Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski find common ground amid knee surgery

The conversation was short, simple and “very straightforward.”

Before his team’s game against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 5, North Carolina coach Roy Williams shook hands with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. Then they shared a word about their ailing knees.

Williams described it like this:

“When we started to shake hands over in Cameron I said, ‘Are you going to have your knee replaced?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Are you?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, why don’t you go first so you can so you can be the Guinea pig.’ ”

“That’s exactly what I said,” Williams said last week, recalling the moment, before repeating himself. “That’s exactly what I said.”

Kryzewski indeed went first. He underwent surgery on April 3 to replace his left knee.

And soon it could be Williams’ turn. Both of his knees have been ailing him for a while, and Williams had surgery last summer that didn’t exactly heal him.

“I’ve been to the doctors quite a bit,” Williams said. “And I’m bone on bone now, and it looks like the next step is knee replacement. And so I have appointments already set up with four doctors.”

While Krzyzewski’s surgery addressed his left knee, Williams is considering surgery to replace both of his knees. Williams’ knee problems have affected his ability to play golf, which is among his passions. He also wasn’t as mobile on the sideline last season.

Williams’ knees, along with his continued bouts with vertigo, are among the health problems that some have used to speculate about his future. Nonetheless, he reiterated last week that he has no plans to retire any time soon and that he hopes to coach for another five to nine years.

Addressing his knees is a priority, though. Williams said last week that he’d received four shots in his knees, and he was scheduled to have another round of shots “to see if I can play golf for the next three weeks,” he said.

And if he can’t play golf, Williams said he might consider undergoing surgery soon.

“And if I can, I may put it off for a while,” he said.

In addition to his four upcoming appointments with doctors, Williams said he has been surveying people who have undergone knee replacement surgery.

“Right now the score is 87 to 13,” he said. “I’ve talked to 100 people and 87 loved it and 13 are negative.”

Williams then scanned the reporters assembled in front of him and asked, “Any of you guys got a new knee?” No one did, apparently.

“Can’t help my survey then,” Williams said.

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski find common ground amid knee surgery."