Coach K Had A Lot Of Egos To Manage On Team USA. Here's How He Did It

One can say that Mike Krzyzewski had the easiest job in the world as head coach of Team USA. With the best players in the United States (or, indeed, the best players in the world), Krzyzewski was in a position to smoothly cruise to one Olympic gold medal after another.

Of course, it’s one thing to look at names on a roster sheet and another thing to actually manage the realities of 12 grown men sharing the hardcourt and the locker room. So, how did Coach K pull this off?

Simple: He flipped the script. As Coach K explained on “The Pat McAfee Show” this week, he threw a sports adage right out the window. “I loved managing egos if it's matched by the same level of talent,” Krzyzewski said. “I coached U.S. teams for 11 years. I told them, when we started off with every team, bring your egos in. I don’t believe in ‘leave your egos at the door.’ That’s such b.s. I want you to be who you are.”

Coach K, who won three Olympic gold medals and two FIBA World Cups at the helm of Team USA, said that he was also cognizant of some larger-than-life personalities on his roster. “Kobe Bryant, LeBron, they would have brought their damn egos in no matter what I said anyway,” he noted with a chuckle.

It wasn’t just Bryant and LBJ, two of the NBA’s biggest icons, that Krzyzewski had to cater to. Across three Olympic cycles, Coach K also had to deal with some historically temperamental stars (Chris Paul, Jimmy Butler), elite scorers coming into their own (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden), and young lions looking to prove themselves (Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving).

Embracing the challenge, Krzyzewski set out to follow a formula to harness all these talents. “If you can put all your egos under one ego umbrella and call it USA, we’ll kick everyone’s a**. We’ll rule the world.”

And that’s what they did. A number of coaches have stamped their own identity on the role of head coach since Krzyzewski last called the shots in 2016, but he has certainly left an indelible mark.