Mike Krzyewski’s Remarkable Career Embodied By Far More Than 1,000th Win

By Kyle Mountain on January 28, 2015

Anthony Gruppuso – USA TODAY Sports

Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski recently won his 1,000th game as a Division I head coach, an accomplishment that further cements his legacy as one of the greatest head coaches in the history of the sport, both at the college level and otherwise. While his overall position on coaching’s all-time great list isn’t, and perhaps will never be, officially settled, he has certainly yielded once of college basketball‘s most successful and remarkable careers, and he’s done so in a way that supersedes just wins and on-court success.

There are plenty of coaches who have accumulated a mass amount of wins while still not reaching the pinnacle at which Krzyewski finds himself as a coach. To me, Coach K is much more than 1,000 wins and four national titles, as he currently resides in a realm reserved for a select few by boasting not only a massive amount of on-court success, but also achieving such success in a way that epitomizes what sport is all about.

It’s the way he has achieved such success that makes his impact, and eventually his legacy, that much more notable. Doing so has resulted in him not just being a great coach, but also a symbol and embodiment of what college athletics strives for. He has taught players to not only excel in their basketball endeavors, but to also be upstanding students and men in a society in which athletic success, egotism and narcissism tend to walk hand-in-hand.

In my opinion, the legacy Coach K will eventually leave behind will closely resemble that of legendary coach John Wooden. Of course, Wooden is often remembered for his 10 national championships at UCLA, as well as his four perfect seasons during his tenure, and rightfully so. However, of equal importance is the impact he had on his players as men, something I believe Coach K also embodies.

They coached different teams in different eras, yet they share a common dignity that goes beyond wins in losses. In the cases of both Krzyzewski and Wooden, college basketball is as much about success off-court as it is on-court. To take young players and prioritize character, honesty, hard work, education and humility is to ensure that you’re setting that player up for success both on the court and beyond, and college athletics should be about the players.

It’s no surprise that each coach experienced the success they did given that their top priorities were to mold their players for success and to use their position as head coach to do whatever necessary to achieve such development. While I have no doubt that Coach K will still coach the Blue Devils to many more wins before his time as a coach concludes, I also look forward to what kind of legacy he’ll leave behind and who will follow his example.