A Legend Walks Away

In college sports, because players come and go every three of four years, successful and respected coaches become the unchanging presence and face of their teams.

The ones who stay and succeed become intertwined with their school and transcend time. For Alabama football it was Bear Bryant, for Tennessee basketball it was Pat Summit or at Penn State it was Joe Paterno. There are many others we could mention, but you get the point. And for those coaches long associated with one school, there is a special attachment to their home field or court. 

Saturday night another legend will walk out of his home arena one last time as coach Mike Krzyzewski leaves the court at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It is just fitting that the game is against North Carolina, in a rivalry that transcends the sport.

It is impossible to grasp the enormous emotions that come when someone who gave so much of their heart and soul to one place walks away from that place. It is impossible to understate the deep ties that come from finding a home to coach and then staying there for decades.

And it would be easy to list the awards, titles and wins of Coach K’s career. But like all the greatest of college coaches, the awards and accolades pale when measured against the impact on the student-athletes he coached. 

Ten and a half years ago Coach K spent a day here at Penn State to tape an ESPN special with Joe Paterno. Also on the stage that day were Duke alums Jay Bilas and Jay Williams. In the stories they shared both on stage and backstage, the reverence they had for what Coach K meant to their lives came through.

It is the reason that men like Coach K are drawn to college coaching. He came to the vocation long before shoe contracts, before the big money and exposure that seems routine now. The years of work to become the legendary Coach K that we see now are easily forgotten. It is easy to forget that while a call from Coach K gets the attention of every recruit in the country, it was not always so.

To be Coach K now, he had to be Coach K then. And Coach K then had some tough years starting out. But he believed in himself, he had to outwork others and found players who believed. Patience and persistence through adversity built the foundation of his long career of academic and athletic excellence that we take for granted now.

He instilled a toughness in his players, a sense in them that when they stepped on the court in that Duke uniform, they were something different. They gained a fierce pride that to outsiders looked like arrogance. In my years coaching football at Virginia, UVA basketball fans resented Dean Smith and UNC, but the seeming Duke arrogance earned an even higher level of disdain.

But that “arrogance” was really the poise with which they competed, a calm that never seemed to be shaken amid the din and chaos of the most hostile opposing arenas. Even on what may be the most famous play of the Coach K era, the improbable pass to Christian Laettner and the game-winning basket against Kentucky, there were no signs of panic as that team lined up facing the longest of odds. 

Above all Coach K is an example of the true mission of college coaching. Whether he coached a player for one year or four years they invariably left his program a better man than when they arrived.

Across the decades he never forgot that college coaching is teaching, an educational endeavor for life. Young college athletes arrive full of the swagger that comes from being recruited at the highest level. And then a funny thing happens. These athletes realize that everyone else was just as highly recruited and they must mature, learn and compete to get in the lineup. And then after they’ve found their place, the swagger returns.

That time between day one and graduation is where real coaches thrive. That is where the coaches who last at one place show their true worth. 

And when legends finally walk away we will miss them. But they too will miss it all.

Like all great competitors, Coach K will miss the pre-game tension, the hope that his preparation was enough. He will miss that moment when he calls the next play or defense knowing there is a big reward but the kind that only comes with big risk, the kind that can change the outcome of the game, a season and a year’s worth of effort.

He will miss the disciplined focus amid the swirling roar of the crowd while plotting the next move in the chess match as the game unfolds on a Saturday night when the gym is packed and alive with big-game emotions. Coach K will certainly miss the walk off the court after a big win, and even a small part of him may miss the challenge of leading a team back to victory after a tough loss.

No matter how enduring the legacy and legend of any one coach, the time of goodbye comes for all. No one has yet outrun the fates that ultimately force all to turn the page and walk away. 

The final buzzer sounds for all.

And as Coach K walks off the court he called home for over 40 years… He takes with him the respect across the decades from all of his players and coaches, from those who competed and coached against him, and from all Duke fans and everyone who admired his commitment to the highest ideals of college sports.