Mike Krzyzewski did enough as the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils to be considered one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time. Five national titles, 13 Final Fours and countless players who made an impact in the NBA are his legacy, but any mention his career accomplishments has to include what he did with Team USA in the Olympics.
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In the early 2000s, that American supremacy in basketball was beginning to wane. The 2004 Olympics was the low point, as Team USA lost two games in pool play, then was bumped off by eventual gold medalist Argentina in the semifinals. Enter Coach K. He was hired in 2005 and led what came to be known as the Redeem Team to an undefeated record and gold in the 2008 Beijing Games.
The Redeem Team had some big personalities, including LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. On an appearance yesterday on The Pat McAfee Show, Coach K explained how he helped unite so many superstars under a common cause.
“I told them when we started off, bring your egos in,” he said. “I don’t believe in ‘Leave your egos at the door,’ that’s such BS. I want you to be who you are. And by the way, Kobe Bryant, LeBron, they would have brought their damn egos in no matter what.”
Krzyzewski didn’t mind having a bunch of I’s in TEAM, as long as they were all focused on the same thing. “I would always tell them,” he recalled, “I said if you can all put your egos under one ego umbrella, call it USA, we’ll kick everyone’s a**. We’ll rule the world. And they did that.”
This is a fascinating insight into what made Coach K such a success, because many in his place take a backseat to their superstars. They let their biggest personalities run the team, instead of helping them get to an even higher level by encouraging their continued development.
LeBron and Kobe aren’t the only all-timers from that team, but they’ll go down in history as the two best. It’s no coincidence, then, that they also embraced being part of something bigger than themselves. “Kobe helped all those guys learn how to prepare better,” K said. “LeBron would sit with Jason Kidd at every meeting and shoot with him every night so he could learn more about his intellect.”
“Talent makes talent better. At the end of the day, I would say, ‘You’re gonna be asked only one question playing for the U.S. Did you win?’ If you answer that by saying, ‘Well I was the leading scorer,’ then you’re a loser, because you’ve lost. And so, just win. And all those damn guys wanted to win,” he explained.
Under Coach K’s tutelage, Team USA would go on to repeat the success of Beijing in 2012, and then finish the three-peat with gold in Rio. His teams never lost a game in Olympic play and won by an average of over 27 points per game.
