Game officials? They're human. They spend two hours getting worked over by Krzyzewski, and like a boxer absorbing gut punches for 14 rounds, the impact is crushing. It has to be. Krzyzewski is an immortal. Officials aren't.
For two hours twice a week, Krzyzewski preys on that stuff. That's how the FSU-Duke officials buckled and gave Johnson a bad technical. That's how two straight 50-50 calls in the final seconds went Duke's way against Boston College and then FSU. Coach K spends two hours winning those two seconds.
Krzyzewski says things, abominable things, that other coaches can't. Listen to him. Read his lips. Coach K gets away with it because he's Coach K. Need a reminder? Read the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Krzyzewski, who wouldn't be made available for comment, has become what he once despised -- a latter-day Dean Smith. On Jan. 21, 1984, after uneven officiating cost Duke a win against Smith's North Carolina dynasty, Krzyzewski unloaded in his postgame news conference.
"I want to tell you something," he said. "... You cannot allow people to go around pointing at officials and yelling at them without technicals being called. That is just not allowed. So let's get some things straight around here and quit the double standard that exists in this league, all right?"
Good idea then, and good idea now. But it can't start with officials. They've been pushed around too long, too mercilessly, by the biggest bully on the block. They're not going to stand up to Krzyzewski now.
It's up to Krzyzewski to make the first move. To pipe down. To back off. He has become the biggest star in his universe, and it takes a great man to build that base of power.
But it takes a small man to wield it the wrong way.
