The ability to do so is based on the underlying relationship as much as on the actual spoken words. Krzyzewski ran his first basketball program at age 12, when his Chicago elementary school, St. Helen, refused to give him the team he wanted to enter in a CYO league. It was clear-cut. You can be damn sure that every guy on my team says that. Other times, he threatened to drive over in the middle of the night, back up his Escalade, and yank it from their yard. All good West Point men know how it goes. They're all good. "Know their names," he told these hospital C.E.O.'s. Frasher told him sharing a first name should make him easy to remember. Who is Mike Krzyzewski's wife Mickie? | The US Sun NEW ORLEANS Mike Krzyzewski took his seat in the back of a golf cart next to his bride of 53 years, Mickie, the flight attendant he married the day he Meet Duke coach Mike Krzyzewskis wife Carol Mickie And thats just a sad-looking tree.. In his third game as Blue Devils coach, with a Tar Heels victory secured, Dean Smith made the mistake of walking toward the Duke bench for a handshake while two meaningless free throws still needed to be shot.Coach K rejected the handshake. "Sir, I can't swim!" (His daughters, when they were younger, often went, too, but had to attest that their schoolwork was under control to be allowed to make the trip. For years, Mike Krzyzewski, the legendary Coach K, has been pounding your team, my team and every other damn team in America, but here he is saying that he's not, really, all about basketball. Krzyzewski will leave the program in assistant coach Jon Scheyers hands, and though the two of them have talked plenty about hoops and leadership and character, they sometimes discuss parenting. -- and last year accepted a second basketball job (he's staying at Duke) as the head coach of USA Basketball. Young Mike instead organized a team that took on all comers in other neighborhoods. All those national championships. A successful corporation might be led by a straight-from-the-gut guy like Jack Welch, or a recede-into-the-background geek like Bill Gates, or a visionary like Steve Jobs. Then he falls apart again. Its also a metaphor for a healthy father-in-law and son-in-law relationship: that the father-in-law is there, you know hes watching, you know hes still looking out, but ultimately hes not going to pull up your Weeper.. Abe Lemons, who led college basketball teams in Texas and Oklahoma for a combined 34 seasons, once observed that there were only two plays: "Romeo and Juliet" and Put the Darn Ball in the Basket, by which he meant that basketball (and possibly life itself) was not much about strategy. His middle daughter, Lindy, preferred to call Grant Hill for relationship advice, but sometimes her dad cornered her and offered wisdom in his own way. Kind of looking to see if there are good things in those eyes or bad things, says Frasher, whos now a home builder and real estate agent in Durham. 2004-2023 CBS Interactive. Mike Krzyzewski: Legendary Duke coach on the secrets 10:02 am ET, wrote a big story behind this photo and the two's relationship, Miami (Ohio) WBB coach resigns after investigation, Texas joins Top 25 And 1 after landing Abmas, Five-star prospect Ron Holland decommits from Texas, Ranking college basketball's top 40 transfers of 2023, No. "I don't want to be a soldier," Krzyzewski protested to his parents. Grant Hill, perhaps Krzyzewski's greatest player, was an extreme example of the Duke basketball demographic; his Yale-educated father played in the National Football League, and his mother was a classmate of Hillary Clinton's at Wellesley. Such companies "thoroughly indoctrinate employees into a core ideology creating cultures so strong that they are almost cultlike." No more games to win. OConnor details additional rifts in the relationship, including Knights anger that Krzyzewski did not accept his offer to help him scout for Team USA prior to the 2008 Olympics. What the hell does that mean?". (Duke Athletics), This is from Mike Krzyzewski's first press conference in 1980, on March 18. His winning percentage was better than most. There is a distinct internal psychology to these sorts of gatherings. To players who may leave after a year or two for the National Basketball Association, he says: "If you come here, for however long, you're going to unpack your suitcase. And Im sure thats the thing when Ill look back that Ill miss. Coach K, Ian OConnors new book, details the contentious relationship that ended with Krzyzewski saying he "was finally done with Coach Knight.. Collaboration among large numbers of people, all of them sifting and synthesizing information, is ever more important. "Leadership is trying to get them to buy into a team concept, and that's what Mike does so well. (USATSI), Finally, Krzyzewski in 2014, embracing Jabari Parker. He finally said, OK, thats the end of that,'" Krzyzewski's son in lawChris Spatola told O'Connor. ), The 1992 Dream Team coaching staff, from left: Lenny Wilkens, Chuck Daly, Mike Krzyzewski and P.J. 1,000 being right around the corner for Mike Krzyzewski, we wanted to look back at the man through the perspective of some little-seen photos. But he knew he hadn't been an idiot. "He told us freshmen to stop playing passive and to play with an attacking style," Greg Paulus, a first-year point guard, told me. He also retires with a personal winning record against the Tar Heels at 50-48, and with a victory total of 1,202 including 101 in the NCAA Tournament that no man will ever match. According to people in the hotel ballroom where the event took place, Knight was holding court with friends at his table when his former point guard approached, OConnor wrote. Coach K sees destiny denied as Duke loss sends him to Dont you think? She also has an MBA from Cameron University and a masters in Liberal Studies from Duke. Anyone can read what you share. After the game, Krzyzewski approached Knight for the traditional postgame handshake. He spent the next year taking a three-times-a-week remedial swim class with about 30 other city kids. Of all Krzyzewski's Duke players, only two have stayed the full four years and failed to graduate, a remarkable record in an era when some other elite programs routinely graduate fewer than half their players. But it's also a fact that there are some things boys don't do when women are around -- and at Duke, they always are. "You've heard of doing anything to make a deal work," he said to them. Late Saturday night, Coach K knew when it was time to say goodbye. Coach K will have plenty to do at Duke even after his coaching days end. Tone of voice. Rather than standing behind a lectern, he paced at the front of a stage. I see you trying here, Dad, but this isn't the time. . Krzyzewski The friendships can, on the one hand, be viewed as rich, successful guys wanting to hang out with each other -- and C.E.O. "I had coaches in the pros say things to me that were not that different from what I heard from Coach Krzyzewski," he says. A post shared by Duke Mens Basketball (@dukembb). His wife has poured her considerable energy and intellect into his career. This is why nearly anyone who has been successful can go out on the road as a leadership expert or write one of the dozens of books that are published on the subject each year. The books don't straight out tell male executives to be more like women, but that message is clear. He met the former Carol Marsh, known as Mickie, when he was home on break from West Point and she was working out of Chicago as a stewardess for United Airlines. ), his job was even rumored to be in danger. Mack, of Morgan Stanley, is one, along with Steve Wynn, the Las Vegas casino magnate, and Schwartz at Bear Stearns. The last ride for The Goat. But he says of Krzyzewski: "I'll be honest with you, I was kind of surprised at how smart I felt like he is. Heres a look at the Krzyzewski family tree and its strong ties to Durham: Married in 1969 on the day he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. It's something like a corporate turnaround job. WebMickie Krzyzewski is the wife of the NBA basketball team coach, Mike, and a philanthropist from Durham, North Carolina, and has been happily married for a whopping 52 years. Mickie Krzyzewski As a boy, Krzyzewski was nothing more or less than a long-legged kid from West Cortez Street. Mark Williams missed two crucial free throws late, followed by a Caleb Love 3-pointer that was the dagger. Mickie says she and her husband made an agreement when he began coaching at Army: that he would never say she couldn't go somewhere with him because no other women would be there. I guess they'd been Boy Scouts. But the girls and I had to live up to it. It was also important, Jamie says, for her young family to establish and protect boundaries, showing respect to Krzyzewski but not necessarily appeasing him. 2021-22. It was about him coming to my home and telling me to change that plant, Spatola says. And at the same time, he had strengthened the Krzyzewski brand -- the Winning With Virtue brand. I partied, and it caught up to me. For instance, the family will be able to celebrate Krzyzewskis birthday, which falls on Feb. 17 and therefore during the heart of the ACC schedule. And that was precisely the problem, Krzyzewski explained, in the same excruciating detail as if he were correcting a freshmans mechanics on a jump shot. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. "I used to play basketball," Breeden says. 2 man in the Duke athletic department, went in to see his boss. Krzyzewski looks on during practice before the 2022 March Madness Final Four during his time with Duke. The Krzyzewskis were married on his graduation day at West Point at the academy's Catholic chapel. So, in this article, lets learn about Mike Krzyzewskis wife, Mickie Krzyzewski, and their love life. Besides, they know he probably will open the best one anyway. ", Sim Sitkin, the faculty director of Duke's Fuqua/Coach K Center of Leadership & Ethics, is Krzyzewski's mentor at the business school and, to some extent, his student. The best way to get better as a team is if everyone has ownership, and if you do these things, they will.". But Krzyzewski has cleverly framed the setup so that the responsibility flows both ways, telling the freshmen that the season will rise and fall on their performance: "I've said, 'Look, we don't have time to wait for you. Having arrived in Durham with two young daughters in March 1980, Mike and Mickie Krzyzewskis family grew to include another daughter and now 10 grandchildren during Mike Krzyzewskis 42 seasons as Dukes mens basketball coach. Basketball, all boys. Here he is in 2005 -- in a home game vs. UNC -- smacking the hardwood with renowned floor-slapping former Duke assistant/player Steve Wojciechowski. He still has an athlete's build, but he walks stiffly after a series of orthopedic surgeries: two hip replacements and an operation on his back. 6-keys: media/spln/collegebasketball/reg/free/stories, at He lives on 12 secluded acres in Durham, where he spends much of his free time tending his extensive flower gardens. Still, in a sport that draws heavily from a poor, inner-city population, Krzyzewski gets more than his share of kids who are the sons of white-collar professionals, teachers, nurses, coaches and pastors. Mickie Krzyzewski Jamie and her husband, Chris Spatola, live in Hillsborough. After taking the job and moving to town, Chris had been so determined to make a good impression that he had hired his father-in-laws landscaper, Keith, to plant bushes and lay sod at their new home. tournament. The New York Times In his mind, the other academies largely teach technical skills -- how to fly a fighter jet or sail an aircraft carrier -- but West Point, more than the others, teaches officers how to bond units together and lead them into battle. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images), Krzyzewski with his wife, Mickie, and daughters Debbie, Lindy and Jamie in 1991. The indifference grew into a more impassioned, We put that thing in the ground; were planting our roots here, she says. He was 33. Late in the summer of that year, after coming to his decision, he gave one of the occasional lectures he delivers at the university's Fuqua School of Business. Not our rival: A Maryland fans farewell to Coach K, We gave him absolute hell, Lindy says. In Krzyzewski's office that day, a few minutes after he thrust his clawed hand toward my chest, I said to him that I had noticed something about his approach to leadership: despite the unquestioned authority he commands, his style, on balance, is more feminine than masculine. They are all celebrated as leaders. Tipsy K can be sentimental and reminiscent, family members say, and these are sides of himself he rarely shows the public. The Duke Blue Devils at that point had won their first seven games and were ranked No. In her earlier life, she was an airline stewardess, which led to her meeting her future husband on a flight. Jon Scheyer, who was on Duke's 2010 national championship team and has served on Krzyzewski's bench since April 2013, will speak publicly Friday. I wasn't going to sleep. Steve graduated from Illinois State University in 1989. This, apparently, extended to disagreements about conifers. She also has a masters degree from Pepperdine. In the midst of a dreary 1982-83 season (11-17, with a 3-11 record in the A.C.C. (USATSI), Krzyzewski is greeted by adorers after walking off the court and winning the 2011 ACC tourney. Jamies mother was going on about the wooded propertys beauty. In leadership, it's like you have 20 or 30 or 40. His daughters admit feeling unmoored, considering their dad has led the Blue Devils since two years before Jamies birth. It was the opposite of the guidance you might expect -- which would be to counsel young players to slow down and think about what they were doing. The announcers praised Redick's deadeye shooting but seemed most impressed by his energy. Michael William Krzyzewski then resigned his military commission, worked for one year as a graduate assistant to Knight (who had taken over at Indiana) and then -- without ever having served as a full-fledged assistant coach in college -- accepted a job as head coach back at West Point. His speech was titled "Victory Through Teamwork and Leadership,$(2$) and he segued into the substance of it by telling a story about his experience as an assistant coach of the 1992 United States Olympic basketball team, the so-called Dream Team. Frankly, Krzyzewski and his legacy will be just fine. Believe that the loose ball you're chasing has your name on it. On this night, for the first time, her parents were coming over for dinner. 1 in the nation, but in several of those contests they had sputtered and prevailed only because of superior talent or, in one case, last-second heroics: a Duke player's heave from near midcourt swished through the net as time expired, giving Duke a 2-point victory over Virginia Tech. But as Krzyzewski took the reins at Duke and became a rising star in the coaching ranks, the tone gradually shifted. As a result, many have shown curiosity to know about his family life. ", Redick says that he was "living a college lifestyle. I'm a hybrid, which I think you should be.". Coach said he did more (expletive) for (Krzyzewski) than he did for his own kids, or as much.. Here he is in 2006, while coaching Team USA Basketball. Its senior leaders, J. J. Redick and Shelden Williams, are candidates for national player of the year, and they (along with other seniors) are responsible for mentoring the team's talented core of freshmen. He later took up gardening to further connect with Gods gift to landscaping, he jokes, to better show deference while also standing his ground. Carlesimo. Capt. It was an evergreen, unusual looking, kind of big. Who pays for dinner when youre out with Coach K? In 2004, on their 35th wedding anniversary, they showed how strong their relationship remains by renewing their vows at Duke Chapel. At times Saturday night Coach K jumped out of his chair and pumped his fists and exhorted his team with a fury, to no avail. Mike Krzyzewski's interactive/feminine qualities of leadership may be partly innate, but to a large extent, he learned them from his family. Hes an iconic figure, as we know, Chris says. ", In the first few minutes of his speech, he joked about his appearance -- his big nose and overly large ears -- and noted that he is "not the best-looking guy in the world." Shes talking during an interview on Zoom when, through a window, she notices a vehicle pulling into her driveway. In 1987 Indiana beat Duke in the Midwest Regional semifinals, a crucible that a friend of Krzyzewskis describes as the divorce between the two coaches, because Krzyzewski wanted so badly to eliminate the notion that he was nothing without Knights patronage, the article read. On 2 June 2021, after more than 40 years as coach, Krzyzewski announced he will retire at the end of the 2021-22 season. he asked his instructor. In early December I watched Duke's showdown with Texas on TV, a pairing of what were then the two top-ranked teams in the nation. And maybe leadership itself is not complicated but, rather, primal: one person's ability to reach another and persuade him to be part of a team, all pulling in some common direction. He faced some reporters who were documenting the moment, and decided to have some fun with the bitter end of his incomparable career. "You gotta go just like this," he said as he formed his right hand into a claw, then extended it toward me and rotated his wrist as if he were about to rip my chest open. Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski, right, with his wife, Mickie, following a news conference Thursday where he announced his retirement planned for 2022. Credit That may sound trite or unimportant, and Redick's comments are of the type that could easily fire the imaginations of anti-Duke partisans who already like to taunt Duke players as soft preppie types. Being a salesman is part of the job, and he should get credit for that.". But starting with his first year at Duke, Krzyzewski's wife has accompanied him to the vast majority of away games. "Women tend to have more of a sensitivity to subliminal things," she says. Krzyzewski had gotten to know Chris at Dukes basketball camp, later vouching for him to former Army coach Pat Harris and recommending he play for the Black Knights. This is hardly profound. But first, he wanted to phone Krzyzewski and let him know. Krzyzewski thinks of prospective recruits as falling into one of four categories: high maintenance, medium maintenance, low maintenance and no maintenance. He enjoys living well, but it's clear that his peripatetic off-court life is something other than a money grab. I know it is. And that's not the only advantage he starts with over his competitors. Krzyzewski can be goofy, doubling over in laughter when Frasher makes an easy joke about, say, a blowfish. Since then Coach K has taken every opportunity to outline their many differences while still staying on Knights good side wherever that is undoubtedly a stickier task than teaching dozens of trophy makers how to spell his name., More:Coach K and Bobby Knight: A season on the bench. Apr 2, 2022. Krzyzewski He is set to succeed Coach K as Duke head coach starting in the 2022-23 season. When Krzyzewski started at West Point in the summer of 1965, one of his first tasks was to swim as far as he could in water seven feet deep while carrying a 10-pound brick. They want his attention, his approbation. In a rivalry defined by hate, Love was the difference, finishing with 28 points. On the other hand, perhaps this particular audience, which listened without a fork or a spoon clinking and without any low hum of conversation, needed to be reminded of this. He will praise the sons-in-law who love and dote on his girls as Krzyzewski does, jokingly saying hes a good scout of talent, Jamie says, because he knew Chris had the right stuff even before she did. Mike Krzyzewski was, now, to his admirers, his corporate acolytes and -- well, O.K., probably not to the author of the anti-Duke manifesto -- ever more worthy of admiration. Like in 2015, when he became the first coach in history to win 1,000 NCAA division basketball games. That irritating American Express commercial is blaring again during the college basketball telecasts. Krzyzewski said he felt intimidated by Jordan, who was not only a huge National Basketball Association star but had played for the University of North Carolina, Duke's archrival. If you read a sampling of books and other advice on leadership, a recurring theme emerges: managers should be more "interactive" and less "command and control," meaning they should share rather than hoard information, spread decision making and initiative across all levels of the company, and make clear that individual goals can be met only through team success. The Army, all boys. Jamie and Chris shrugged because isnt a plant just a plant? When he talked about his mother, who died in 1996, it didn't come off as shtick; it was clear he missed her. We're going to form a bond, and you're going to be part of this family. ), "Many nights we would be in our pj's, sitting on the floor and watching film with the staff," says Krzyzewski's middle daughter, Lindy Frasher. Krzyzewski knows from his time in hospitals that they are big, complex workplaces with hierarchies that stretch from high-paid specialists to residents to nurses to orderlies and janitors. Jamie imagines the scene, smiling as she pictures her dad walking outside one morning and discovering it still in its pot, situated in a prominent place in his manicured yard. He turned down a job he didn't want. He was given permission. Her husband, Chris, was nervous. So happy this photo exists. All of this is easy to ridicule because Krzyzewski is, after all, a mere coach -- and in some quarters, especially among rival fans in the bitterly competitive Atlantic Coast Conference, a reviled one. "But it didn't feel motivational. Because he was stubborn, he said during a 2019 interview with The Washington Post, he wouldnt get rid of the damn thing. 40 Years Before He Retired, Mike Krzyzewski Was Krzyzewski is not lucky. He has also raised funds for the "K Lab" (officially, the Michael W. Krzyzewski Human Performance Research Laboratory at Duke Medical Center), a research center for the prevention of athletic injuries. The effort to make his grandkids call him Coach, Lindy says, was one of the moments where hed really laugh at himself, and we just slayed him., Other than Michael Savarino, who actually plays basketball for the Blue Devils, Krzyzewskis nine other grandkids address him as Poppy., Hes an elite trash talker, reminding Chris that he may be a better gardener now, but he will never be on his father-in-laws level. It was a tree. Why is Coach K retiring? Duke legend cites family, COVID in Really. But I got the strong sense that for Krzyzewski, these relationships are part of his questing nature: he has things he wants to learn, and he figures they know some of them. Leadership guru. Grant Hill, who came to Duke a decade into Krzyzewski's reign, told me: "He's extremely persuasive. In a ceremony and news conference Thursday morning in Durham, N.C., Duke mens basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski explained his decision to retire next spring as Is Krzyzewski smug? Beautiful because those tears proved how much his kids cared, and how hard they had competed. When it was over and this 81-77 North Carolina victory was frozen in forevers lights, I asked the 75-year-old grandfather of 10 if that Michigan State rally that started it all would be his enduring tournament memory after the pain subsides. They have three daughters: Debbie, Lindy, and Jamie. According to reports from The Wall Street Journal, Mickie was the only person who could persuade him to stand down during the 199495 season, when he suffered a back injury. Krzyzewski explained his method for getting such points across. Because Krzyzewski attracts kids who tend to feel secure, and not just about basketball, he can put pressure on them similar to what he experienced at West Point, knowing that even when they fail, they are unlikely to feel like failures. One of the lessons is that the best shooter does not always get to take the shot; sometimes he has to pass the ball or set a screen.
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