Finally back home after a long stint overseas with the United States national team, head coach Mike Krzyzewski held a press conference yesterday to discuss his experience winning gold at the FIBA World Championships.
And he took the opportunity to get one thing out of the way: The London Olympics in 2012 will be the end of his tenure as Team USA’s head coach.
“I won’t go past the Olympics in London. That’ll be the last time I coach internationally,” Krzyzewski said. “It won’t be the last time I’m involved in USA Basketball, but [it will be] in a coaching capacity and obviously a playing capacity—I should put that out in case I get two new knees.”
Krzyzewski was joking about his playing career, but much of the press conference was serious, especially when he spoke at length on the accomplishments of his FIBA team.
Called the “B-team” by many before the games began in Instanbul, and sporting no one from the 2008 Olympic team, the Americans still handily won their final game against Turkey and were never seriously challenged in medal play. The gold medal they won was the United States’ first since 1995.
“I’m so proud of our guys for winning the world championship. It’s really one of the big wins in history for USA Basketball,” Krzyzewski said. “But with the timing of it after winning the Olympics and with all our young teams winning gold this summer [makes it] really like a glory time for USA Basketball.”
The coach spoke positively on his star pupil, Kevin Durant. The Oklahoma City forward hit seven 3-pointers and had 28 points in the Americans’ 81-64 championship win over Turkey and has been widely acknowledged to have taken a jump in skill level over the summer. Krzyzewski said the role of his teammates became, in large part, to “get [him] the ball more.”
“Durant probably played as well as any U.S. player has ever played in the final two games,” Krzyzewski said. “He was already up there but he took his game to a global level.”
Playing in Instanbul against the Turkish national team was difficult, Krzyzewski said, but it paled in comparison to ACC games.
“I think we were treated great by the fans,” he said. “Even in the last game... they were wild for their team, not against us.... It wasn’t like playing in the ACC. It was a great atmosphere, not a scary atmosphere.”
As talk drifted to the upcoming collegiate season, Krzyzewski allowed himself no reflection on the accomplishments of the past few months: a national championship and FIBA gold. Instead, he said, his focus remains on the future.
“To have two of the purest experiences in my life in a five-month period at my age is crazy, lucky, good,” Krzyzewski said. “But I want to have another experience with my Duke team.”
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