Duke's Coach K choosen to bring Olympic gold back to team U.S.A.

By DAMON HACK
The New York Times

Oct. 27 -- Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski was not in Athens last year when the notion of American dominance in basketball expired, but he knows enough of the plot points: the United States men's basketball team, filled with elite professionals and led by a highly respected coach, crossed an ocean only to be embarrassed on an international stage.

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski cuts down the net after Duke beat Xavier 66-63 in the NCAA Atlanta regional final at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in this March 28, 2004 file photo. Krzyzewski will be the coach in charge of bringing Olympic gold back to U.S. basketball. Two weeks after it was widely reported, USA Basketball on Wednesday, Oct. 26, made Krzyzewski the coach of the U.S. national team at next year's World Championships and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

"We lost, and that's the main thing that went wrong," said Krzyzewski, who was named head coach of the American team at a news conference yesterday at Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan.

Krzyzewski, who has won three N.C.A.A. titles with Duke, will coach the men's national team for three years, beginning with the 2006 world championships in Saitama, Japan, and culminating with the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Beyond designing game plans and lending his name to USA Basketball, Krzyzewski has been asked to return a team to a perch that once seemed its birthright. Before compiling a 5-3 record and bringing home a bronze medal from the Athens Olympics, the men's basketball team had never failed to win a gold medal once it began using N.B.A. players, in 1992.

But in Athens, despite the leadership of Coach Larry Brown, the team's poor perimeter shooting, shaky perimeter defense and a lack of marquee talent left it vulnerable.

"We will put together a team that will represent our country on and off the court and the way the game should be played," Krzyzewski said. "It's our game and it's time to reclaim it."

In April, USA Basketball named Jerry Colangelo, chairman of the Phoenix Suns, to lead a search for the next coach.

"From the get-go, when I first met with Coach K, it was clear how committed and passionate he would be," said Colangelo, who will serve as managing director of the program through 2008. "When it came down to it, this was the individual."

Colangelo employed a search committee of past Olympians and N.B.A. executives before choosing the 58-year-old Krzyzewski, and several were present for the news conference.

Chuck Daly, coach of the 1992 Olympic team, and Larry Bird, one of that team's stars, praised Krzyzewski's basketball knowledge and vast résumé, which includes a stint as Daly's assistant coach on the 1992 team. "I think the real mission is to get the right people on this team so Mike can be successful," Daly said. "Mike has done this for a long time, and I'm confident he will bring us back a gold medal."

Colangelo said that in the next two or three weeks, he would meet with Krzyzewski and begin to assemble a coaching staff. But it will be the selection of the players that receives the most attention.

Several top N.B.A. stars, like Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, chose summer vacation over participation on the Athens team, and it may take one of Krzyzewski's chief talents as a college coach to lure them: a strong recruiting pitch.

"Giving back what the game has given you, that's one of the things I want to permeate through the program for the next three years and serve as a basis for the team," said Krzyzewski, who will be the first college coach to lead the men's basketball team since it began using professional players. "I hope the players look at it that way, too. You forget how lucky you are to be in a specific situation sometimes. We need to get that feeling going again."

Colangelo said he would not hold any past comments against participating on the national team against any player. "Everyone's slate is clean, regardless of what everyone has said," Colangelo said. "The fact is, we need to change the perception of how we're looked at as a country and as a basketball power, if you will, and we need to reclaim what was lost."

Though Krzyzewski is not an N.B.A. coach like Brown, he has been pursued for several N.B.A. jobs over the years and has sent numerous players to the pros. He also has ties to many players in the N.B.A., including Bryant.

Few come with a better reputation than Krzyzewski's, Bird said.

"I think he's the right guy at the right time," Bird said. "Sometimes you need a wake-up call. We've got ours."