On one final night at Cameron Indoor Stadium Thursday, Mike Krzyzewski spoke through tears to finish his speech but smiled with joy later with the beginning of a new relationship.
Duke basketball’s annual awards banquet became the stage for Coach K’s farewell address to his team and the supporters in the championship program he built over the last 42 seasons.
“I’m the luckiest guy on the planet,” the 75-year-old Krzyzewski said, as he heads off his post-coaching life after retiring as Duke’s coach. “I’m at peace.”
Krzyzewski’s final Duke team finished the season 32-7, winning the ACC regular-season championship with a 16-4 league mark and reaching the 13th Final Four in his 42 seasons as their head coach. No other coach has led a men’s college team to that many Final Four appearances.
The two new banners that will be raised to Cameron’s rafters, commemorating the ACC regular-season title and the Final Four appearance, hung behind the main podium where Krzyzewski spoke Thursday night.
Though the Blue Devils lost, 81-77, to rival North Carolina in the national semifinals and were unable to claim the sixth national championship of Krzyzewski’s career, he refused to let that sour his feelings about this season’s team.
“You guys are winners,” Krzyzewski said to his team. “There are a lot of banners in here, and you have two of them. For me, you made my final season one of the happiest that I’ve ever had. An unbelievable season.”
Krzyzewski’s 24-minute speech started with his thoughts on how the program went from the 13-11 season during the pandemic-altered 2020-21 campaign to the successes this season’s team achieved.
“The two things that we were not able to do to the level that this program has learned to do was to prepare and to have relationships at the deepest level,” Krzyzewski said. “We then embarked on a journey. It’s been a beautiful 13-month journey.”
In the second half of his speech, Krzyzewski reminisced on his coach career, which began when he was still in the Army in the early 1970s and moved to the college level as a graduate assistant coach at Indiana in 1974. He became Army’s head coach in 1975 before coming to Duke in 1980.
He finished with 1,202 wins, more than any other college basketball coach.
In addition to the players, their families and school staff in attendance at the banquet, Krzyzewski welcomed two special guests — the widows of former school president Keith Brodie and athletics director Tom Butters.
Krzyzewski devoted special words for those two men and their families. Butters hired Krzyzewski in 1980 and stood by him even though the Blue Devils went 38-47 over his first three seasons.
“Tom Butters,” Krzyzewski said. “My athletic director, my mentor, really, and the biggest believer in my talents as a head coach.”
In 1995, when Krzyzewski stepped away from coaching 12 games into the season due to physical and mental health issues stemming from a back surgery, Butters refused to accept his resignation when he offered it.
“Remember, I was at your house?” Krzyzewski said to Lynn Butters, Tom Butters’ widow. “And I was crying? And I said I can’t do this. Like West Point, I said someone else can finish my mission. But he told me `You get well. I don’t care how many years it takes, you’re my guy.’ I needed that then more than anything.”
Krzyzewski recalled his first meeting with Brodie, Duke’s president from 1985-93, lasting an hour.
“When I left his office, I said I think I just met the greatest man I’ve ever met in my life,” Krzyzewski said, speaking to the crowd and Brenda Brodie, Keith Brodie’s widow. “And I was not wrong. Not only as my president but also at the time when I was having all my health problems, him, you, your family, you were there every day.
“Hang with good people. Hang with good people. You’ll never do it alone. Thank you for hanging with me.”
Krzyzewski closed his speech
“Duke and West Point and USA Basketball,” Krzyzewski said, “not only gave me a chance to hang with good people, it’s given me a chance to hang with great people. They are not only great people but they fulfill the other two things that I’ve always tried to do.
“You have a campus full of people who are always trying to do their best. And then you have a campus full of people who are always following their hearts.”
Then, it was time for one final goodbye.
“I want to thank you for what you’ve done for my family,” he said. “This will always be home. Obviously, this whole place and all of you have a place in my heart always.
“It’s been an honor,” Krzyzewski said, fighting back tears. “It’s been an honor to be your coach.”
The night, though, was not over as the team and new Duke coach Jon Scheyer arranged for it to end on a happier note.
After his shorter speech, Scheyer asked the players and coaching staff, including Krzyzewski and his wife, Mickie, to come back to the stage. That’s when team captain Wendell Moore handed a surprised Krzyzewski an eight-week-old silver Labrador puppy, meant to be the new dog Krzyzewski needed after his dog, Blue, died last summer.
The puppy, who the staff and Krzyzewski’s grandchildren have given the name `Coach,’ playfully licked the smiling Krzyzewski on his face a few times.
Later, in a text message, Krzyzewski called it “a great night” that left him “very happy.”
With that, the retirement plan set in motion 11 months ago was complete.