An extended family affair

Mike Krzyzewski's role as Olympic basketball coach includes those near and dear

One thing you must know about Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski is that he is so hyped for hoops that he often leaps before he looks. This is the story of how Krzyzewski jumped in to accept the job as U.S. men's national team coach in the summer of 2005 before clearing it with his wife, Mickie, and daughters -- Debbie Savarino, Lindy Frasher and Jamie Spatola.

Krzyzewski plunged in the minute U.S. senior men's national team director Jerry Colangelo called him -- Mike and Mickie were vacationing in Las Vegas that summer -- to ask him out for dinner to talk about the U.S. program.

"I thought that was kind of him, out of respect, to speak to me like I might give him some insight," Krzyzewski said.

Before he left that evening, he assured his wife that he wouldn't take a job as a U.S. assistant if it were offered. Krzyzewski, who had coached in the USA Basketball program eight previous times, had thought his chance to coach an Olympic team had passed in 1992 when USA Basketball began using NBA players and coaches.

But Mickie Krzyzewski kept asking, "Are you sure Jerry isn't going to offer you the job? I think he's going to offer you the job." And Mike kept responding, "No. It's never going to happen."

"I really didn't think that [I would be offered the job]; I'm not kidding you," Mike Krzyzewski said. "When we met, I kept saying, 'You're serious, aren't you?' "

Mickie was right. Mike was wrong. Colangelo offered the job with one caveat: It had to be a three-year commitment.

Mickie Krzyzewski said her husband came back to the hotel that night and told her what had happened. She calmly said they should go home to Durham for a family meeting to discuss it. Right, Mike?

"And he said, 'Well, I already said yes,' " Mickie Krzyzewski said. "And I was like, 'You did what!' "

Ask Krzyzewski about it now and he'll tell you he accepted the three-year job, that would take him to Japan and China, after the family agreed.

Mickie Krzyzewski shook her head indulgently when she heard her husband's retelling of the story and said, "You have to understand, that's Mike."

She has been through these situations before. It is the reason that Mike's job is basketball and Mickie's job is Mike.

"We sort of have to protect him from himself," she said. "He believes that if [it's] something good, you say yes and make it work. He doesn't immediately think about how he's going to make it work."

Mike generates the ideas, and Mickie handles the mental legwork, Spatola said.

"Honestly, I believe my dad is a genius," Spatola said. "But I am serious when I tell you, none of it would work without my mom. His ideas would never be made into workable realities. She makes it work -- for him, for our whole family."

What needed to be figured out was how Krzyzewski's daughters and their young families would share their father with USA Basketball.

Krzyzewski was tempting some strong forces. It's a woman's world at the Krzyzewski home, where the coach often has to work to get a word in, which balances Krzyzewski's life.

His wife and daughters also work within the Duke program. Mike and Mickie have approached the program as an extension of their own family for 28 seasons. Before Krzyzewski took the Duke job in 1980, Mickie told Mike she would not be kept on the outside like other coaches' wives.

She hasn't. She often sits in on film sessions, meetings and interviews. She arranged the team photo/poster and banquet for years. She serves a function for the program's Legacy Fund, occasionally hosting fund members during road games.