Mike Krzyzewski: Rio Olympics Will Be Last as Team USA Coach, Opines on NBA Draft Rule
ByMike Krzyzewski confirmed his final stint as the head coach of the U.S. Men's National Basketball Team will be the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
"It is. It definitely is,'' he told ESPN. "I think it's time to move ahead. During the next season there will be a number of decisions made about the future of USA Basketball with Rio [the roster] and coaching.
"There has to be a succession... a planned succession with really good people so we can keep the continuity of the program going.''
Krzyzewski began his international coaching career in 1979 when he served as an assistant on Team USA. Dating back to 2008, the U.S. has won gold medals in each of its last four major international tournaments: the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and the 2010 and 2014 FIBA World Championships.
Since Team USA Chairman Jerry Colangelo named Krzyzewski the head coach in 2005, the team is 75-1. Krzyzewski indicated he would like to remain involved with Team USA, but in a different role.
"Hopefully we can finish things up well with Rio and I would move onto something else with USA Basketball,'' he told ESPN. "But I think we're ready as an organization to do that, and I'm excited about the future because [of] what we've done over the last 10 years."
Krzyzewski also offered his take on the one-and-done phenomenon in college basketball, which he used to his advantage last season en route to his fifth National Championship. After watching three freshmen leave for the NBA Draft, Krzyzewski's next two recruiting classes at Duke are shaping up to possibly be the best in the nation.
"The way the [salary] cap has gone up over a two-year period, going up over 40 million as a result, if I'm a really good player, I would petition to look at coming out of high school," he told ESPN. "They don't play basketball their whole lives. They play for X amount of years. I've always been a big proponent of kids having the ability to go out of high school. But if they go to college, they would stay two years. But that's never gotten the traction.''