The NBA has added former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski to its league office, announcing today in a press release that Krzyzewski has been hired as a special adviser to basketball operations (Twitter link).
In his new position in the league office, Krzyzewski will “provide counsel to the league office, NBA team executives, and other leaders across the league on a host of issues related to the game,” the league said in today’s announcement. He’ll be in attendance when the NBA’s general managers meet next week in Chicago.
An inductee into both the College Basketball Hall of Fame and the Basketball Hall of Fame, Krzyzewski coached the men’s basketball team at Duke from 1980 to 2022. He won five national championships during that time, with the latest coming in 2015. The Blue Devils made the Final Four during Krzyzewski’s final season in 2022.
Krzyzewski also spent time as the head coach of Team USA’s men’s basketball squad, winning Olympic gold medals in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012, and Rio De Janeiro in 2016.
Krzyzewski received a good deal of interest from NBA teams over the years, but always opted to remain at Duke. He’ll finally make the move to the NBA now, at age 76, but in the role of a league executive rather than the head coach of a franchise.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to deepen my connection to the NBA and participate in conversations about further strengthening the league and the game,” he said in a statement. “Even in my retirement from coaching, my passion for the sport has never been higher. This role will enable me to stay engaged with basketball at the highest level.”
I’m not necessarily Coach K’s biggest fan, but I think he’d be a HUGE upgrade in the Commissioner spot. Of course, that would be the case with most living things.
Again, at least we don’t have Rob Manfred running basketball. Manfred is an absolute idiot. Even when he makes a positive move, it comes with so many problems it becomes negative again.
True. Silver doesn’t particularly like or care about basketball as a sport, but he’s not an idiot. Manfred doesn’t particularly like or care about his sport, and is also an idiot.
The commissioner is often selected for business acumen, not actual understanding or love of their sport. David Stern and Bud Selig were the same way.
There should be a degree of both. There’s no shortage of people who have both.
I didn’t like Selig, or the details of his ascension, but nobody could say he wasn’t a baseball fan. Giammati and then Vincent were huge fans of the game. All of the Football commissioners in my liftetime loved or at least liked the sport, and they were as, or more, sophisticated as Stern or Silver. Certainly Alvin was.
Stern is easily the most effective commissioner of any sport. Compare the NBA before and after his tenure. Whether he’s more “sophisticated” than any other is completely subjective. Results speak for themselves. He was exactly the right guy to capitalize on Jordan’s rise to being the most popular athlete in history.
Im interested to hear your criticisms of Silver
Silver is fine with me. NBA has never been richer. And it’s still growing globally.
Coach K is an excellent hire. Wish him the best.
Are you sure about that? Sure their revenue is the highest it’s ever been, but what about the actual profits? For some reason A. silver doesnt want to release that information. Usually when a company doesn’t want to release their profits, is because there are none.
If the league was actually doing poor financially, Silver wouldn’t be in charge anymore.