Report: Retired Gen. Martin Dempsey set to take over as USA Basketball chairman

<p>Retired Gen. Martin Dempsey earned a master's degree in English from Duke in 1984 and was the school's 2014 commencement speaker.</p>

Retired Gen. Martin Dempsey earned a master's degree in English from Duke in 1984 and was the school's 2014 commencement speaker.

After winning three consecutive Olympic gold medals with Team USA, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski departed after last summer's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro having transformed the national program.

Team USA lost another familiar face Thursday when chairman Jerry Colangelo stepped down from his position and decided against running for a third term.

But the bigger news was the name of Colangelo's potential successor.

The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday afternoon that retired Gen. Martin Dempsey could be in line to become the new USA Basketball chairman. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was appointed as a special adviser to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver last October and is currently the head of the Junior NBA Leadership Council. Dempsey has also worked closely with the NBA through the Hoops for Troops initiative.

Dempsey and Krzyzewski are both former graduates of the U.S. Military Academy and developed a friendship when Dempsey earned a master's degree in English from Duke in 1984 while Krzyzewski was the Blue Devils' young head coach. Dempsey delivered the commencement address at Duke’s graduation ceremony in 2014 and was named a 2016 Rubenstein Fellow last year.

The retired general co-taught a course in the Sanford School of Public Policy on American civil-military relations last spring and is currently teaching a class on management and leadership at the Fuqua School of Business.

As the new USA Basketball chairman, Dempsey would be in charge of running the business operations of the team, handling sponsorships and relations with the NCAA and NBA. Dempsey's nomination for the position will be voted on at the Nov. 14 USA Basketball board meeting for the position.

Colangelo is not stepping down from his position as managing director of USA Basketball, though, and is set to work with new head coach Gregg Popovich through the 2020 Olympics to help construct the national teams for the Olympics and the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

Colangelo has said that he wants Krzyzewski to replace him as the managing director in 2020, which Duke's head coach said he did not want to do after returning from Rio de Janeiro, but the chance to work with a close friend in Dempsey might tempt Krzyzewski to reconsider in four years.

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