Men’s basketball head coach Mike Kryzewski has decided to return for his silver anniversary at Duke University.
“I can confirm that he’s staying,” Gary Melchionni, the father of current player Lee Melchionni, told The Chronicle Monday morning. “He did call [my son] a little while ago and let him know that he was staying.
"Crisis is averted," he concluded, breathing a sigh of relief.
The Hall of Fame coach had been in discussions with the Lakers for the past week to fill the head coaching vacancy left by Phil Jackson June 18. The Lakers had offered Krzyzewski a five-year, $40 million contract for his services.
"It is great news, I am very happy for Coach K and his family, Duke and college basketball," Athletic Director Joe Alleva wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle. "This is a really good thing for all of us."
Krzyzewski, who will announce his decision at a 5 p.m. press conference today in Cameron Indoor Stadium, spent the July Fourth weekend with his family as he mulled over the Lakers’ offer. Monday morning he called his players to inform them of his decision to remain in Durham.
This was the third time Krzyzewski has publicly flirted with the NBA, spurning the league each time. In 1990, Krzyzewski turned down the Boston Celtics; in 1994, he said no to the Miami Heat and the Portland Trail Blazers.
That Krzyzewski was even in “serious discussions” with the Lakers took much of the Duke nation by surprise, as he had been awarded the equivalent of a lifetime contract in 2001. The consummate educator, Krzyzewski is a special assistant to the President of the University, and also holds a faculty position in the Fuqua School of Business.
“It is clear that his is the national face of Duke University,” Keith Brodie, the former University President, told The Chronicle Monday. “No one can get in The New York Times like he can. He has become a symbol for us and for all of college athletics.”
Indeed, Krzyzewski’s success at Duke has placed the Blue Devils on the national stage again and again. In his 24 seasons, Krzyzewski’s teams have won three national champsionships, eight ACC Tournament championships and 10 ACC regular season titles.
“I had a lot of confidence in his ability to make good decisions over the last quarter of the century, and I had confidence that he’d make a good decision here—and he has,” former Duke Athletic Director Tom Butters told The Chronicle.
Krzyzewski certainly had a great deal to contemplate, particularly his possible reasons for leaving his throne at Duke for Hollywood. Last Friday, Senior Associate Athletic Director Chris Kennedy attempted to shine some light on what may have been weighing on Krzyzewski’s mind.
“What he loves most—it’s not beating people—it’s taking an 18-year old kid and producing a 22-year old man,” Kennedy said. “The Shane Battiers, the Johnny Dawkins—to have these polished, accomplished, admirable individuals come out of our program—that’s what he’s seen as his central mission. Now it’s sort of leaking away.
“For the last five, six, seven years, there’s been a real shift in college basketball [away] from four years,” Kennedy continued. “For years you were operating from a stable platform, and your basic recruiting platform was to replace your current juniors. You had a platform. And that’s all exploded.”
Still, Duke has plenty to offer Krzyzewski, including the possibility of constructing a basketball practice facility. Currently, the Blue Devils hold their practices in Cameron Indoor Stadium and in the adjacent Card Gymnasium.
“There are some things that the University can do that he would like,” Kennedy noted. “This practice facility has actually been in the works for a while. But there may be other things. It comes down to him deciding, ‘Is this a different direction I want to take in my life?’ regardless of who offers what. He’s never been a guy that’s been motivated by money.”
Any specifics regarding Krzyzewski’s decision to remain at Duke may be released at a press conference in Cameron Indoor Stadium at this afternoon’s press conference.
In the meantime, fans of Krzyzewski and Duke basketball are in exaltation. But those cheers are being led by the families of Duke’s current crop of players.
“He just basically said the thing sort of ballooned out of proportion and that he appreciated our friendship and confidence, and that he’d remain at Duke,” Kenny Randolph, the father of Shavlik Randolph, told the Associated Press. “And that’s all that had to be said.
“I told him, ‘Gosh, coach. I’ve got chill bumps,’ And he said, ‘I do, too.”’
The mother of Dave McClure, who will be a freshman on the basketball team this fall, had a similar reaction.
“We’re thrilled,” Betty McClure told The Chronicle. “I cried as soon as he said it.”
And though there was a great deal of nervousness in the McClure household, a comment Krzyzewski made to Dave gave them reason to be optimistic.
“Dave had spoken with Coach K on Thursday, and then Coach K said, ‘Don’t worry, Dave, I will make the right decision,’ and he told [fellow incoming freshman player] DeMarcus [Nelson] that, too,” Betty McClure said.
The McClures' relief reflects the high esteem in which players and their families hold Krzyzewski.
“He becomes a good friend very, very fast,” Betty McClure said. “He came here to dinner one night in September last year.... It was like four or five hours we just talked over the table. When he talks to you right away he talks about his family. He’s just so easy to get to like, and that’s just from a personal standpoint, not from a coaching standpoint. My daughter loved him. We went to the official visit, and at the end, he hugged all of us, and my daughter said, ‘I’m so glad he did that because if he didn’t do that, I was going to do it.’”
Stay tuned to The Chronicle Online for complete coverage of this afternoon’s press conference and for other news revolving around this story.
Michael Mueller and Kelly Rohrs contributed to this report.
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