Here’s something pretty cool we’d totally forgotten: a big part of the reason why USA Basketball opted to hire Mike Krzyzewski was...Dean Smith.
Jerry Colangelo, as part of his basketball due diligence, called Smith to ask his opinion of a list of potential Olympic coaches he was considering, both pro and college, and Smith said the only guy who could do it was Krzyzewski.
In one of his books, former Celtic great Bill Russell said that men had a huge problem getting past competitiveness, and we can’t imagine two more competitive rivals than Smith and Coach K. Despite their many differences - Coach K once memorably said that the two “didn’t smoke out of same pack of cigarettes” - they were both aware of each other’s talents.
Krzyzewski knew early that he was taking on a huge challenge at Duke. Time has faded memories a bit, but Smith dominated the ACC for a very long time and drove everyone nuts, mostly because he won so consistently and also because his competitive drive led him to say things, including some that he occasionally regretted.
Coach K sought out advice from other people, including Duke legend Vic Bubas, who basically told him to focus on himself, advice that K may have repeated, intentionally or not, when he advises his players to “run their own race” at Duke.
For his part, we were told a story when Smith was still alive that really was remarkable. During Coach K’s early years at Duke, when everything was a struggle, UNC was beating the pants off of the Blue Devils. A student trainer told Smith during at timeout that Coach K must not be a very good coach.
“You wait,” said Smith. “He’s going to be great.”
It’s a great story and we heard it from the person who Smith spoke to on the sidelines that day.