Coach K to the Nets?
On the heels of the rumor that Rick Pitino recently reached out to the Nets about possibly being their head coach next season comes reports that new owner Mikhail Prokorhov’s top choice is Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. It is believed that Prokorhov may even hire Director of USA Basketball in an effort to try and lure Coach K away from Durham.
Mark me as someone who is selling this as a real possibility. While K might be the top choice I have a hard time believing he has any real interest in coaching the NBA. He has always steadfastly denied he has even the slightest interest in jumping to the NBA. Why would he?
He is one of a select few of elite college coaches in America that has lifetime job security. He resurrected Duke basketball from the doldrums and made them a relevant national power again. He can do whatever he wants at Duke and retire on his own time. While Duke has slipped a bit in terms of its success over the years it is still maintains one of the highest profiles in college basketball. Coach K has made more than enough money to retire on at Duke and makes enough to live more than comfortably.
The only two compelling reasons for K to do this would be to see whether he could succeed in the NBA, or, he was simply looking for one last payday in his career. He would easily command $30 to $40 million for a five year deal which would set up his financial security for sure. The thing is Krzyzewski has never impressed one as being that driven by money. If he was he would have jumped at the reported $10 million per year the Lakers offered him when Phil Jackson took his brief hiatus from the team.
The thing the Nets have to ask themselves is if K turned down both the Celtics and the Lakers, the two most pre-eminent franchises in the league, at various times during his career what makes them think he has any interest in coaching their sad sack organization? There is not a basketball coach alive who will tell you their dream job is coaching the New Jersey Nets.
