Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski simply could not give up the red, the white or the blue.
USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo announced Thursday morning that the Blue Devils’ Hall of Fame coach will return as head coach of the USA Basketball Men’s National Team through the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
“Everyone that has been involved with USA Basketball over the last seven years has come to realize just what an honor it has been,” Krzyzewski said. “When the 2008 Olympics, the 2010 World Championship and the 2012 Olympics were all finished, I really thought it would be the end of my time coaching international basketball.... Now that I am doing it, I can tell you that I am doing it with 100 percent commitment and passion.”
After previously announcing he would not return as Team USA’s head coach, a change of heart and a spirited recruiting pitch from Colangelo convinced Krzyzewski to stay on for four more years.
Although Krzyzewski contended that he had not planned to return to USA Basketball, Colangelo said he was confident that the head coach who has led the United States to a 62-1 record—including gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic games and the 2010 FIBA World Championship—would come around.
“I couldn’t be happier to have Coach K back. I’m kind of old fashioned. I never really accepted the fact that he wasn’t coming back,” Colangelo said. “I think it’s just a perfect fit for him. I think his legacy is very much tied to USA Basketball as it is to Duke University. I could not have picked a better guy to be in that foxhole with.”
When addressing the difficulties of balancing his job at Duke with his head coaching duties at USA Basketball, Krzyzewski said that he believed it was impossible to do one without the other.
The Blue Devil head coach said in addition to remaining committed to his responsibilities as head coach of Team USA, he will also remain Duke’s head coach through at least the 2015-16 season.
“I don’t think anybody should coach the [Olympic] team unless they are coaching—you have to stay sharp,” Krzyzewski said. “I wasn’t sure before how much longer I might coach. But now I don’t see an end. Obviously I’m not going to end before the Olympics.”
Krzyzewski added that even at 66 years old, he does not think of his age. College basketball’s all-time winningest head coach described himself as “energetic, passionate and wanting to achieve.”
Duke University President Richard Brodhead pointed out the changes he has seen in Krzyzewski during the first seven years of his tenure at the helm of USA Basketball.
“Duke didn’t lose any of Mike Krzyzewski by having him becoming the coach of the Olympic team,” Brodhead said. “He has come back from that process so energized, that I think he has been more into coaching at Duke in his Olympic years than he ever was before.”
Although the rest of Krzyzewski’s staff has yet to be announced, the Duke head coach mentioned that he would likely approach Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim—who had previously served on Krzyzewski’s staff in each of the last two Olympic Games—and his assistant Mike Hopkins.
The Blue Devil head coach also said that he expected members of his staff—including associate head coaches Steve Wojciechowski and Jeff Capel and video coordinator Kevin Cullen—to play a role in USA Basketball as well.
Krzyzewski’s next task is to begin assembling his next National Team, a process that will begin with the squad’s first mini-camp, designed for first- and second-year NBA players, in Las Vegas July 22-25.
USA Basketball’s first competition of the 2013-16 quadrennium will be the 2014 FIBA World Cup, which will take place in Spain next August.
“We’ll try to do these four years the same way we did the last seven—to build it with the best players available,” Krzyzewski said. “They’re the ones who make an amazing commitment.”
Team USA has not started building its roster for the World Cup or Olympic Games, but Krzyzewski indicated that a number of the NBA’s top players have already expressed their interest in playing for the Men’s National Team.
While posing for a photograph with a USA Basketball jersey, Krzyzewski turned the jersey around and reveals that it was Los Angeles Clippers’ point guard Chris Paul’s, and jokingly said, “I hope he’s playing.”
Miami Heat forward LeBron James, with whom Krzyzewski has a close relationship, also expressed his interest in playing for the Blue Devil head coach via his Twitter account, assuming he stays healthy.
Now that his future with Team USA is secure, Krzyzewski is already looking ahead to a potential rematch with Spain—the team the United States defeated in the gold medal game of the 2012 Olympics—at the World Cup on Spanish soil.
“The public perception is that it is only going to be easy,” Krzyzewski said. “In a one game shot, you can definitely lose.... We have the best talent, we have to make sure we do all the things necessary to become the best team, and the last three competitions we were able to do that.”
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