Mike Krzyzewski
Mike Krzyzewski
Michael William Krzyzewskiis an American college basketball coach and former player. Since 1980, he has served as the head men's basketball coach at Duke University. At Duke, Krzyzewski has led the Blue Devils to five NCAA Championships, 12 Final Fours, 12 ACC regular season titles, and 13 ACC Tournament championships. Krzyzewski is also the coach of the United States men's national basketball team, whom he led to two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics. He...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth13 February 1947
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
We will put together a team that will represent our country on and off the court and the way the game should be played, ... It's our game and it's time to reclaim it.
I think the people who are involved in this program should embrace it, ... When you look up at the scoreboard, it will say the United States. It will never say an individual name. I can promise you we will put together a team that will serve as an example to the rest of the world of the way the game should be played and the way you conduct yourself.
Giving back what the game has given you, that's one of the things I want to permeate through the program for the next three years and serve as a basis for the team, ... I hope the players look at it that way, too. You forget how lucky you are to be in a specific situation sometimes. We need to get that feeling going again.
I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one.
Why do you play a game? I play a game to see how good we can be.
That's another thing, we made up games. We didn't have equipment. When it snowed, we would play slow motion tackle football. We would play hockey, but we wouldn't skate. We just made things up. I loved doing that.
I have a plan of action, but the game is a game of adjustments.
Don't let a single game break your heart.
Pete Newell told me 'get as much information and learn as much about the game as you can, but use your own personality to teach it.'
If the only reason I coached was to win basketball games, my life would be pretty shallow
It's not like we have not had close games. We've just been able to win them, and as a result, the reality sometimes doesn't set in that you're weak in certain areas or you're not doing certain things well. ... When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance.
That's what I do now: I lead and I teach. If we win basketball games from doing that, then that's great, but I lead and teach. Those are the two things I concentrate on.
You don't just be a team. You become a team. Through tough games you find that you need each other
We weren't ever a dominant team. We knew that. So things had to go right for us to win.