NEW YORK—Even after the final buzzer sounded on No. 5 Duke’s 77-68 win against St. John’s; even after the congratulations message shined up on GardenVision at the World’s Most Famous Arena; even after the entire team donned “1K” shirts and hats; Sunday afternoon’s game was still not about Mike Krzyzewski.
“There will be others who will win more,” Krzyzewski quipped to an overflowing room of reporters during his press conference.
All week the players and the coach himself said all the right things about Krzyzewski’s 1,000th win. Everyone said that it was about win 17 for this season’s Blue Devils, not about win 1,000 for their Hall-of-Fame head coach. And after the game, when 1,000 was etched into the history books once and for all, it was still just about win 17.
“I wasn’t thinking about 1,000,” captain Quinn Cook said. “I was just thinking about 17. Coach was great about the whole 1K. He knew he was going to get it sooner or later this season. We just wanted to come here and beat a great team on their home floor and get win 17.”
That doesn’t mean that the anticipation for the historic event wasn’t present around the team. As Cook pointed out, the players do watch television and do participate in social media, so it’s not like it was some big secret that their head coach was about to do something no man had ever done before.
Tyus Jones and Jahlil Okafor both admitted that the impending history played a role in their decision to come to Duke this season. And Matt Jones tweeted after the game, “The reason I came to Duke.. For reasons like these.. Thanking God for this surreal moment.”
But when the players were on the court, with millions watching, and their record on the line, 1,000 was far from any of the players’ minds.
“We were just trying to beat St. John’s,” Cook said. “Really, that’s all we were thinking about. That’s all Coach was thinking about. All this stuff happens, and we were just focused on our one win.”
Krzyzewski was as enthusiastic and energetic as he’s ever been on the sideline, but according to him the inspiration for win 1,000 didn’t come from the head coach. After all, if his team were feeding off of him, “we would have turned it around in the middle of the first half.”
No, Sunday afternoon was about brotherhood and about family. Just like every single one of Krzyzewski’s 1,000 wins.
There was not a single player in the locker room after the momentous win who didn’t credit the former Duke teams that Krzyzewski coached, and also his West Point clubs, for bringing them to the point of history. The team dedicated the win to those former players, who put in the hard work just as they did, and were just unlucky enough to have played for Krzyzewski too early.
“It’s a huge testimony to Coach K and all the teams he coached—to us, to teams before us, and all the way back to West Point,” Marshall Plumlee said. “So that’s a brotherhood, and I’m proud to be a part of that brotherhood”
There also wasn’t a single individual who didn’t credit family. Krzyzewski was surrounded by much of his family—his wife, two daughters and seven grandchildren all in attendance to witness history. But joining the Krzyzewski clan were the parents of the rest of the players. And according to Krzyzewski, it was those parents who motivated and propelled his players.
In the end, this is what 1,000 wins boil down to—to family, to predecessors and to the brothers that shed their blood, sweat and tears together on the floor when history was achieved.
Krzyzewski can joke all he wants about how he deserves none of the credit. How the reporters are writing too many stories about him and that “enough is enough.” That after making history with wins No. 903 and 1,000 at the Mecca of Basketball, his picture may go up on the walls, but only in the restroom, which he was okay with so long as “it’s not in a bad part of the restroom.”
But the real truth is there is a reason Mike Krzyzewski has 1,000 wins and no other coach in Division I Basketball history does.
“We were all attacking it as our 17th win,” Plumlee said. “That’s all that it was about. The reason Coach K probably has 1,000 wins is because he attacks each one like that—just one win at a time. He talked about number 17 tonight, not number 1,000.”
And now, with 1,000 wins in his rearview mirror, there is no doubt that Krzyzewski has his team talking about one thing, and one thing only. Win No. 18.
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