Mike Krzyzewski was a scrawny point player from Chicago who was making college decisions long before he blossomed into the all-time leader in coaching victories in college basketball. Bobby Knight recruited Krzyzewski to play at Army, mostly thanks to the influence of Krzyzewski’s parents. Krzyzewski’s life was transformed over those four years, as he received top-notch leadership instruction, valuable life skills, and basketball expertise that he still uses today.
Following Knight’s death on Wednesday at the age of 83, Krzyzewski, who is 76 years old, thought back on a connection that helped him reach his own induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Krzyzewski released a statement saying, “We lost one of the greatest coaches in the history of basketball today.” “He was obviously unique.”
GROWING FROM AND OVERCOMING KNIGHT Following his playing career, Krzyzewski started working as a college coach in 1974–1975, joining Indiana University as a graduate assistant coach under Knight. Then, in 1975, at the age of 28, Krzyzewski took a job as head coach of Army College. He spent his first five seasons there before moving to Durham, where he was hired as Duke’s coach in 1980. From then on, Krzyzewski set out on a path that saw him eventually surpass Knight’s feats and enter the elite of the sport.
Krzyzewski won five NCAA titles in his 42 seasons with the Blue Devils, compared to Knight’s three at Indiana. Krzyzewski’s 903rd career victory came on November 15, 2011, when Duke defeated Michigan State 74-69 at Madison Square Garden in New York. With 902 points, Knight had previously held the record, but that moved him up. In his post-coaching role with ESPN, Knight was courtside calling the action. Knight said wryly that Krzyzewski had not done too badly for a guy who couldn’t shoot as the two embraced. KNIGHT AND KRZYZEWSKI’S COMPLICATE RELATIONSHIP It wasn’t always the case, but that was the moment when the two got along well. For the most of the 1990s, Knight and Krzyzewski were estranged from one another. They made amends, and Krzyzewski was chosen for the Naismith Hall of Fame’s 2001 class and he asked Knight to present him at the enshrinement ceremony.
But the situation turned sour again, once again with Knight perceiving that Krzyzewski slighted him, over the final years of Knight’s life. ESPN’s Jay Bilas, a former Duke player and assistant coach, wrote an essay published Wednesday night describing his friendship with Knight over the years. The two worked together at ESPN and knew each other through Krzyzewski. Knight, Bilas said, “allowed small things to affect an important lifetime relationship.” “Knight’s on-again, off-again relationship with Mike Krzyzewski, my college coach and mentor, was a sore spot with Knight and me,” Bilas wrote. “I never understood it. I knew how proud Knight was of Coach K, and how much Coach K meant to him. But, I just couldn’t wrap my head around how Knight would negatively react to any perceived slight or miscommunication that, to others, was insignificant.” But no matter how complicated their relationship became, one thing remained between Krzyzewski and Knight: mutual respect. “Coach Knight recruited me, mentored me, and had a profound impact on my career and in my life,” Krzyzewski said in his statement. “This is a tremendous loss for our sport and our family is deeply saddened by his passing.”
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