This is the final Olympic hurrah for Coach K
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Mike Krzyzewski’s last journey as coach of the U.S. men’s national team doesn’t include a detour down Memory Lane on the way to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
There’s too much work to do, too many elements for him and his staff to fuse together in a short period for him to lapse into being sappy about the approaching end of his remarkable coaching tenure with USA Basketball. As in his gold medal successes with the 2008 and 2012 Olympic teams and his triumphant World Cup and World Championship ventures, the longtime Duke coach and five-time NCAA champion has been his usual methodical and meticulous self while interacting with players and coaches gathered here this week.
“He’s still the same person, the same personality,” said New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, the lone holdover from the 2008 Olympic squad and, with Kevin Durant, one of two holdovers from 2012. “It’s great. He’s the same motivator, the guy that I’ve become closer and closer to over the years. I don’t think he’s changed a bit.”
Krzyzewski, 69, sounds and appears much the same.
He may have slowed a bit after knee replacement surgery in April, and a few strands of gray have shown up in his carefully groomed dark hair, but he’s not nostalgic as he prepares for his final Olympics as head coach and puts his 75-1 record with the U.S. men’s team on the line. The Rio team will play its first exhibition Friday at T-Mobile Arena against Argentina, which will be led by 2004 Olympic gold medalists Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs and Luis Scola of the Brooklyn Nets.
“I’m in the moment of these guys. I’m not sentimental at all,” Krzyzewski said Thursday before the team practiced at Nevada Las Vegas’ Mendenhall Center. “If you start thinking of you, you can’t ask a player not to think of himself. This isn’t about anything one of us is doing. It’s about this moment with this group.”
This isn’t the same group he had in 2012, when Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook helped the U.S. romp to an 8-0 record and score an average of 115.5 points a game. The withdrawals of James, Paul, Golden State’s Stephen Curry and others will make this team’s style different. But though the rest of the world has made huge strides, Team USA is still a heavy favorite for a third straight gold medal.
“I think the strength of this team is defensively we definitely get after it,” Anthony said. “You have guys who that’s kind of their primary focus. You have guys who can score the basketball. You have guys who can shoot the basketball. You have bigs that are very dominant. I don’t really think there’s much weaknesses with this team.”
The names may change, but Krzyzewski’s ability to coach different styles and groups hasn’t changed.
“Adapt is what he does. That is not a change. That’s adaptive,” assistant coach Jim Boeheim said. “What he does best is work with people, understand people, what they need, what they like, what they want and be able to bring people together, whether it’s the team, the players, the coaching staff.
“He has a unique ability to pull all that together in a relatively very short period of time and do it in a fun way that gets results. We’re here for one reason and one reason only. Anything less than winning a gold medal for us is a bad summer.”