Noblesse oblige.
Two words seem a preposterous start. Two words, French at that, to begin unveiling basketball’s most famous active coach, a hard-boiled, military-trained CEO addicted to the privileges, rewards and burdens of leadership.
Noblesse oblige. Nobility obliges.
A priest turns the phrase regarding Mike Krzyzewski, and the theme echoes from former players, a business-school professor and in the experience of a visiting cancer patient.
Indeed, Krzyzewski himself voices the sentiment as he reflects on his 30 seasons at Duke and explains why, at age 63 and with every accolade possible, he maintains a withering pace that continues at this week’s ACC tournament, where his Blue Devils are the top seeds.
“It’s one of the reasons I keep coaching,” Krzyzewski says, “because … I love to be able to have an influence, a positive influence. And I don’t care if anyone knows about it.
“That’s ours. We don’t need a banner or anything like that. What we need to do is feel good about what we’re doing. And feel good about who we are as people. And because we’ve been blessed with a lot, you can’t forget that you’re no different than anyone.
“And I really believe that. Everybody’s the same. I’m the lucky guy. I’m the Coach K guy … and I truly believe that as a result, you need to do something with your luck.”
Krzyzewski’s basketball impact — 12 ACC regular-season titles, 11 conference tournament championships, 10 Final Fours, three national titles, 2001 Hall of Fame induction and 2008 and 2012 Olympics coach — has been well-chronicled.
But while he treasures the accomplishments, and those he guided in the process, Krzyzewski wants more, far more, away from the court.
He aims to enhance the educations of impoverished youth and influence curricula for graduate students. He has an insatiable appetite for raising money to research cancer and a soft spot for the many less fortunate who reach out to him.
“He’s a giver,” says Father David McBriar of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Raleigh, N.C. “That’s what I detected in him, someone who knew he was privileged both in his talent and his own assets.”
McBriar used to serve at Krzyzewski’s parish in downtown Durham, Immaculate Conception. And it was there, more than 10 years ago, that McBriar envisioned a community center for the area’s underprivileged children.
The first person he approached was Krzyzewski, a regular at 7 a.m. Sunday Mass.
“He was excited by the idea,” McBriar says, “because it was precisely the kind of place that he grew up in in Chicago, and he thought, ‘Gee, maybe we can do better than that.’
“His vision was big, bigger than mine was, because I knew that I could never raise $7 million to put up this kind of facility, to staff it, to provide the indirect costs. He said, ‘We’ll get it done.’”
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