Coach K to Stay at Duke

After 24 years in the same job, most men would be more than happy to pick up and move on. Especially for a $40 million 5-year contract some place new. Mike Krzyzewski isn't most men. He's staying on to coach Duke University's men's basketball team. The Los Angeles Lakers will have to look elsewhere for a new head coach.

"Coach K," as he is known (Krzyzewski is a Polish name that follows the spelling and pronunciation rules for that language -- it is awkwardly rendered "Sha-CHEV-Ski" in American English), is a legend in college basketball. He has a 621-181 record with Duke and three national championships. John Wooden of UCLA remains the gold standard of college basketball coaches, but Coach K is a sterling leader. So why not take that to the pros? Why not prove he can do both? Not even Duke could throw that much money at him.

Coach K is a rare fellow, a member of that class of wisemen, who not only believes, but also knows in his bones, that money isn't everything. In North Carolina, his paycheck is certainly more than adequate. But success is based more on desire than on greed -- despite what business schools teach. More money does not yield more motivation.

Mr. Krzyzewski explained to the world, "Duke has always taken up my whole heart. Your heart has to be in whatever you lead. It became apparent that this decision was somewhat easier to make because you have to follow your heart and lead with it." He does not teach rhetoric, but the words conveyed the idea -- he'd coach Duke for free if that is what it took. Pure and simple, taking over the Lakers for $8 million a year was worth less to him than another year or twenty coaching Duke's Blue Devils and trying for a fourth national title.

Chacun a sont gout as the French would have it. A five-year, $40 million deal to rebuild the Lakers might be the challenge a man like Rudy Tomjanovich (now tipped as the next Lakers' coach) needs. For Coach K, it was just a headache, a $40 million headache, but it would hurt all the same.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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