YouTube Gold: The Time Coach K Went Full Gladiator

Jason Williams went on the Rich Eisen Show in 2016 and told this story about one of Mike Krzyzewski’s legendary motivational ploys.

The team was preparing for a game and in a room with rows of seats and a screen. So the scene from Gladiator comes on where Maximus was riding in front of his troops before battle and telling them that if they wake up somewhere else, not to worry because they’re already in Elysium.

So a flaming arrow shoots into the room and hits a dartboard. Then a basketball rolls in the doorway and Coach K pounces on it and wrestles it and starts screaming “fight with me!”

And everyone jumped up and rushed out of the room ready to go to war, or at least the basketball equivalent of it.

Williams was so fired up he broke his shoelace and had to go back to replace it. He can tell the rest of the story. It’s pretty great.