Mike Krzyzewski exclusive: 'Coach K' on what makes USA Basketball unique, Steve Kerr, his Olympic experience and Paris 2024

Over the course of 47 years, Mike Krzyzewski assembled one of the greatest coaching resumes in basketball history. The former U.S. Army officer, who also played for the Army basketball team, led Duke University to five national championships and 15 ACC tournament titles, and retired with the most college coaching wins (1202) in history. He also guided the USA men's national team to three Olympic gold medals (Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016) and two world championships (Türkiye 2010, Spain 2014).

Though he may have retired from coaching in 2022, Coach K is still closely involved with basketball and currently holds an advisory role with the NBA.

The 76-year-old sat down with Olympics.com for an exclusive interview in which he discussed his experiences coaching the U.S. team at the Olympic Games, current USA head coach Steve Kerr and who he'll take to Paris 2024, and the one thing that the U.S. team does better than anyone else in basketball.

• The entire interview with Mike Krzyzewski is available to listen to now on the Olympics.com podcast page, as well as on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
• Coach Mike Krzyzewski exclusive: "I never considered it to be a challenge to go to the NBA—I thought it was pretty challenging to win the ACC!"

Krzyzewski on his first Olympic coaching experience: "I learned so much about preparation—and pressure"

Coach K got his first taste of the Olympics as an assistant coach under the renowned Bob Knight at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

"I was the coach at Duke at that time, but I was not on Coach [Bob] Knight's permanent staff, I was more like an auxiliary. But I was there the entire time and sat in on the meetings," Krzyzewski recalls.

"The level of preparation Coach Knight had — wow. Just to be around that environment, I learned so much about preparation — and pressure.

"It's not like losing in a college conference tournament. If you're gonna lose, it's the whole world.

"But I loved it, and the experience helped me as I moved forward in my commitment in being with USA basketball."

Working with Chuck Daly and the Dream Team of '92: "It was one of the cosmic shifts in basketball"

Eight years after gaining his first international coaching experience at Los Angeles 1984, Krzyzewski was once again recruited to the coaching staff of the U.S. Olympic team for the Barcelona 1992 Games, this time under two-time NBA champion Chuck Daly.

That U.S. team — nicknamed the 'Dream Team' for the collection of talent throughout the roster — was unstoppable in Spain, beating opponents by an average of 44 points en route to the gold medal. The 1992 squad was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the NBA.

"It was one of the cosmic shifts in global basketball, and we should thank [former NBA commissioner] David Stern and the rest of the NBA for making that happen," Krzyzewski says. "Because for the rest of the world, everyone was a professional athlete. While we were sending young, young players, they were sending men and women to every sport.

"For those guys like Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and the rest of the team it was such an honour for them to represent their country. They brought the NBA culture to the Olympic movement for USA Basketball. So it wasn't just how you played, but how you acted, how you represented [the jersey]—they were exquisite.

"Chuck Daly did a masterful job with that team. Everyone said it was a no-brainer that we were going to win - it's never a no-brainer. If it's a no-brainer, then you're a no-brainer. You're a knucklehead if you think that way."

Krzyzewski, who had won two national championships with Duke by the time the 1992 Olympics rolled around, credits Daly for helping him develop as a coach, while also acknowledging that being around the members of the Dream Team gave him somewhat of an ego check.

"I learned another coaching style under Chuck [Daly]. You learn from being around greatness. People prepare and think differently. I mean, we had won a couple of national championships at Duke by this point, but this [being a coach with the Dream Team] was a higher level.

"You go to the first practice and you're standing at mid-court, and I'm thinking to myself, 'I'm pretty good!' But I'm looking around and there's Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, David Robinson, and suddenly I'm thinking, 'Holy mackerel. I hope I don't make a mistake!'

"So I went from having a pretty good ego to knowing that I needed to build up a better one!"

Krzyzewski and the 'Redeem Team'

In 2005 Krzyzewski was appointed as head coach of the U.S. national team, with the primary remit of putting the USA back at the summit of international basketball. One year earlier the U.S. won the bronze medal at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games after suffering a stunning 89-81 loss against Argentina in the semi-finals of the competition—a result that shocked the basketball world and broke a streak of three consecutive Olympic titles in the sport for the USA.

To repair the damage and kickstart this new era of U.S. basketball, Krzyzewski knew he and his staff had to change the way they approached the international game.

"It [the world catching up to the USA] really started after 2004. International teams beat us or almost beat us. So the main thing we learned was instead of thinking they [the world] should play our game, we had to learn how to play the international game.

"So we developed two C's: culture and continuity. Those were things that two of the outstanding teams of that era - Spain and Argentina - had. They would have been outstanding NBA teams. You weren't going to beat them by putting a coach in charge for three weeks and brining in 12 players. You had to pay the price of preparation, and develop a culture based on values and respect the way the world played the game.

"It's a different game: there's less minutes, a different ball, a different way at looking at some of the administration of the game, and instead of complaining about some of the refeering and saying 'that's not the way it is', we had to realise that it is the way it is.

"So I became the first national coach. That was part of the strategy: whoever held that title was going to have it for a four-year period (the first one was for three years) so that you could learn and think about it over a four-year cycle, you weren't just thinking about it for the month that you were coaching.

"That was a key change, but putting Jerry Colangelo in charge was the ultimate good change. He created a lot of good partnerships where people would support our Olympic movement and he raised a lot of money - not just for our program but for the development programs, youth teams and women's teams. What Jerry did was one of the great things anyone has done for our sport in our country."

"We wanted to win the respect of the world"

Krzyzewski, who is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, explained how he and his staff instilled ownership in the national teams he coached by working with the U.S. military.

"There's no one who understands selfless service and commitment better than our military," says Krzyzewski, who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1969 and was later discharged from active duty in 1974 with the rank of captain. "So for our guys to be around them and hear their stories, they learned. No one had to sell to them on how they had to feel about playing for the USA."

As Coach K and his players prepared for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, they were keenly aware of the moniker that had been placed upon them—the 'Redeem Team'—a reference to the fact that the USA had come away disappointing bronze medals during the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2006 FIBA World Championship, the latter of which was Krzyzewski's first international tournament as national head coach.

"We didn't put that message across, but we did know that we were getting our butts kicked," he remembers."The guys did talk about it [redemption], but we didn't make it our motto - we had our eyes on the prize.

"Our goal was three-pronged. We wanted to win the gold medal, the respect of our country, and the respect of the world. So it wasn't just about winning, it was how we would win. To show respect for the international game, because it's a beautiful game. And I don't think we did that before. And we've continued to do it. One quarter of the players in the NBA right now are international. There are a lot of great players and coaches out there - no one has the game monopolised."

The shift in mentality, team building and approach to international basketball paid dividends for Krzyzewski and his players at Beijing 2008 and the proceeding eight years, as the USA won three Olympic gold medals and two world championships, firmly reestablishing their position as the dominant force in world basketball.

On improving from the 2023 FIBA World Cup and getting back on the podium at Paris 2024

Krzyzewski stepped down from his position as the U.S. head coach following the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, passing the torch to five-time NBA champion Gregg Popovich. Popovich, who has the most wins of any coach in NBA history, was in charge for the USA's dissapointing 7th-place finish at the 2019 FIBA World Cup, though he did help the USA successfully defend their Olympic title at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021.

Popovich resigned from national duty in 2021, with current Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr coming in to replace him. Kerr's first test as USA head coach came at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, where the USA failed to podium again, losing 111-113 to Germany in the semi-finals and falling to Canada 127-118 in the third place game.

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When asked on how the USA can return to winning ways at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Coach K spoke of the importance in getting the right balance of talent on the team.

"It starts with talent. To assume you're going to win without top-level talent is a poor assumption. I know Grant Hill, Steve Kerr and everyone else are going to work hard to figure that out. And it may not be the 12 best American players, but it has to be a number of the best players along with players who will compliment them. It starts with the makeup of the team - there's no question about that. I hope we get that level of commitment from the players so they have an adequate amount of time to prepare.

"The toughest Olympics for me of the three was London [2012] because it was that strike-shortened season in the NBA, and the Olympics were earlier. Our guys were fried, but we had continuinty, and that continuity won. We had five guys from our 2008 team, five guys from our 2010 world championship team, and then we added James Harden and Anthony Davis. So even though it was shortened, we knew each other.

"So Steve [Kerr] will have to consider taking how many guys from the World Cup team, how many guys from Greg Popovich's Olympic team, how many guys have Olympic experience and how many guys have played for him in the past."

"It's not easy. Paris [2024] will bring out the best in all the countries. There are so many good international NBA players. People who think that we [the USA] have all the players have to remember: you can only play five on the court at a time. So it will be a big challenge but I'm glad Steve is coaching and I hope he gets the guys that he needs - he'll know what to do with them."

Krzyzewski also had some words of wisdom for the 2024 Olympic team, advising them to focus on the one thing he feels the USA can do better than anyone else in basketball: play defense.

"I always felt, and still feel, that the thing we can do better than anyone else is play defense. We had to learn to play defense against a different type of basketball**. If we play defense, we should be the favourite. If we don't, it's going to be up for grabs."**