How do you say "Coach K" in Chinese?
President Richard Brodhead might know.
Brodhead is a Yale-trained academic with a scholarly interest in American literature and a life rooted in higher education. He traveled to Asia for two weeks in June 2006 in his first overseas trip as Duke's president and while in Shanghai, he answered an hour and a half's worth of questions about Duke in an online chatroom for about 10 million Chinese students. They asked him about education and worldwide reputation, but they also wanted to know more about the leader of the University's most visible team.
Kobe Bryant, too, might know.
Bryant, who bypassed college life by jumping from high school to the pros, is perhaps the world's best basketball player. The reigning NBA MVP flew to Asia in September to promote Nike and Team USA in preparation for this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing and traversed five cities-Beijing, Hong Kong, Manila, Taipei and Shanghai-in his five-day "Supernatural Tour." When he returned, he talked to the national team's coach. "It's unbelievable," he told Mike Krzyzewski. "Coach, they ask questions about you. They ask questions about Duke."
Krzyzewski certainly knows. He made his first trip to China in 2007, and some approached him using his nickname, even if they wanted to ask more questions about Bryant and LeBron James. Krzyzewski, who will begin his 29th year at Duke after he attempts to guide Team USA to its first gold medal since 2000, was struck with the Chinese adoration of basketball, their knowledge of Duke and, consequently, Duke Basketball.
"I'm conscious of being a representative of Duke every second of my life, because I'm branded with Duke," Krzyzewski said. "Whether I go out to eat, whether I go to the grocery store, getting gas... but I also know that if I'm on the road or somebody might not be able to pronounce my name, they'll say, 'Duke!'" I say, 'No, it's Mike Krzyzewski.'"
Chinese is a tonal language; beautiful, it is not. But one name in Chinese is melodious to a school in the middle of a concerted effort to expand its international presence.
"It is by happy chance that a famous Duke person will be leading probably the most watched sport in these Olympics," Brodhead said. "Duke did not contrive the Olympics to be in Beijing. And Duke could not have gotten Mike Krzyzewski chosen as the coach.... Well, as it happens, you put these two coincidences together and you get a great drama played out on a great stage. It's extraordinary-it's absolutely extraordinary."
The answer to one question might define Duke's great leap more than any other. So, again: How do you say "Coach K" in Chinese?
Macau, baby, Macau. Like Vegas on the juice.
It is, with Hong Kong, one of two special administrative regions in China. It is almost autonomous. But Macau is most known for a byproduct of its relative independence: It is the top gambling destination in the world, having overtaken Las Vegas for most casino revenue in 2006. The Venetian Macau will host two of Team USA's exhibition games July 31 and Aug. 1.
The Venetian Macau will also be home to about 75 Duke representatives that weekend. The University, the development office and the basketball program's Legacy Fund have collaborated to create a two-day event to coincide with Krzyzewski and Team USA's appearance. There will be gambling, golf, basketball and, the main attraction, a chance to mingle with Krzyzewski, who will meet with Duke donors, alumni and parents.
"It's once in a lifetime. It's never happened before, and it may never happen again that the Duke University head coach is the head coach of our Olympic team," said Mike Cragg, associate athletic director and director of the Legacy Fund. "That alone is a reason to celebrate."
Eric Savage graduated from Duke in 1992 and was on campus for four Final Fours and two national championships. He lives in Bangalore, India now, but manages to catch every Duke game through a Slingbox, which transmits the cable from his parents' television in Toledo, Ohio. A fellow Duke graduate in Hong Kong tapes the games and sends them to him, as well, and he watches them again on his iPod at the gym.
Savage postponed an annual vacation to the United States to attend the Macau gathering.
"Many alumni have a much stronger affinity for this school than alumni from other schools, and I think a reasonable part is due to the basketball program," said Savage, who has attended the K Academy since its inception in 2003. "I know that whenever Duke alumni gather, it's relatively common to talk about basketball.
"If they had a star professor out and doing a dinner in Macau or Hong Kong, you probably wouldn't get as many people flying in from all over."
The University will also sponsor an event in the United States' own sin city, Las Vegas, for the national team's July 25 exhibition against Canada, but once Krzyzewski and his 12 players-including former Blue Devil Carlos Boozer-reach Beijing, he belongs completely to Team USA. Of course, given the free publicity Krzyzewski will afford Duke, he might as well be wearing the Blue Devil on his lapel.
After all, Krzyzewski's affiliation with Duke defines his career. For some, he is not Mike Krzyzewski. He is the leader of Duke Basketball.
"If you know two things about Coach K, you know these things: 1. He is a person who lives and breathes basketball, and 2. He is a person who absolutely loves Duke," Brodhead said. "The name Coach K evokes both of those facts.
"There are ways in which we wouldn't seek to exploit [the attention]. Coach K won't wear Duke paraphernalia during the game. But to some extent, we don't need that. Let me put it this way... it's the kind of thing the University doesn't need to do much to capitalize on."
The men's basketball gold medal game is anticipated to be one of the most watched sporting events in the history of the world. ESPN's broadcast of North Carolina's win over Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium March 8 took in 5.6 million. It set a record for a men's college basketball game. The 2008 Super Bowl drew 97.5 million viewers. A 2007 NBA game between Chinese basketball heroes Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian attracted about 200 million viewers on 19 television stations in China.
The Olympic final? It could eclipse the 2006 World Cup final, which drew an average of 260 million viewers.
"What does that mean? Well, it means a lot, especially if you win," Krzyzewski said. "That will bring something to Duke. That's the thing about whether you're a history professor here or a doctor or whatever-when you do something that gets national or international recognition, it helps Duke. Well, the fact is, Duke always helps you. It's a neat thing."
Duke already has a brand in Europe-just ask John Burness.
Burness, the University's outgoing senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, traveled to Italy about 10 years ago and noticed a Duke hat. Then he spotted another one. He soon began counting college's caps and, by the end of his trip, Burness had tallied 27 Duke hats-nine more than Georgetown, its closest competitor.
The reason behind the abundance of Duke hats rather than, say, Harvard, was clear to Burness.
"I have to believe that some of that has to do with the sports programs at these institutions," he said. "There is this wonderful loyalty that exists at American universities, but that loyalty is so much stronger at a place like Duke. If you have a foreign student at a place like Duke and he goes back, you can bet he's going back with a basketball cap."
The University has made a conscious push to expand its global presence in the last decade, evident in the list of recent international initiatives, from the advent of DukeEngage to the development of a partnership with a Singapore hospital. In his annual speech to faculty in October 2007, Brodhead described Duke's international ambitions and laid out a plan to increase its dimensions.
"Duke's international efforts to date have been somewhat opportunistic in character, and almost exclusively unit-based," he said to the faculty. "So far, so good. But we are nearing a time when the University's internationalization will need to become more concerted and more strategic."
The impact of Krzyzewski's Olympic appearance, then, goes against both tenets of Duke's globalization philosophy. The potential of the athletics sector has been untapped-almost all of the University's international efforts have come in the academic and service fields-and Krzyzewski's selection as Team USA head coach was a stroke of luck for Duke.
The ways in which Duke seeks to use Krzyzewski's introduction to the rest of the world are far from concerted or strategic. They are purely opportunistic.
"Duke University has an enormous brand in higher education," said Director of Athletics Kevin White, who has a scholarly interest in globalization and has taught a class about the business of sport for the last 26 years at various institutions. "Duke Basketball is kind of in a position all by itself within college basketball. I don't know that people would argue with that. Coach K has a brand, and that's perhaps why he's been invited to coach that team and do so many darn things.
"Now you take all of those things and you put into that mix the opportunity to coach the Olympic team and all of that, if it's possible, will go to another level."
Still, using sport as a talking point is less of a priority for a University distinct in its commitment to rigorous academics and highly competitive athletics. That combination would likely be lost in translation.
"It's unique in colleges and universities around the world that you have these big-time sports programs," Burness said. "They're not tacked onto or part of the university. It would not then be the natural interplay."
Basketball reigns supreme in China, though, and its popularity will only surge as the growing superpower continues to export NBA All-Stars like Yao, who is something of a transcendent celebrity. Add the inherent internationalization of basketball as a sport, and it's no surprise that so many will sit down to watch the gold medal game Aug. 24 if Team USA's band of superstars is involved.
It also makes sense that Duke administrators' rooting interests are not simply fueled by patriotism or friendship with Krzyzewski. The further Team USA advances, the more attention Duke receives. Play-by-play announcers and analysts don't even have to mention Krzyzewski's day job; whenever the camera flashes to Krzyzewski's face, "DUKE" is essentially emblazoned on the screen.
So Brodhead understands that he must pull hard for a Team USA gold medal.
"You bet I will! I'm not a fool," he said. "It's a fantastic event. It's completely phenomenal. Sometimes you hit it lucky.... A Duke coach being chosen just at this moment, when the media make more things available to more billions of people than we've ever seen? That's just good fortune."
In other words, the University's fortune cookie reads: K jiào liàn.
That's how you say "Coach K" in Chinese.
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