USAToday has an article up on Coach K's comments about not going to the Lakers, praising him for staying in college basketball where, they say (and we agree) he belongs. However, we disagree with the notion that he couldn't succeed in the pros. The essence of what he does is to communicate and lead.
There's no question that with almost every NBA team you have to deal with egomaniacs and boneheads, but we're pretty sure that a) he wouldn't sign with a team unless he had some control over the roster, and b) the team was in good shape to start with.
Most of the college coaches fall into this trap. Think Pitino (rebuilding Celtics, although he had a nice, if forgotten, turn with the Knicks), Carlesimo and the Warriors (it's interesting to consider what might have happened had Latrell Sprewell attempted to choke Krzyzewski), Mike Montgomery, also with the Warriors, John Calipari with the almost always struggling Nets, and Lon Kruger, if we remember with Atlanta, where coaches, pro or college, go to die.
Krzyzewski, we would expect, would avoid this mistake if he had opted to go the the NBA. That's not to say that he would encounter smooth sailing - even with the Lakers, Kobe Bryant's ego would eventually become a problem - but that he's smart enough to avoid some problems.
That said, he does indeed belong in college.