The coach we love to hate but have to root for now
By Gregg Doyel | CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist Follow GreggUSA Basketball has put us -- we, the people -- in a difficult position: We're forced to root for Mike Krzyzewski.
Aren't we?
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| There is reason to root for Mike Krzyzewski, at least for this summer. (Getty Images) |
So we must root for Coach K. Mustn't we? This is a tough one. It really is. And it's not going to be over any time soon.
The FIBA World Championship is a lengthy process, and if all goes well -- right? -- the United States will be playing for a gold medal on Sept. 3 in Saitama. That's almost two weeks from now, giving us two weeks for introspection and soul-searching in the face of two normal but contradictory emotions:
Patriotism.
Anti-Coach-K-ism.
I'll be the first to admit it: I've got 'em both.
Rooting for the United States in international competition is unavoidable. Even a heartless SOB like me pulls for the red, white and blue. Doesn't matter what the sport, if it's an international event and an American is competing, I'm rooting. Even in track, where I want our cheater to beat their cheater.
But rooting against Mike Krzyzewski is also unavoidable. Maybe I'm not speaking for Duke fans -- which means graduates of Duke, parents of graduates of Duke, and front-running ghouls who also root for the Yankees, Steelers and Wal-Mart -- but for everyone else, I'm speaking for you. It's OK.
Embrace your loathing of Krzyzewski. Whatever your reason, I'll buy it. His Duke team beats your team? Loathe him. His Duke team is on television too much? Loathe him. His commercials? His self-righteousness? His hypocritical imperiousness? Loathe him, loathe him, loathe him.
Rooting against Coach K is visceral, something you feel in your gut, like a pancreatic ulcer. Rooting against Coach K is the American way.
But the sadists at USA Basketball pulled a fast one on all of us by pairing the U.S. basketball team with the Duke coach. So now we're stuck, and again, I'll be out front here. I'll admit to spending the last month looking for reasons to like Mike Krzyzewski.
(As an aside: So that's what bile tastes like.)
And I found reasons to like him. Plenty of reasons. (Plenty of bile.)
For one thing, Coach K has put together a better U.S. team than his most recent predecessors, including neurotic nitwit Larry Brown and the other NBA airheads who thought an international competition was merely a talent show. Under their watch U.S. basketball slipped from the international gold standard to mediocrity. Once upon a time we were Saks Fifth Avenue. Now we're Sears.
That's because Coach K's forebears didn't get it. The rest of the world is catching up to American basketball -- we're still more talented, but countries like Argentina and Lithuania can now bridge the talent gap with superior teamwork and chemistry.
Larry Brown ignored the best players in the world because they were too young, instead putting aging brats Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury not only on the same team, but in the same backcourt. And then Brown wondered why his players seem to hate each other and their coach. (They didn't just seem to, Larry.)
Age be damned, Coach K will play the best team.
LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade will be the best three players in this entire event. Coach K's going to do something crazy and put them on the floor together. He's going to give the ball to pass-first point guard Chris Paul, even if Paul is a baby-faced youngster who could be a college senior right now. He's going to play 20-year-old Dwight Howard at center for rebounding and defense, and he's even going to put a player on the perimeter -- even if it is a former Duke player, Shane Battier -- who contributes little but defense.
Coach K has said the right stuff along the way, too. He has made captains of James, Anthony and Wade -- average age: 22 -- and urged his team to dominate every quarter of every game. Some in the media have scoffed at Coach K's ambition, but they've forgotten the sins of past U.S. teams.
When U.S. teams have fallen short -- and it has happened almost every step of the way for years -- complacency has been a factor. International basketball is no longer a place where a U.S. dream team can coast for three quarters and turn it on when the game's in doubt. Opponents are no longer scared of U.S. basketball; let them hang around for three quarters, and they just might beat you in the fourth.
Coach K gets it. That is his (bile alert) genius, more than X's and O's or talent evaluation: He can get into the heads of his players like a hypnotist.
Hell, his mojo is even starting to work on me. I'll be rooting for the United States to win the 2006 FIBA World Championship, even if it means the sight of a gold medal -- instead of something more enjoyable, like, I don't know, say my fingers -- around Coach K's neck.
