Today, all NBA games in the United States are suspended because Crazy March reached the Finals. The NBA has to go around, except for the Super Bowl game, and it's only Crazy March.
Nearly 90,000 spectators poured into New Orleans' Caesars Super Dome, a rugby stadium that was chosen because the crazy three's popular basketball gym could no longer fit.
The match was a showdown between North Carolina, Jordan's alma mater, and The latter Beings, Pierce, Embiid and others.
In the end, the University of Kansas played the biggest reversal in the history of the NCAA finals, and they completed a 16-point reversal drama, and finally won the championship again after 14 years.
But today we bring you not the story of these two teams, but the story of Duke coach K. After all, throughout the crazy March of the season, one thing that can't jump over is the retirement of coach K.
Coach K, who can almost be called the first head of the NCAA, was the first Chisatsu coach in NCAA history, coached at Duke University for 42 years, and witnessed the evolution of basketball on american campuses.
In fact, as early as last June, coach K announced that this season was his last season, so when Duke University lost to North Carolina in the NCAA semifinals, coach K officially retired.
Of course, fans are more familiar with his other identity - the manager of the American men's basketball team.
In the 12 years since 2005, Coach K has led the American team to win 3 Olympic championships and 2 World Championships, leading the American team to a record of 88 wins and 1 loss. The phrase "our best players are coming" for the 2008 Olympics came from the mouth of old K.
The reason why people call him Coach Old K, or CoachK, is because his name is so difficult to pronounce. His real name is Michael Krzyzewski, a Polish surname that is very difficult to pronounce in the United States.
So when Krzyzewski's name first appeared in newspapers, the editor was kind enough to attach a pronunciation guide.
But no one expected that this Polish surname would become a monument to American basketball in the future.
There is also a story about his last name, which is about his father. As a first-generation Polish immigrant, K's father was worried that Shaszewski's awkward pronunciation would affect the integration of the entire family into American society, so even at home he did not allow his children to speak dialects, and changed his surname "Shaszewski" to "Klaus".
He started as a hotel elevator clerk and worked in a variety of low-level jobs, always under the name Klaus.
Until many years later, when the old K left a strong mark in the field of college basketball, the old K chose to replace his father's old tombstone - the name on the new tombstone, "Klaus" became "Shashevsky".
Today, Shashevsky's surname has long been a household name, which is not unrelated to the personal struggle of coach K. Old K didn't play in the NBA, and even his development path when he was younger was not in basketball.
He graduated from West Point and was supposed to become an officer or a politician, but he gave up his rank and chose to become a basketball coach. So he started his coaching career at West Point, where he came to Duke after 5 years of coaching.
In 1980, Coach K came to Duke University to teach for 42 years.
When coach K took over the Coach Duke, college basketball hadn't even set an offensive time limit; when he first led Duke to the NCAA Final Four in 1986, college basketball hadn't introduced three-pointers.
Duke University's appearance ceremony was first for the players, then the assistant coach, and finally the head coach. The players have changed stubble after stubble, and the assistant coach has also been promoted and high, except for the name of head coach Mike Shashevsky, which has not changed for 42 years.
But this season, when coach K came out of the dressing room, his right foot was a bit lame. This is not difficult to understand, after all, he is 75 years old.
So when he announced last June that he would retire after playing this season, Duke seemed to be preparing for a farewell ceremony for months.
Two banners hung in the school with the words "Tribute, The Only Old K Coach," one on the front of the home Cameron Indoor Stadium, and the other on the parking lot on Science Avenue, where Old K most often appears.
In 42 years, Coach K has successfully built Duke University into a basketball school. The NBA debut from Duke university has a total of 42 players, including Grant Hill, Carey Irving, Tatum, Zion Williamson, Ingram and other stars.
Every year during basketball season, tents are set up outside Duke University's Cameron Stadium, the only way Duke people can get into the arena to watch the ball. From the initial days of queuing up, to the weeks that followed.
The longest record is that someone camped 48 days in advance just to catch a glimpse of the game. And old K will also habitually come here, buying pizza for the "residents" outside the stadium from time to time.
Coach K is the first Thousand Wins coach in college men's basketball, with 1202 career wins and a 76% win rate. The record for the most wins in the NCAA Crazy Three Tournament also belongs to him, with a win-win of 101 games. He is also the first head coach in history to lead a team to the NCAA Final Four in five years.
Under his coaching, Duke won a total of 5 NCAA championships and reached the final four 13 times. Old K won the national best coach 12 times. In 42 years, Duke has failed to make it to the Crazy Three Tournament only five times.
According to him, "I never saw myself as a basketball coach, I always saw myself as a leader, and it just so happened that I was coaching basketball." ”
Coach K has a typical military style, after all, he was born in West Point, so he has a nickname in college basketball circles called "Tyrant", and he will scold the players to the point of bloodshed.
Espnon's close-up story has a detail that in 2017, Coach K missed some mid-season games due to back injury surgery, and one of the games they lost to the wrongdoer North Carolina, so all the players received the news that Old K had come to his home to assemble.
At that time, the team's first-year player Tatum was also among them, and old K directly scolded: "You only want to go to the NBA, you get out of here." ”
When the team members left Old K's home, they received another text message asking them to come to the locker room at 6 a.m. the next day.
When they got to the locker room, they found that everyone had two garbage bags in front of the cabinet, and coach K had them packed up and thrown out, and when the team members put their things back in the car, the code for the locker room door was changed. When players want to train on the court, they can't even wear Duke's gear, only white shirts and basket shorts...
Old K's move is to inspire the players to be competitive, ashamed and courageous.
There are countless similar stories, but this is only one of his strategies, after all, to build a disciplined team, the manager must have enough majesty.
The old K coach is not to create any earth-shattering tactical system, after all, 42 years of coaching, players are changing basketball, obsessed with a style is difficult to ensure the longevity of the team.
The reason why Duke University can be strong is often due to the extreme harshness of old K's attention to detail.
Old K has a proven motivational strategy of bombarding new students and players with obvious weaknesses in training, and then sending a senior player to his room to explain why he's so angry.
"It's a regular operation of Duke basketball," former Duke player Melchione told Sports Illustrated, "you always get the absolute truth from him, maybe go back to the dorm and cry, but the next day when you go back to the court, you get better because of the crying." ”
Coach K has three dogs, all of whom have names related to Duke, one of whom is called "Defense" and the other two are called "Cameron" and "Blue". It is enough to see the old K's requirements for the discipline of the team.
Of course, if it is only harsh, many coaches can do it, and even many coaches have caused counterproductive results because they are too strong in control.
Old K's balance in this regard is well done. His coaching is not only harsh and reprimanded, but also similar to the blood of chickens.
Espn wrote in an interview that on the eve of a match in 2005, he played the movie "Braveheart" to the team members, and when the team returned to the locker room after warming up on the day of the game, the assistant coach played a clip of William Wallace cutting off the head of the enemy and inserting his sword into the ground.
At the moment when William Wallace inserted his sword, Coach K brandished his old saber, plunged the knife into the large flowerpot prepared in advance, and shouted, "Rush me!" XX's! ”
Ryan Kadbecker, who played at Duke University, also said in an interview with TheAthletic: "The night before the 2001 NCAA Finals, Sr. K gathered the players into the room and let us imagine the scene after the championship, and the staff also played a short video of the championship, and we got goosebumps. ”
It is also many excellent college coaches like Coach Old K who constantly polish the skills and ideas of players that make the NCAA an important channel for NBA basketball talent, and Old K has also been recognized by basketball in the United States.
Bryant once said that if he had not gone directly to the NBA and chose to go to college, he would have chosen Duke. James also recently said that if he were asked to choose college, he would choose between Duke and North Carolina.
After that, everyone is familiar with the identity of the American coach, when the American men's basketball team began to lose various international competitions in 2002, so ask the old K coach to take charge of the coaching seal.
In fact, as early as the formation of the dream team, the old K coach was already a big favorite of the manager, after all, the Duke he led was at the peak.
But coaches like this tend to be less likely to get along with superstars because both sides have a strong sense of personality. So the manager chose Chuck Daly, a man of prestige who could communicate with superstars.
When the old Coach K was elected as the coach of the American team, this was also the same reason. At that time, U.S. basketball's dominance in the world was in jeopardy, losing one after another. So after K took charge of the coaching seal, he hoped to make the American team as disciplined as Duke.
When Howard didn't seriously defend against demolition in a warm-up match, Old K ruthlessly scolded: "You must xx really care about this!" ”
In exchange for another careless defensive breakup by Howard. If it is a coach with a strong desire for control, it is likely to force the correction of player errors, referring to the story of the feud between Iverson and Larry Brown.
But Old K chose to delegate power to the players, and he held a meeting after the establishment of the Dream Eight team, and he said: "You are not a college player, I don't have any rules to say, you set the rules." ”
Kidd said to "start with defense", old K wrote "start from defense" on the whiteboard, James said "don't make excuses", and old K wrote "don't make excuses" on the whiteboard.
In a sense, the manager of the American men's basketball team has to have the character of the left and right Fengyuan to serve, and the old K is quick enough to adjust his coaching style.
So in the 12 years since 2005, Coach K led the American team to win 3 Olympic championships and 2 World Championships, leading the American team to achieve a record of 88 wins and 1 loss.
The only defeat was at the 2006 World Championships in Japan, where he lost to Greece in the semi-finals, which was the first lesson for the old K to take charge of the coaching seal, but in all the subsequent games, including the warm-up game, the old K coach was able to win the players to give him a life.
'He's the best player controller, he always gets the players to buy in, he has the best coaching psychology skills." Syracuse University coach Jim Bowham, who is older than coach K, said so.
Many people ask, such coaching ability and understanding of basketball, why didn't you go to the NBA? In fact, there were several NBA teams that handed out contracts to the old K coach, including the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004, when the top management hoped that someone could become the manager of Kobe's peak, but he refused.
Old K said, "Helping Duke's basketball get better is enough for me!" ”
Duke University's Basketball Hall of Fame, all three showcases belong to Old K. 12 replicas of the Final Four and Finals logos, a dazzling array of trophies, 10 retired jerseys hanging on the walls, 6 of which can be traced back to the old K.
Micky, K's wife, once told ESPN reporters: "He doesn't have much time to do anything else, except to become a basketball coach Shashevsky. ”
So when old K said he was going to retire, the reason was also: "We work as a coach, no matter what the project, we have to give up a lot of life time for what we have, but now I am selfish and will not give up anything." 」 ”
But in 42 years of college basketball coaching, Coach K wrote his own story, and also wrote a story that belonged to American basketball.
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