{"id":1417174,"date":"2022-04-03T20:29:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T00:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1417174"},"modified":"2022-04-03T20:29:40","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T00:29:40","slug":"its-not-about-me-coach-k-focuses-on-his-players-when-everyone-wanted-it-to-be-about-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-not-about-me-coach-k-focuses-on-his-players-when-everyone-wanted-it-to-be-about-him\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s Not About Me\u2019: Coach K Focuses On His Players When Everyone Wanted It To Be About Him"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fits-not-about-me-coach-k-focuses-on-his-players-when-everyone-wanted-it-to-be-about-him%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1417174&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1239723589.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>As Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski walked off the floor of the Superdome Saturday night, the last time he would ever walk off of a basketball court as head coach, you knew that all the talk would be centered around Coach K\u2019s career.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>47 years, 1,202 wins, 13 trips to the Final four, and five national championships. How could the conversation not be centered around the end of a career that is arguably the greatest of all time?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But that wasn\u2019t what Krzyzewski wanted. For Coach K, it was never about his legacy, or about celebrating his career when he announced his intention to step away after the 2021-2022 college basketball season. It was about being a teacher of men, guiding his players through the trials and tribulations of a college basketball season, hopefully learning a few lessons along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After the loss, Krzyzewski was asked multiple times to reflect on his career, what his emotions were as he walked off the court for the final time \u2014 but he wouldn\u2019t give in. For Coach K, that will come at a later date.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s not about me,\u201d Krzyzewski said when asked about his emotions, \u201cespecially right now. As a coach, I\u2019m just concerned about these guys. I mean, they\u2019re already crying on the court. And I mean, that\u2019s the only thing you can think about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAnd then going into the locker room, I\u2019ve said my entire career \u2014 or when I knew what the hell I was doing \u2014 that I wanted my seasons to end where my team was either crying tears of joy or tears of sorrow, because then you knew you gave everything,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd I had a locker room filled with guys who were crying. And it\u2019s a beautiful sight. It\u2019s not the sight that I would want. I\u2019d want the other. But it\u2019s a sight that I really respect and makes me understand just how good this group was.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For 42 years, Krzyzewski was the face of Duke University, turning a struggling program into the blue blood it is today. He did so by recruiting the best. Whether they were one-and-done\u2019s or four-year players, each group was brought to Duke by Coach K for a reason.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cFor these guys, they\u2019ve been a joy,\u201d Krzyzewski said when asked to reflect on his last squad. \u201cWe made our announcement it would be our last year \u2014 I told my wife, Mickie, look, we\u2019re going for it. And I\u2019m going to put everything into it. And I got a group, they\u2019re young, but I think they\u2019ve got a chance. And I was right about that. So every day \u2014 we had a few bumps in the road, but they won 32 games. And they turned it around in March where they\u2019ve been beautiful young men to coach. I could not ask for more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Over the coming days and weeks, hundreds of articles will be written about Coach K\u2019s career, and radio hosts will discuss his legacy ad nauseam. But on Saturday, after a crushing defeat and the end of his coaching career, Coach K made it about his players. The guys who made his career possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAt some time,\u201d Krzyzewski said when asked if he had a message for his players. \u201cLet\u2019s deal with tonight and the season. And obviously we\u2019re concerned about all their futures and making sure that we give them good guidance and advice and support in how we move forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAnd they know that I\u2019ll always be with them,\u201d he continued. \u201cSo, they know that. And we\u2019ll be able to move on as a program. But my relationships with them will always be there. Look, these guys are really good. They weren\u2019t good, they were really good. And they\u2019ve been a joy. They\u2019ve been a joy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to sports@dailywire.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Enter for the chance to hang out with Gina Carano at the premiere of her new Daily Wire movie, Terror on the Prairie! Two lucky Daily Wire members will be given the complete red carpet treatment \u2013 free airfare, hotel, premiere car service, and exclusive merch. Daily Wire members can click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/redcarpet\">here<\/a>\u00a0to enter for a chance to win. If you\u2019re not a Daily Wire member yet, click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/subscribe\">here<\/a>\u00a0to join us so you can win this once-in-a-lifetime experience.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski walked off the floor of the Superdome Saturday night, the last time he would ever walk off of a basketball court as head coach,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1417174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1417174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1417174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1417174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1417174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}