Why Coach K is college basketball's greatest (2024)

Talk about getting a wake-up call. I'm in Hawaii, celebrating my 50th anniversary to my lovely wife Lorraine. My whole family is out here. Suddenly, at 3 a.m. Hawaii time, my phone starts blitzing with text messages. Numerous radio stations wanted me to come on to talk about Mike Krzyzewski's decision to retire after the upcoming season.

To me, Krzyzewski is the greatest of all-time. In 41 seasons in Durham, he led Duke to five NCAA national championships -- 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015 -- and 12 Final Fours. He has totaled the most victories of any Division I head coach, 1170. The most NBA first-round draft picks of any college coach. Three Olympic gold medals as head coach of USA Basketball. He dominated his conference with 15 ACC tournament and 12 ACC regular season titles.

Coach K has an intense competitive drive. I used to tease him that he was in the Hall of Fame, yet he only cared about the next game. I remember he was a big favorite against Notre Dame in a contest I was calling, yet he was only concerned about that game. That fierce competitive drive was the difference. Stars like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Serena Williams and Roger Federer have the same drive and desire to compete that differentiates them from the competition. That is why I feel he is the best. Krzyzewski wanted to be better today than he was yesterday.

I loved John Wooden and I believed in everything he taught. He won 10 titles at UCLA. Coach K is the winningest coach in the history of the game. His three gold medals came at a time where the talent level of international play improved and the competition was much better to challenge the Americans.

He came to Duke about the same time I joined ESPN. Initially, there was tough sledding there. Coach K's first three seasons produced records of 17-13, 10-17, 11-17. He was 13-24 in the ACC in those three years. AD Tom Butters stuck with him. In this day and age with social media and pressure from places like talk radio, maybe Coach K doesn't survive the negative onslaught.

My admiration and respect for Coach K goes way beyond the 94 X 50 basketball court. It is about the game of life. I have watched for years as he helped the V Foundation raise millions to help people battling cancer. He has given his time and used his celebrity status to help.

Two giants -- Krzyzewski and Roy Williams -- have now announced plans to step down this offsseason. In his final season on the sidelines, Krzyzewski will experience a well-deserved farewell tour.

The common denominator of their replacements, Jon Scheyer and Hubert Davis, is the tremendous love and passion for the universities they represented as players and assistant coaches.

I just hope the fans at Duke and North Carolina can be patient and understand it is difficult to achieve the kind of success their predecessors had. It still says "Duke" and "Carolina" on the front of those jerseys. That means great players will be representing those schools.

I wish the best for the two new coaches. I want to thank Mike Krzyzewski for all that he has accomplished. He is not done yet and I'm sure he will be fired up for his final season. He has been so special for Duke University on that sideline.