This (Non) Sporting Life: Coach K Calls It a Day

Welcome to This (Non) Sporting Life, an occasional feature of this blog wherein I who knows very little about sports writes about sports. 

And today's post is about a significant shift in the landscape of sports, the announcement of the retirement of legendary Duke University head coach Mike Mxyzptlk.  

Mike Kltpzyxm 

Mike Nyxlygsptlnz

Mike Koothrapahli 

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Mike...

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(Hold on a minute!)  

The retirement of legendary Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski.  

Affectionally known as Coach K.  (Whew! That's way easier to type.) 

Coach K calls it a day.  Well, in about a year, actually, he'll call it a day.

He will step down at the end of the 2021-2022 season. 

And replacing Coach K the next year as head coach will be Mike's current associate head coach Jon Scheyer who is also a former Duke player. 

A lot of advance planning going on. No mercurial decisions here, no emotional abrupt declaration of quitting, no being fired under a cloud of scandal.

The legacy of Coach K deserves a better ending than that and he is getting one. 

While I am not a sports guy per se, when it comes to college basketball, I've hitched my star to Duke University.  Surrounded as I am by mostly Carolina Tarheel fans, I am contrarian enough to root for their hated rivals, the Duke Blue Devils. 

But my support for Duke owes a lot to the man at the top of the program, Coach K.  

Mike has the bonafides of a winning coach with 24 straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1996 to 2019. And his Duke teams have won the damned thing five times.   

But he has struck me as a man of good character with leadership skills beyond just guiding young men to win basketball games.  

Unlike some coaches who are more than willing to throw their own teams under a bus after a loss, Coach K would give credit to the other team. "We got beat by a better team." 

Coach K shows respect for his players, the players of other teams and other coaches.  And in turn, he has earned a level of respect unmatched in the game of basketball. 

Coach K served as coach of the US Olympic basketball team, a team made up of the best of the NBA, pro-basketball powerhouses with their own egos, their own agendas. But Coach K would get these guys to gel as a team, to mold their considerable individual talents into a cohesive and unstoppable unit.  And these multi-millionaire players would come away from this experience with a deep and abiding respect for Coach K. 

In a game that sometimes falls victim to the worst excesses of ego and bravado, Mike Krzyzewski exemplifies dignity and respect. 

At 74 years old, Mike has more than earned his time to kick back and relax. And I'm glad he gets this chance to leave this game on his terms, to coach one more season and to have his successor at his side.  

Good journey to you, Mike Krzyzewski, in this farewell season and the joys and pleasures of a well earned retirement that is to come.