To listen to the full podcast, click here.
The world got an hour of stories and insight from Duke men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Krzyzewski joined Duke men’s basketball legend JJ Redick and Tommy Alter on their new podcast, “The Old Man & The Three,” to discuss topics ranging from his pregame speech for the national championship game that never happened last season, to what makes Kobe Bryant and Lebron James as great as they are.
In addition to the light-hearted topics, Redick and Krzyzewski waded into more serious matters, including the path to social justice and the importance of promoting mental health amongst athletes.
“This [younger generation] does not see color, gender, nationality, religion. They see a person,” Krzyzewski said.
“They will totally embrace you as a person and there’s so many in this generation that feel that way, not everybody, but this is the time to unite the talents of the great people that we have in this country.”
He added that now is the time for every person to be better and make a change, but as an older person, he is excited when seeing how active the younger generation is in advocating for human rights.
Krzyzewski also gave some scoops into long-standing questions that many of the Duke faithful may have, one being how close he was to taking the Lakers head coaching job in 2004.
Obviously, he turned it down, but Krzyzewski said that it was the closest he ever got to accepting an offer, adding in that the $40 million contract made it even more difficult to decline.
Krzyzewski did get his chance to coach NBA players with the U.S. national team, and he had intriguing stories about the likes of the 2008 team, including Lebron James and Kobe Bryant.
That year, he actually earned the unique title of being the only basketball coach of Bryant to have to tell him to shoot the ball more.
In addition to his 2008 Olympic stories, Krzyzewski answered a popular debate question amongst basketball enthusiasts: Does the 1992 “Dream Team” or 2008 “Redeem Team” win in a best-of-seven series?
On the grounds that all players were fully healthy, he responded without hesitation: Dream Team.
Redick and Krzyzewski reminisced on Redick’s journey from his days at Duke all the way until the present, where he finds himself 15 years into a successful NBA career. The two clearly enjoyed chatting with each other, exchanging playful banter throughout the show.
As of now, Krzyzewski and his squad are slated to play in a nonconference matchup with Gardner-Webb on November 25.
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Jake Piazza is a Trinity senior and was sports editor of The Chronicle's 117th volume.