Legendary Duke Coach Revealed How He Avoided Confrontation With LeBron James

Mike Krzyzewski is a 5-time national champion with Duke University. Coach K is most probably the best college coach of all time. He has the second-most national championships. His excellence in the college tournaments attracted the attention of the United States national team. Despite his success before the appointment, there was one man who he was not on the best terms with, and that was LeBron James.

It was a disappointing outing for the US team in the 2004 Olympics when they finished with a bronze medal. Coach K could not make an immediate impact after his arrival and they lost to Greece in the 2006 FIBA World Championship. LeBron was a part of both the teams and was unsure of the team’s direction. However, he knew he was the right man.

The US team under Coach K won 3 gold medals at 2008, 2012, and the 2016 Olympics. They also won 2 gold medals at the 2010 and 2014 FIBA World Cup. For the time span of 2009-2016, the US team had won everything more than once. They showed complete dominance over the world in basketball.

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However, this success took time, discipline, and ‘standards’ as Coach K and the whole had instilled.

Coach K had ‘standards’ to chase success and maintain relations with LeBron James

A few years back, Graham Bensinger interviewed Mike Krzyzewski talking about his experience with the national side, the success and medals he won with them, and how he and LeBron improved their tense relationship with time.

“Bron and I have a great relationship. We get that from being honest from the get-go. In that particular situation it was, look at me. We need to have an eye to eye contact, you know.”

Coach K said, “So it actually became one of our standards. There are 14 standards that our US Olympic team had. It’s the way you live. The way you expect other people to live.”

He continued, “We have no rules, but we have standards. One of them, what came from that, is when we talk to each other, we look each other in the eye. Another standard is we tell each other the truth. A standard that LeBron introduced to the whole team was no excuses, you never make an excuse.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t figure out why you do it. A standard can be not being late, never having a bad practice, having each other’s back, being flexible, having a strong face all the time. Remember that you’re representing something bigger than you.”

READ MORE: Coach K praises LeBron and Kobe.

LeBron James had skipped college and had no experience of playing under or seeing coach K in action. When Mike joined the national side in hopes of doing better, James was into his 5th year in the NBA. 

Mike admitted that he was never the one to shout, but once he did it on LeBron. To avoid such confrontations, he made sure that the two were always honest with each other according to their standards. Obviously, it worked as Coach K led the national team to greater heights.