I have copied an entire article written by Adrian Wojnarowski about Coach K and his comments about the Russia/USA game in 1972. I generally really like Adrian's articles, but I think this one is unmitigated crap.
I love Coach K so much right now, for 3 reasons: (1) He is doing an amazing job with this team USA, and he did an amazing job last time. I find him fascinating and brilliant as a coach. (2) Coach K has been so loyal to Duke, which isn't a pre-requisite for my respect, but it is something I can respect, therefore, he wins. (3) He's fair, and respectful, and everyone knows that about him.
I didn't grow up liking Coach K, I actually think I disliked Duke, so my defense of Coach K really comes from a place of earned respect, and in home-town loving sports world, I honestly think that liking someone from outside your state, your home town, removed from your favorite team, then you are an anomaly, and your opinion should carry weight. Therefore, I'm going to argue with everything Wojo says in the article below. His text is in bold, my comments are italicized.
ISTANBUL – In the end, it was the kind of desperate stunt that comes from a coach holding too little faith in his team, perhaps too little preparation. Behind the cover of some kind of nationalistic stand, Mike Krzyzewski used the platform of the world championships to impugn the integrity of a good coach’s name. In his haste to exploit that old American basketball gash, Krzyzewski created a fresh boogeyman for a post-Cold War game between the United States and Russia. David Blatt, American traitor.
I firmly believe this is 100% bullcrap. If Coach K was Ochocinco or T.O. or Ozzie Guillen, I'd maybe believe it, but this attack of Coach K in the first paragraph goes so harshly against what we really know of him - I automatically start reading this thinking Wojo has an agenda, and that agenda is likely that he is upset that since the free-agent orgy this summer, Wojo is getting ignored. Welcome to working for Yahoo! Wojo, you aren't top priority in the readers minds...
That’s the implication for an American-Israeli coaching the old evil empire’s national team, and that’s a load of garbage. No one takes these national coaching jobs for simply national pride, but also the perks of privilege, access and residual gains. Team USA plays as much for Nike and David Stern’s imperialistic designs as it does the red, white and blue.
I don't even know what he is talking about here - I don't think I fully understand if he his accusing Coach K of wanting residuals, or Blatt. I cannot figure it out. Coach K had the Lakers job in his hands, he had the Clippers job in his hands, he has had opportunity to have it all. Everything. He consistently has reminded the world that his players are everything, that he fills a role, he has placed ego so low on his priority list - I don't even know where Wojo is coming from here.
What Coach K said isn't even that harsh at all - he responded to a question and he accused the "American-Israeli" coach of being Russian. He's lived there for 30 years, and he coaches the Russian team. Coach K knows where Blatt grew up, he is simply referring to the fact that Blatt wants Russia to win, and to act as if the USA/USSR 1972 game is something thats emotionally difficult to deal with - which Blatt did - does require a response of "bullshit", which is what Coach K did.
“We’re friends,” Krzyzewski would say of Blatt as he brusquely marched past a reporter in the hallway outside his news conference. He didn’t want to hear the rest of a question on the subject and kept moving. Krzyzewski stopped for a second, turned around and passed on answering whether he had any regrets or had simply expressed his true belief that a differing perspective on the ’72 Olympic gold-medal game constituted some kind of patriotic treachery.
You gotta love this one. You really do. Wojo admits that Coach K didn't hear the full question, but accuses him of brushing off a "differing perspective." That's like accusing Einstein of being obstinate b/c he didn't disseminate E=MC(squared) via Twitter. You're reaching here, Wojo.
To get past the dogged, undermanned Russians, Krzyzewski riled up that old Russian hate for his players and the public. It sniffed of desperation, but Duke’s coach isn’t taking the chance of becoming the first national coach in history to fail in winning consecutive world championships. Never mind the myth of sportsmanship in international basketball, Krzyzewski used up and spit out a most disposable Blatt.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. First of all, the Russians are in the Quarterfinals of a World Basketball Championship. Nobody, including Coach K, sees them as "dogged" or "undermanned." Coach K says only respectful things of Davidson College in a early November game at Cameron Indoor. He isn't desperate, he isn't positioning Russia, he simply said 1 line, which was about a moment that was painful to an entire sports nation.
"Sportsmanship in international basketball" is exactly what is at the heart of the criminally horrible call, reaction, and celebration by the '72 Russian team. It was a different time - the 1980 US Hockey game was important b/c it was US v. USSR - for a military man like Coach K, those types of things do actually cut deep. Wojo's involvement in the Cold War is probably relegated to reruns of 'Red Dawn'.
Krzyzewski played the patriotism card to his advantage with Team USA, and yet later didn’t want the accountability of its ownership.
Yah, that...or he didn't want to deal with assholes like you, Wojo.
“Hey, I said what I thought, and after that I didn’t get a whole lot of chance to say something,” Blatt said. “I don’t know how much gamesmanship I practiced. But it looks like the [USA] coach jumped on it and used it pretty good. His guys were awfully motivated and so was he.”
Sure, Krzyzewski has a soft spot for the ’72 team, and that’s understandable. His assistant coach, Chris Collins, is the son of Doug Collins. Mike Bantom travels with Team USA in his duties with the NBA league office. I happen to disagree with Blatt, and believe an unjust chain of events occurred that cost the U.S. the gold medal. Still, the U.S. coach, Henry Iba, was too far past his prime, and his antiquated, sluggish style never properly used the athleticism and talent of those Americans. They never should’ve been in a 51-50 death grip with the Russians, but that’s how it went with an icon propped up on the sidelines.
I could write forever about this - on one hand Wojo accuses Coach K of not needing to give his players motivation, b/c they are better than Russia. Then in the next paragraph he trashes the 1972 Coach b/c the game was close - and that the "undermanned" and perhaps even "dogged" Russian team made it a game.
I also find it funny because he actually gives Coach K his due - he explains that it may actually be a wound, which could leave to a relatively benign comment like the one Coach K made. I am totally confused as to why he is so uspet with him!
They weren’t the first Olympians to get robbed and they wouldn’t be the last. Eventually, reason should’ve taken over and they should’ve gone back and accepted those silver medals. This 38-year blood war with that loss has gone on long enough, and the Americans would’ve set a terrific example had they done what they would’ve told their kids to do: Be gracious, accept the medal and move on.
Thank god we've identified the person who is able to tell us when people should get over things or not. He should thumb through his handbook and realize that the level of anger Coach K had in his comment warranted, perhaps, a tweet by Wojo, but not an entire article. He is overreacting, and now I am too. Do you see what you started here?
Yes, the ’72 saga strikes a human chord within the American basketball establishment. In an Olympics where Israeli athletes were murdered, the loss of a basketball tournament remains an ache for the ages. Before the quarterfinals game on Thursday, an inquisitive Chauncey Billups(notes) carried his breakfast over to Bantom and probed him on his memories of that fateful day in Munich.
So is it okay for Coach K to be mad, or not? I don't get it?
Before they left the dining room, Billups told Bantom that nothing Team USA would do on Thursday would make that game right for him again, and yet maybe they could let him leave the arena with something of a smile.
Bantom didn’t need a victory over the Russians – not as badly as Krzyzewski did on Thursday. He would get it, but not before sacrificing the good name of Blatt. When it was over, Krzyzewski gushed about Blatt’s genius, but that was easy at the game’s end. He had tagged him as a non-American for coaching those Russians, and labels are hard to shake when they come out of the mouth of a Hall of Fame coach. Yes, we’re friends, Coach K said. Friends, indeed. What a desperate, low-rent stunt.
Wojo accused Coach K of not wanting the "accountability of the ownership" of the comment. Seems, to me, he took ownership, and nobody brought more visibility to this comment, and blew it out of proportion as much as Wojo did.
The low-rent stunt here is the slandering of Coach K, who has spent decades working hard, ignoring the notion of legacy, and instead creating one as perhaps the last real sports figure you can admire with no hesitancy.
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