“I Wanted to Get Away From College”: Coach K on Fighting Bureaucracy and His Role With the NBA

Enjoying his retirement, the Hall of Famer and 5-time NCAA Champion Coach K is into different engagements now. The legendary coach with 1000 wins under his belt is no longer leading the Duke Blue Devils, but Mike Krzyzewski has still got plenty to go on.

Looking back to his coaching days, Mike talks about how he wanted to get away from the system.

When Coach K wanted to leave college

In a recent YouTube video of the Brotherhood Podcast, Coach K said something that turned everyone’s head. Coach K joined Ryon in an elite conversation. The all-time greatest coach gave an update on his life post-retirement, his connection with the Brotherhood, his point of view on the 2023-24 team, and his thoughts on the current scenario of college sports, along with other things.

In the podcast, Ryon asked Coach K about his consulting position in the NBA and how he feels at Duke after getting retired. To this Coach K answers, “It’s exciting and it’s very different. I didn’t want to do TV, you know like in-studio games and actually, I wanted to, outside of trying to help our program I wanted to get away from college, uh um leadership and the structure of, it’s very frustrating for me yeah during my time to fight bureaucracy.”

Moreover, Coach K shed some light on how he wanted to stay connected with the sport, “I wanted to be involved with basketball at the highest level. Adam Silver and I are really close friends, the commissioner of the NBA, and I didn’t want a permanent job with them I didn’t. I wanted to be an independent contractor and have some Freedom.”

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Duke University provided him with the best environment to live his dream and brought him closer to basketball.

Mike Krzyzewski on living his passion

Mike always wanted to be a teacher and a basketball coach. Moreover, he did get all these opportunities to live that dream at Duke University. As the interview continued, he talked about his connection with the NBA beneficial to everyone at the University.

He says, “So we have an arrangement where I would go to meetings general manager meetings and that be on zooms and they do things at the highest level, and it’s obviously he’s the best commissioner I think of All Sport. I’ve learned a lot and I think I’ve contributed and uh you know, we have so many guys in the NBA and a lot of managers who are working in the NBA, and all our guys that are playing now want to be in the NBA, and so for me to have that connection is good.”

“I think I can give advice or help you guys or future guys. But it keeps me thinking at the level I want to be thinking at for the sport I love I mean I’ve, I love basketball and I got to know the NBA very well during the 11 years I coached the US team and that’s where Adam and I became close and he was there every step of the way so, I’m looking forward to the start of the NBA season you know right here towards the end of the month,” he added.

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What are your thoughts on Coach K’s remarkable career? Tell us in the comments.