Posted on: Sunday, July 4, 2004

Dream job for one of nightmares

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Let's see now, you are Mike Krzyzewski and after 24 years at Duke University you have a lucrative offer in hand to become the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

When your coaching career is over, how would you want to be remembered:

In the pantheon of all-time greats who lived and defined the college game, rubbing elbows with John Wooden, Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, Henry Iba...?

Or, among those college coaches who got in over their heads in the pros: John Calipari, Lon Kruger, P.J. Carlesimo, Tim Floyd, Rick Pitino...?

Of course, maybe Krzyzewski thinks — or is even convinced — he would be the exception to the trend. That his brilliance and courtside manner would allow him to succeed where so many others have failed.

But, then, we'd suggest an immediate conference with a former Duke football coach of some note, Steve Spurrier, who was sure nothing could stop him, either.

And, yes, even if he never coached another college game in what has so far been a 621-179 career, Krzyzewski's legacy will be considerable: three national championships, 10 final fours...

So, why mess with a lifetime of success?

There are few present-day coaches more identifiable with the college game than Krzyzewski or so well positioned for continued success within it.

For all the changes in the college game that he has railed against and the shakeups in the Atlantic Coast Conference that have apparently irritated him, even on the worst day it is still a Durham, N.C. rose garden compared to what La-La land and the NBA is bound to be to one so sensitive.

Such is Coach K's stature at Duke that someone once said that if he sneezes half the campus is ready to hand him a tissue. At Duke they have named the floor, "Coach K Court" and put up a plaque to mark "Krzyzewskiville."

All that would be but a fond royal blue and white memory at the Staples Center as soon as he loses in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

At Duke, they played for tuition and exposure. In the NBA, they play for millions and sneaker contracts. In college he had the power to punish the whole team by canceling an exhibition tour if a few players' grades fell off. Good luck canceling anything in the NBA, a finishing school for multi-millionaire phenoms.

If his back and exhaustion cost him parts of two seasons in college, where they play 30 games a year and he knows he's going to win 20 of them the day the schedule comes out, what is it going to be like in the NBA where they play three times as many and there are a lot of teams with just as good or better talent?

At Duke, Grant Hill never went into a full-on pout over playing time or shooting opportunities. With the Lakers, the guy who could be his "franchise player" has.

In Los Angeles, they are reportedly offering Coach K eight million bucks a year. That buys a lot of aspirin.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.