"Two great friends spent a lot of nights with me talking about things and I started feeling like I wanted to be a Coach K or a Jim Boeheim or a Bo Schembechler or Paterno and Bowden and Smith and now Osborne, who’s in our league, guys who kind of stood the test of time, who were tempted by different things but decided their heart was where it is."
Both Izzo and Krzyzewski's near-departure to the NBA seem similar.
Both cited their age as a reason for considering jobs in the league. Krzyzewski, who had refused several offers before Los Angeles', had this to say at his press conference after rebuking the Lakers:
"I said, 'I am 57, maybe I should just look. I have kind of just dismissed things for at least the last 10 years. I said, 'Just take a look at it.' As it went on I took a closer and closer look."
Here's what Izzo, who also had refused offers from teams like the Raptors and Hawks, said this yesterday:
"It was a once-in-a-lifetime decision for me and it was at a point in time in my life that I looked at it and said, ‘How many more offers do you get, how many more opportunities do you get?’"
And, both these titans of the college basketball world have now made Shermanesque statements on their futures at Duke and Michigan State. Izzo:
"I am going to be a lifer. This is what I'm going to be. And I'm damn proud of it."
Krzyzewski, after the New Jersey Nets offer:
"I’m coaching here forever, for as long as I coach.... I'm not going to the NBA, not ever."
Phenoms leaving early for the NBA and conferences threatening to realign ensure that college basketball sometimes has a transitory quality. Comfortably, Izzo and Krzyzewski prove that some don't change their ways.
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