MIES (Switzerland) - Mike Krzyzewski, who steered USA to three Olympic gold medals and two FIBA Basketball World Cup triumphs, is being inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2025.
He will be honored at an enshrinement ceremony in Bahrain on May 17 and is joined by Alphonse Bilé (Côte d'Ivoire), Andrew Bogut (Australia), Leonor Borrell (Cuba), Pau Gasol (Spain), Ticha Penicheiro (Portugal), Ratko Radovanovic (Serbia), and Dawn Staley (USA).
Hailed for his ability to get maximum effort from his players and for his teams' excellence on defense, Krzyzewski is the only basketball coach to lead a country to three consecutive Olympic gold medals. He was at the helm when the Americans, for the first time, won back-to-back World Cups in 2010 and 2014.
No coach has led his team to more victories in the NCAA than Krzyzewski, who presided over 1,202 wins in his 47-year career, 42 of them at Duke University and five at Army.
Krzyzewski, known around the world as Coach K, was at the helm of the Duke Blue Devils from 1980 to 2022. Three times he was named as the Naismith College Coach of the Year. His Blue Devil teams won NCAA titles in 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015.
Duke was a perennial NCAA Tournament team.
"The most important lesson I've learned since becoming the head coach of the national team is just how good worldwide basketball is, how beautiful it is ... it's added more depth for me as a basketball coach." - Krzyzewski in 2017
Krzyzewski had become a part of the USA Basketball coaching team in 1979, when he worked as an assistant to USA head coach Bobby Knight with the USA Pan American Games Team, which won all nine of its games en route to the title. He had played for Knight at Army from 1966 to 1969. Coach K then served in 1983 as head coach for the U.S. Olympic Festival South squad.
He was the head coach of the 1987 USA World University Games Team, with that American side going 7-1 and finishing second. Krzyzewski was the head coach in 1990 of the USA Goodwill Games and FIBA Basketball World Cup teams that came in second and third, respectively.
Krzyzewski was one of head coach Chuck Daly's assistants on the USA Dream Team that stormed to the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
His success, character, leadership qualities and experience with USA Basketball made Krzyzewski the obvious choice to lead the national team when USA Basketball went into on a new direction under Jerry Colangelo, who had taken up the role of managing director of the men's national team after the team's Bronze Medal finish at the 2004 Olympics.
Coach K's USA was third at the 2006 FIBA Basketball World Cup, after suffering a defeat to Greece in the Semi-Finals. The Americans did not lose again with Krzyzewski as coach, marching to gold medal triumphs at the next three Olympics and titles at the next two FIBA Basketball World Cups.
The first of the great successes was in Beijing, where Krzyzewski and the USA Redeem Team beat Spain in the Final, 118-107, to capture gold.
Then came a spectacular 2010.
Krzyzewski steered Duke to their fourth NCAA title and then guided the USA to the Naismith Trophy at the 2010 World Cup in Istanbul, despite having none of the players that had won gold in Beijing.
He led the Americans to a second straight Olympic title in London, where once again they had to overcome Spain, 107-100, in the Gold Medal Game.
Next came the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain, where Krzyzewski's USA blew out every opponent, including Serbia in the Final, 129-92.
In his last tournament with the USA, Coach K's American team won gold at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics after beating Serbia in the Final, 96-66.
Krzyzewski was first inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. He was also inducted a second time, in 2010, with the Dream Team.
Name | Mike Krzyzewski |
Category of inductee | Coach |
Date of birth | 13th February 1947 |
Place of birth | Chicago, Illinois. United States of America |
Nationality | American |
Teams | Indiana, assistant coach (1974–1975) Army (1975–1980) Duke (1980–2022) |
Club highlights | Five-time NCAA Champion (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015) Three-time Naismith College Coach of the Year (1989, 1992, 1999) Thirteen-time ACC Regular Season Champion (1986, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2022) Fifteen-time ACC Tournament Champion (1986, 1988, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017, 2019) |
National team highlights | Assistant coach: Panamerican Games gold medallist (1975) Two-time Olympic Games gold medallist (1984, 1992) FIBA Amercias Championship gold medallist (1992) Head coach: FIBA Americas Championship gold medallist (2007) Three-time Olympic Games gold medallist (2008, 2012, 2016) Two-time FIBA World Cup bronze medallist (1990, 2006) Two-time FIBA World Cup gold medallist (2010, 2014) |
Individual highlights | Five-time ACC Coach of the Year – 1984, 1986, 1997, 1999, 2000 Two-time United States Sports Academy Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award winner – 1991, 2008 National Polish American Sports Hall of Fame inductee (class of 1991) Two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (2001 as an individual, 2010 with the "Dream Team") College Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (class of 2006) United States Olympic Hall of Fame inductee (class of 2009 – with the "Dream Team") United States Military Academy Sports Hall of Fame inductee (class of 2009) FIBA Hall of Fame inductee (class of 2017 – with the "Dream Team") Basketball court at Cameron Indoor Stadium named "Coach K Court" |
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