Updated.
Krzyzewski will coach US in 2012 Games
By Brian Mahoney
Mike Krzyzewski could have left international basketball on top, having returned the United States to its longtime position as the world’s best.
That’s not what coaches like Krzyzewski do.
“It was very easy to walk away, but I just don’t think people who are accustomed to competing or high achievers walk away,” USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said. “You just keep competing.”
So that’s what Krzyzewski plans, right on through the 2012 Olympics.
USA Basketball announced Tuesday that Krzyzewski will return to lead the United States in next summer’s world championships and when it defends its gold medal in London.
The Americans won the championship last year in Beijing and will bring the leadership of that team back for another run. Krzyzewski’s entire staff of assistants also will return—New York’s Mike D’Antoni, Portland’s Nate McMillan and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse.
“We all felt as a staff the work wasn’t over,” Krzyzewski said at a press conference. “Our goal this time is to make it even better.”
Colangelo, who hired Krzyzewski to lead the national team in 2005, already had committed to returning. He never pushed Krzyzewski for an answer about a return—even as they shared a pizza and bottle of wine until well past midnight in April in a Chicago hotel lobby—because he could tell all along that’s exactly what the coach wanted to do.
Leaving became even harder for Krzyzewski once players started talking about playing again in Beijing.
“It would have been really hard,” Krzyzewski said. “In my coaching career, I don’t really have any regrets. Obviously you’d like to have won a certain game or two, but as far as decisions of where I coach and what I’m doing, I’ve led a very charmed life. And I think if I didn’t do this, I would have regretted it.”
Krzyzewski will become the first U.S. coach of multiple Olympic teams since Henry Iba, who won gold in 1964 and ’68 and coached the team that lost the controversial 1972 gold-medal game to the Soviet Union.
“We don’t have term limits at USA Basketball and so when you have a great thing going, you keep it going,” Colangelo said.
The return of Krzyzewski, a college coach who was well liked by the NBA’s best, could influence some top American players to suit up again, especially since both he and Colangelo have said the Americans must make the worlds a higher priority.
“I think they understand that their job isn’t over, either,” Krzyzewski said.
Colangelo spoke with the core of last year’s team, including recent league MVPs Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, in February and believes they are interested in competing next summer in Turkey.
That’s partly because they enjoyed playing for Krzyzewski, who took over after the Americans had tumbled to the lowest point in their basketball history.
“I had a wonderful experience playing for Coach K and his staff. Winning the gold medal in China last summer was one of the highlights of my career,” NBA scoring leader Dwyane Wade said in a statement. “I believe his return will make many players want to join the senior national team and represent our country.”
After winning gold in the 2000 Olympics, the Americans fell to sixth place in the 2002 worlds and managed only a bronze medal two years later in the Athens games. Colangelo took control of USA Basketball following those embarrassments and ins uted a program to better prepare the Americans for international compe ions.
He chose Krzyzewski as the program’s coach even though no U.S. senior team had been led by someone from the college ranks since NBA players began competing in the Olympics in 1992—Krzyzewski assisted Chuck Daly on that squad.
“I said at the time he was the right guy at the right time, and that certainly proved to be the case,” Colangelo said.
Krzyzewski led the Americans to a 36-1 record from 2006-08, and developed strong relationships with his players, after previous coaches Larry Brown and George Karl had publicly bickered with them. And it’s those relationships that drove Krzyzewski to sign on for another tour at age 62.
“I know that the guys who played for us in Beijing, they became part of our family,” Krzyzewski said. “Why wouldn’t we want to do it again”?
The graduate of the U.S. Military Academy has been on U.S. staffs in 11 compe ions and couldn’t pass up a chance to come back, agreeing with Colangelo that the Americans should keep a good thing going. He and Colangelo spoke throughout the winter and spring, but Colangelo told Krzyzewski not to decide until he his family and his superiors at Duke were comfortable with him giving up at least two more summers.
Now the Hall of Fame coach can fill one of the only holes in his resume. He has only a pair of bronze medals from the world championships, leading a team of college players that lost to a powerful Yugoslavia squad in 1990 and a team that included James and Wade but was upset by Greece in the 2006 semifinals in Japan.
The Americans are holding a minicamp this week for 23 young players who could be candidates to play for Krzyzewski, but he won’t run the practices, leaving those duties to Toronto’s Jay Triano. Krzyzewski will take the reins again next summer, and again if the Americans don’t win the worlds and are forced to play in the Olympic qualifier in 2011.
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Young NBA players take first step on 2012 Olympic path
Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose, the past two NBA Rookies of the Year, will be among 23 players who will gather here for the USA Basketball men's national team mini-camp that opens on Thursday.
Three days of workout sessions that amount to a first step on the road to assembling a 2012 London Olympic squad will culminate with the participants split into blue and white squads for Saturday's USA Basketball Showcase game.
Chicago Bulls guard Rose was the 2009 Rookie of the Year while swingman Durant of Oklahoma City won the top newcomer award in 2008.
Four players who had been expected to attend - Trevor Ariza of the Houston Rockets, Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge and Portland guard Brandon Roy and Boston's Glen Davis - will not participate in the camp, USA Basketball said.
Eric Gordon of the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State forward Anthony Randolph have been added to the original camp roster while Indiana's Danny Granger and New York's David Lee will attend but not take part in workouts.
Among those taking part will be Portland's Greg Oden and Jerryd Bayless, Memphis' Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo, college standout Blake Griffin, New Jersey's Devin Harris, Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young and Russell Westbrook of Oklahoma City.
"While we look to continue to build continuity within the USA National Team program and continue to improve, in 2009 we will get a look at some of the top young NBA players who haven?t been involved in USA Basketball at the top national program level," USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo said.
"This is their opportunity to be considered for the next generation of players who will help make up the USA Basketball national program."
A select squad of US NBA stars reclaimed Olympic gold last year at Beijing after finishing third at the 2004 Athens Games.
US teams with NBA talent will compete at next year's World Basketball Championship in Turkey, the 2011 Americas Olympic qualifying tournament unless they win the world le and the 2012 London Olympics.
"The roster for the national team program will be fluid in 2010-2012 and we will make adjustments to the roster each year to help insure we have the strongest program and the strongest teams possible," Colangelo said.
Last edited by duncan228; 07-21-2009 at 07:42 PM.
Wade, Lebron, Kobe, D-Will, Paul, Bosh, Melo, and Howard will all be back!
My picks for the other 4: Rose, Granger, Durant, and Griffin
Paul/D-Will/Rose
Kobe/D-Wade/Durant
Lebron/Melo/Granger
Bosh/Griffin
Howard/
Melo and Lebron could play PF if needed. D-Will can play either guard spot. This team = Gold Medal
Still need some size in the paint. Either granger or durant should be cut to make room for a guy that can give some help to Bosh/Griffin/Howard once needed. Taking only 3 players to rotate is the paint is simply a big gamble, the rotation would break down once an injury bites one of them, and I don't think Melo or Lebron can guard those traditional PF like Dirk and Pau.
I expected this...already can't wait to defend the medal.
Agreed. But who do you cut and who do you replace him with?
Bigmen at USA National Camp:
Lopez
Milsap
Love
Lee
Oden
Green(Maybe)
I would put it more like this...
Paul/Williams/Rose
Kobe/Wade
LeBron/Durant/Granger
Melo/Griffin
Howard/Bosh
Melo will play primarily as the PF. The team probably still needs a shooter in the Redd mold - i dont think he will be back. Durant and Granger can both shoot, but both are scorers rather than shooters, and probably need the ball to be most effective.
You could probably have another big man who can block shots, but who? Greg Oden wont make the team, maybe Brook Lopez..
Does duncan228 actually post anything other than articles that he spends all his time reading?
Bynum will be on the team.
First off, Duncan228 is a female..and yes...she's a great poster...get out a pencil and take notes.
lets hope those idiotic rings don't come back
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