Long before Duke University hoops legend Mike Krzyzewski became the winningest men’s college basketball coach in the history of the sport, he was an officer in the United States Army, after graduating from West Point in 1969.
As a matter of fact, in 2005, he was awarded the prestigious academy’s “Distinguished Graduate Award”, which is given to former cadets whose “actions … favorably reflect the principles upon which West Point was founded as well as the excellence, spirit, integrity and character it seeks to ingrain in graduates”.
For the bulk of his decades-long, storied career, Krzyzewski’s actions have lived up to the aforementioned line. He’s suffered no damning scandals, has maintained a semi-squeaky clean image despite looking like a sniveling dachshund for much of his work life.
But he slipped, and went all Nixon on the sporting world after his team’s loss to the University of Oregon, which bounced them out of the 2016 NCAA Tournament after reaching the field of 16.
TL;DR? He lost. And instantly became a sore, pissy loser after Oregon’s Dillon Brooks shot a three as the clock wound down, then celebrated a tad:
Not to be outdone, Oregon's Dillon Brooks also puts the final touch on his team's win #MarchMadness https://t.co/6cWGpStwcf
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 25, 2016
This from Deadspin:
Brooks said Coach K lectured him about sportsmanship in the handshake line, but Krzyzewski denied it strongly. Even so, Brooks seemed gracious about it,Dana Altman took the blame, and nobody involved seemed to care too much. Turns out TBS cameras got video of part of the talking to, and it appears Brooks’ side of the story is the truth.
Whoah! Basketball icon and West Point golden boy was lying the entire time:
Which prompted a “statement” from Krzyzewski admitting to such crock:
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski apologizes for Dillon Brooks postgame handshake line chat. pic.twitter.com/WUQ4FJfhfF
— Brian Hamilton (@BrianHamiltonSI) March 26, 2016
Defenders of Coach K say that he was “teaching”. Which, you could make the argument that as an employee of an academic institution, he sort of is? Only professors don’t make nine million bucks a year like he does and while he was busy instructing players that aren’t even his own, one of his Duke “stars” HAS BEEN DOING THIS ALL YEAR AND EVEN DID IT IN THE GAME AGAINST OREGON:
It’s like Plato once said: “mind your own business.”