Coach K can't afford to take an 'L'
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| Larry Brown's team lost three games in Athens. (Jame Squire / Getty Images) |
While running Team USA in Athens, Larry Brown embarrassed himself far more than any of his NBA players did. Brown mercilessly ripped his Olympic team and the selection committee members who picked it, lost games to Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina, and inspired David Stern to call a halftime news conference during the men's semifinals for the sole purpose of blasting his coach.
"This was a team that was put together by everyone, including the coaching staff," Stern reminded. "And this is a great team, so I don't buy the 'Well, I'd like to have this, I'd like to have that.' . . . This whining and carping is not fair to the young men . . . who are representing their country admirably and well."
Brown kept saying he needed a perimeter shooter, even though he was the one who lobbied hard for Emeka Okafor over the Michael Redds and Wally Szczerbiaks the committee favored. Brown also came up with the grand idea of giving LeBron James the walk-on treatment, limiting his minutes when James was clearly among the best players in the tournament.
Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury were the easy news media targets for the bronze-medal showing, but Stern was never more enraged by a coach or an executive than he was by Brown, whose conduct cost his assistant and friend, Gregg Popovich, any shot he had of leading the Americans to Beijing.
So four years later Krzyzewski comes out of Duke charged to erase Athens from the Summer Games memory bank. He has been ordered to convince all patriots to close their eyes hard enough to make that Dream On Team disappear.
Just by showing up, Coach K will be a better coach than his predecessor. He's too smart to mock his players and the executives who helped select them. He's a West Pointer who knows how to represent his country; he's not likely to be spotted chasing a ref down a tunnel, as Brown did as an assistant at the Sydney Games eight years back.
2008 Olympic Games
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Medals
News
- Team USA tops Spain to regain gold
- Official: Paperwork created age issue
- U.S. wins men's volleyball gold
- Olympian banned for kicking ref
- Omega releases Phelps win photos
- Brazil tops American women for gold
- Cuban loses gold, kicks referee
- Both 1,600 relays golden for U.S.
- U.S, women claim hoops gold again
- U.S. baseball wins bronze medal
Analysis
- Rosenberg: Questions remain in Beijing
- Whitlock: Critics spurred Redeem Team
- Rosen: Team USA's road to redemption
Multimedia
- PHOTOS: Farewell from Beijing
- PHOTOS: Day 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
- PHOTOS: Olympic beauties | Mascots
- PHOTOS: Women's beach volleyball
- PHOTOS: Opening Ceremony
Krzyzewski also has the benefit of knowing he can't go down as the first Team USA coach to lose an Olympic game with NBA players; Larry Legend took care of that for him, times three.
But none of this means Krzyzewski can't diminish his own legacy next month in China. Even though Brown set the bar at ankle level, Coach K will feel as much pressure to deliver as any member of the American delegation that touches down in Beijing.
Why? Let Dwyane Wade explain.
"I think now we have an unbelievable opportunity, a team we have assembled that is second to none," Wade said. "It's a totally different culture (from 2004). We were thrown together for a week and a half in Jacksonville and told, 'Go out there and play.' We've been together for three years now and had the opportunity to get to know each other."
In other words, Krzyzewski doesn't have the only legitimate excuse at Brown's disposal: the lack of time spent together as a group.
Krzyzewski coached six members of this team at the 2006 World Championships, losing to Greece and settling for the bronze. Last year, Coach K went 10-0 in Olympic qualifying with eight current team members. This year, after gathering his players in Las Vegas for practice and in New York City for promotion, Krzyzewski will have them back in Vegas for training camp on July 21 before heading to China for a series of pre-Olympic exhibitions.
This time around, the NBA all-stars have their mission clearly defined.
"We were the young pups on that '04 team that wasn't a team," Wade said. "We said in '08 that we wanted to be respected as a team."
Jerry Colangelo, managing director, hired Krzyzewski to make this a team, to do with living, breathing, dribbling conglomerates what he's done with scholarship players at Duke.
"We've been saying for too long that it's our game when it's really the world's game," Krzyzewski said. "We think we're the best at playing that game. But unless we show respect to the rest of the world that is the world's game, we won't win."
Won't win? Krzyzewski has no choice but to win. Start with the ridiculous talent he has to work with, players who would take Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill to school.
James. Wade. Kobe Bryant. Chris Paul. Chris Bosh. Sure, Coach K would love to have Kevin Garnett in red, white and blue, though he can't say the same for Tim Duncan, not after Duncan flunked a series of FIBA exams in Athens.
But it doesn't matter if the Americans are a little light on big men. When you have LeBron James and Kobe Bryant on your side, you need to win the tournament.
"Winning a gold medal would be the ultimate," Krzyzewski said. "This is for your country in a world competition. It's the top level. There's no question it would be the biggest achievement for any of us involved in this, player or coach, to be an Olympic champion."
At 61, Krzyzewski is a Hall of Famer who has won three national titles with his famed Blue Devils. Only Duke isn't quite Duke anymore. In its own backyard, North Carolina has the stronger program.
Maybe Krzyzewski will overtake Roy Williams and regain control of the local market. Maybe he won't. Either way, Beijing will end up meaning more to Krzyzewski than an 11th trip to the Final Four.
He'll start the journey from a position of strength -- following the wretched Summer Games act that was Larry Brown.
Only Krzyzewski has to do plenty more than just show up. The coach known by the letter K has to make it back home without picking up an L.
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