suggest that the role of women is to civilize men. Thatll mean more gatherings and louder songs and gifts to give, but that raises one more question. The Krzyzewski brand is so strong that he need not be physically present when Duke Corporate Education (which is separate from the leadership center) teaches Duke basketball as metaphor. They know it before they even arrive. "Mike's ability to take risks has helped him, and it was risky, at the time, to include us like he did," she says. The coach who came calling was Bobby Knight, then the head man at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His speech was titled "Victory Through Teamwork and Leadership,$(2$) and he segued into the substance of it by telling a story about his experience as an assistant coach of the 1992 United States Olympic basketball team, the so-called Dream Team. But first, he wanted to phone Krzyzewski and let him know. This, apparently, extended to disagreements about conifers. Krzyzewski can be goofy, doubling over in laughter when Frasher makes an easy joke about, say, a blowfish. The best insights from the ultimate insiders, 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. 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"So when I teach those things, I'm able to start at a different level.". NEW ORLEANS Mike Krzyzewski took his seat in the back of a golf cart next to his bride of 53 years, Mickie, the flight attendant he married the day he While many of his classmates were serving in Vietnam, he spent three years coaching military basketball teams, then two years as the coach at a military prep school in Virginia. Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski could be coaching in his final game on Saturday night. Krzyzewski believes that even a practice should have a certain sound, by which he means he should hear his players communicating back and forth constantly. Web111 Mickie Krzyzewski Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO All Sports Entertainment News Archival Browse 111 mickie Krzyzewski is a tough man, obviously, as well as sort of a guy's guy, someone who knows how to use his iconic status as the coach of one of America's fabled sports programs to great effect. Lindy says her dad is so compartmentalized that he often doesnt remember many of his on-court eruptions or the fact that he initially wanted even his grandchildren to call him Coach before Mickie and everyone else nixed that. We cant afford better wine for him than he can afford for himself, Jamie says. Jamies mother was going on about the wooded propertys beauty. The Duke Blue Devils at that point had won their first seven games and were ranked No. All of this is easy to ridicule because Krzyzewski is, after all, a mere coach -- and in some quarters, especially among rival fans in the bitterly competitive Atlantic Coast Conference, a reviled one. It started in an old, dusty fieldhouse near the river at West Point and ended in the Superdome in New Orleans. Daughters Debbie and Lindy were born prior to Coach K coming to Duke while their He turned down a job he didn't want. He doesnt remember what Krzyzewski said, but it was unforgettable the way he stared deep into the young mans eyes. 1 in the nation, but in several of those contests they had sputtered and prevailed only because of superior talent or, in one case, last-second heroics: a Duke player's heave from near midcourt swished through the net as time expired, giving Duke a 2-point victory over Virginia Tech. Tone of voice. They don't just look at the action or the result. During the first years of their marriage, Frasher says, he attended family gatherings but didnt say much. Sign up to our newsletter to stay in touch with your cultura. The Krzyzewskis like board games and bocce and Motown songs, and Frasher would sometimes watch as one of sports most celebrated figures got a few glasses deep into an Opus or Silver Oak during Thanksgiving or some other special occasion. Being a salesman is part of the job, and he should get credit for that.". It's straightforward. Like in 2015, when he became the first coach in history to win 1,000 NCAA division basketball games. Another bottle of cabernet? He was an engaged, if occasionally awkward, listener while his daughters were teenagers. Getting his diploma at West Point in 1969. Still, in a sport that draws heavily from a poor, inner-city population, Krzyzewski gets more than his share of kids who are the sons of white-collar professionals, teachers, nurses, coaches and pastors. You're probably thinking, We really want to hear what you have to say, you idiot.". Emily Krzyzewski was famous for her chocolate chip cookies, and Mlynski remembers the half-gallon of ice cream she served with every meal. Her family also is responsible for that jet-black hair. "It just knocked me back because there was stuff I had never been exposed to. He also retires with a personal winning record against the Tar Heels at 50-48, and with a victory total of 1,202 including 101 in the NCAA Tournament that no man will ever match. "When you have all these males around and all that intensity, it's nice to get a hug sometimes.". To talk to one another. I think weve got to do this, Jamie says, knowing her dad will crack up, doubling over with his elbows on his knees, wiping away the tears and choking back the laughter before falling apart again. They remembered the feeling that the detail brought, and the feeling before that, where as men we remember only the final feeling. (His daughters, when they were younger, often went, too, but had to attest that their schoolwork was under control to be allowed to make the trip. That irritating American Express commercial is blaring again during the college basketball telecasts. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Abe Lemons, who led college basketball teams in Texas and Oklahoma for a combined 34 seasons, once observed that there were only two plays: "Romeo and Juliet" and Put the Darn Ball in the Basket, by which he meant that basketball (and possibly life itself) was not much about strategy. Fairly packed crowd, and notice the cheerleaders in the background. But I don't do things in the way that background probably would predict I should. Dennis Rodmans daughter Trinity signs the richest deal in NWSL history, 7 things you didnt know about Michael Jordans wife: Yvette Prieto. Having arrived in Durham with two young daughters in March 1980, Mike and Mickie Krzyzewskis family grew to include another daughter and now 10 grandchildren during Mike Krzyzewskis 42 seasons as Dukes mens basketball coach. Mike Krzyzewski refers to himself, Mickie and their three daughters as the starting five. Just getting the intense competitor to acknowledge, let alone address, his limitations was a daunting task, according to his wife, Mickie Krzyzewski. Shes worked with Dukes basketball team for more than a decade as a staff counselor and is currently dean of Durham Academys Upper School. We're all about the end of the story, the punch line. Krzyzewski finds the exchange hilarious. They want, desperately, to fit in, measure up and please the man at the top. Sitting in his office one recent morning, looking out over much of Manhattan, he told me that Krzyzewski was his role model: "I think executives like me aspire to be his peer, and I don't say that tongue in cheek. What are we going to bring, something that we picked up at Harris Teeter?. of Morgan Stanley. Theyve been a joy for me to coach, he said. Born on February 13, 1947, in Chicago , Illinois , Mike Krzyzewski is a veteran basketball coach who is popularly referred to as Coach K. Coach K has served Something modest and palatable, equivalent to the Blue Devils reaching the NCAA tournament? So I've got to go after them really hard. The speaker must be a person of high achievement but, ideally, not so lofty in manner that no one can connect with him. And yes, this was a fitting final act for Coach K, given that hed effectively started his Duke career by picking a fight against North Carolina. March 5, 2022. So what is the secret to Krzyzewski's success? He has been married to his wife for more than forty years. Lindy suspects at least one boy asked her out just to get tickets to a Duke game because he stopped calling after they went to Cameron Indoor Stadium together. He was finally done with Coach Knight.. The house lights were up because he likes to find a few faces to focus on, "to make eye contact," he says. I'm a hybrid, which I think you should be.". ", Sim Sitkin, the faculty director of Duke's Fuqua/Coach K Center of Leadership & Ethics, is Krzyzewski's mentor at the business school and, to some extent, his student. Game day is not a day for long, drawn-out speeches. No more games to win. 's, crooked congressmen and predatory lobbyists who rip off Indian tribes, a man who runs a squeaky-clean program within the dubious world of big-time college sports just might be worth listening to. Before Also in the photo, at left, is Jerry Colangelo, and that's Nate McMillan just at left of Krzyzewski. It was a tree. Isnt that what we need to do? Whats also true is that Jamie and her two older sisters grew up around their father, gradually learning to navigate his emphases and quirks. Here is a look at Mickie Krzyzewski, the wife of Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. "Know their names," he told these hospital C.E.O.'s. North Carolina spoils emotional home finale of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. Duke basketball showed interest, but former Virginia center is transferring elsewhere, Duke football closes spring practice with an eye on Clemson, and a tough ACC slate, The crazy good moment that fostered Coach Ks approach to his final Duke team, Who are the starting five? Meet Coach Ks family and support system. PricewaterhouseCoopers has so far sent about 500 senior associates and managers -- most of them "partners in the making," as they were described to me -- to study Duke basketball in a "metaphoric context" to help them reach personal and professional goals. West Point, all boys. The night before the call, Frasher watched as the Blue Devils blew a double-digit lead against Illinois, pleading with the basketball gods to let Duke survive. Krzyzewski played three years for Knight. This is a competitive guy, Williams said of Krzyzewski back then. They want his attention, his approbation. He lives on 12 secluded acres in Durham, where he spends much of his free time tending his extensive flower gardens. Krzyzewski calls his three daughters his best friends and is confident in the instincts that made him wildly successful in the four-plus decades he led Duke before Lindy took him to a game and, afterward, into the locker room, where Steve introduced himself to Duke star Steve Wojciechowski. Of all Krzyzewski's Duke players, only two have stayed the full four years and failed to graduate, a remarkable record in an era when some other elite programs routinely graduate fewer than half their players.