In his current world, which he oversees from a glass-encased penthouse that is accessible only by a fingerprint-scanning elevator, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski picks his players. Every year he scans a list of the country's top 25 recruits and chooses two from Column A (his backcourt) and two from Column B (his big men). He asks them to play for Duke, they say yes, and the world continues to turn outside his penthouse.
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| Mike Krzyzewski has spent 24 years at Duke, winning three national titles.(Getty Images) |
So here we are, with the Lakers offering Krzyzewski perhaps the richest contract in professional sports, an offer that has been confirmed to SportsLine.com. Even at $8 million a year, Krzyzewski would only make 40 percent of Bryant's projected salary, which is why the Lakers' RECORD-BREAKING CONTRACT OFFER to Krzyzewski is insulting, not flattering.
Coach K, a pawn in Kobe's chess game.
Kind of makes you smile, though, doesn't it?
The irony is unbelievable. Nine years ago, Krzyzewski suffered some sort of a breakdown, a mixture of hip pain and mental drain stemming from the whirlwind life he had lived since leading the Blue Devils to back-to-back national championships in 1991 and '92. Upon his return in 1995-96, Krzyzewski vowed to trim the superficial nonsense from his life.
Now he is considering not only the NBA, where superficial is supreme, but the Lakers? The mother of all NBA nonsense?
Unbelievable. In fact, we don't believe it.
Until Krzyzewski makes his decision, and he could take the entire July 4 weekend to make that decision, all we can do is speculate. The guess here is in the next several days Krzyzewski is going to wake up one morning feeling at peace with college basketball -- not necessarily pleased or even satisfied, but at peace with the idea he has taken a look at the other side and decided the other side is worse.
Right now, after losing two players -- freshman Luol Deng and recruit Shaun Livingston -- he never expected to lose this soon to the NBA, Krzyzewski is frustrated and angry. From here, his dalliance with the Lakers looks like a manifestation of that anger. Krzyzewski is acting out. It makes him feel better.
This is his final mid-life coaching crisis, and as the Lakers had hoped, Krzyzewski is vulnerable. Every offseason, a Duke source said, Krzyzewski gets approached by one or more NBA teams. Every offseason you and I never hear about that, because Krzyzewski politely shoos the NBA out of his glass-encased office.
This offseason is different because of the departures of Deng and Livingston. Every talking head with a Duke degree -- and there sure are a lot, aren't there? -- insists the Deng-Livingston exacta has nothing to do with Krzyzewski's dalliance with the Lakers.
Exactly wrong. It has everything to do with this dalliance. No, it's not because Krzyzewski wants to jump ship before Duke sinks. Even without Deng and Livingston, Duke is definitely a top-20 team that could be in the top 10 depending on the development of Shavlik Randolph and the readiness of freshman DeMarcus Nelson.
The losses of Deng and Livingston underscore a problem with college basketball, a problem that has been hitting too close to home lately for Krzyzewski. So, he's angry. He's doing something about it.
With the Lakers, Krzyzewski would never again lose a freshman or even a high school senior to the pros; he would be the pros.
Then again ...
With the Lakers he would never be able to replace former nemesis Dean Smith, or perhaps Bob Knight (another former nemesis), as the all-time victory leader in college basketball.
With the Lakers he would lose his place as the king of his sport to become just another guy who will, sooner or later, be replaced.
With the Lakers, he would no longer be the most important -- or highest-paid -- person in his own locker room.
Until he makes his decision, Krzyzewski will ask himself a number of questions. Here's one he might also want to ponder:
What is Steve Spurrier doing these days, anyway?
