My dad loves basketball.  In fact he coached the girls basketball team at the middle school where he worked for 8 years.  He eats, breathes, and lives the sport.  I have been raised in a Duke only house hold.  My dad often jokes with me saying, "Channing, your lucky you were born at four in the morning.  If it had been at eight in the night i wouldn’t have been there because duke had a game that night."  All my life I have watched my dad learn from Coach K, training his girls team in the same manner.  My father has to be the most loyal fan I know.  He hasn’t missed watching a game since 1966.  He love’s basketball, but he loves Duke Basketball not because their are a great program, which they are, but because Coach K has such class and commands such respect from his fellow coaches. 

Mr Krzyzewski came to visit my father about a month ago on the 9th floor of the Duke Univ. Medical Center.  My dad was undergoing a stem-cell transplant.  Due to complications, my dad passed away two nights ago.
 
The impact that Duke Basketball had on my family was tremendous growing up.  We looked at Coach K as an unbeatable hero, or when the team would lose, as a person who knew how to bounce back from any situation. 
 
One of the greatest memories I have of my father was the 1991 Championship in Indianapolis, IN.  No one figured that Duke would sweep UNLV, and my uncle and father’s friends (who had attended UNC) had sold their tickets during Duke’s first round game.  They never thought Duke would win.  When Grant Hill made that dunk, and the tides turned for Duke, a memory was set in my mind that will never leave.  I’d never experienced such joy with my father. 
 
As I was thinking of what to say at my father’s memorial service, Duke Basketball and Coach K keep entering my mind.  The popcorn, the Sundrops, the Duke games during the winter are memories with my dad at home that are some of the best that I can think of. 
 
My father spent his life raising people’s spirits and encouraging those who needed it.  Coach K was probably the biggest inspiration to my father when it comes to being a leader. 
 
Thank you Mr K for visiting with my father while he was alive- you can’t imagine what it meant to him and our family as we talked about it.

Having long been a fan of Coach K and Duke Basketball, I am honored to play a small role in the organization by designing and maintaining this site. I am a Coach K fan for many reasons but the following anecdote stands out in my mind as a perfect example of what a coach can be.

In 1989, Duke was playing a close game against Arizona. With one second left, and Duke down by two points, freshman Christian Laettner was fouled and sent to the free throw line to shoot one-and-one. Laettner missed his first shot and Duke lost the game. But what happened next was remarkable.

From Coach K’s book, Leading With the Heart:

"As the buzzer sounded, our senior captains, Danny Ferry and Quin Snyder, rushed over to Laettner and put their arms around the dejected freshman. And then the rest of the team went up to console him… there was no selfishness at that moment from any member of our team. As a matter of fact, I distinctly recall Quin Snyder saying, "Laett, don’t worry about it, man. We win and we lose together." Coach K describes his players’ actions following the loss as "one of the best examples of collective responsibility that I have ever witnessed."

In addition to Laettner’s teammates consoling him, I recall Coach K going right over to Laettner to offer his advice and encouragement, even before shaking hands with Arizona Coach Lute Olson. Was Coach K upset about the loss? I am sure he was disappointed, but he saw an opportunity to impart to his players something more than just how to play basketball. In that moment, Coach K revealed his true character. He showed he cared more about the player than he did about the outcome of the game. He showed himself to be a leader…a teacher…a coach in the best, truest sense of the word.