Описание: The definitive biography of college basketballs all-time winningest coach, Mike Krzyzewski
Mike Krzyzewski, known worldwide as Coach K, is a five-time national champion at Duke, the NCAAs all-time leader in victories with nearly 1,200, and the first man to lead Team USA to three Olympic basketball gold medals. Through unprecedented access to Krzyzewskis best friends, closest advisers, fiercest adversaries, and generations of his players and assistants, three-time New York Times bestselling author Ian OConnor takes you behind the Blue Devil curtain with a penetrating examination of the great, but flawed leader as he closes out his iconic career.
Krzyzewski built a staggering basketball empire that has endured for more than four decades, placing him among the all-time titans of American sport, and yet there has never been a defining portrait of the coach and his program. Until now. OConnor uses scores of interviews with those who know Krzyzewski best to deliver previously untold stories about the relationships that define the venerable Coach K, including the one with his volcanic mentor, Bob Knight, that died a premature death. Krzyzewski was always driven by an inner rage fueled by his tough Chicago upbringing, and by the blue-collar Polish-American parents who raised him to fight for a better life. As the retiring Coach K makes his final stand, vying for one more ring during the 2021-2022 season before saying goodbye at age 75, OConnor shows you sides of the man and his methods that will surprise even the most dedicated Duke fan.
Basketball fans might feel as though they already know Coach K - or Mike Krzyzewski, the decades-long coach of the Duke Blue Devils whos set to retire after this season. In this insightful biography, sportswriter OConnor captures the formative experiences and inner drive that catapulted the coach to icon status. Even the most die-hard fans will learn something.
-The Washington Post
New York Post sports columnist OConnor (Belichick) delivers a standout definitive biography of Mike Krzyzewski, who led the Duke Blue Devils to five NCAA titles during his decades-long tenure as coach. Fashioning his fascinating account from interviews with Krzyzewskis friends and players, OConnor begins with his subjects childhood in 1940s and 50s Chicago as the son of a cleaning lady and a hoops fanatic (I dont think I ever passed that schoolyard without seeing him playing basketball, one neighbor recalls). His persistence led him to captain the Army basketball team, under coach Bob Knight (as his much-better half on the court), before eventually becoming coach himself, a stint which led to his joining Dukes basketball program in 1980. OConnor takes a nuanced look at Krzyzewskis legendary career--from his experiences coaching All-Stars Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, and LeBron James during the 2008 Olympics to the many lives Krzyzewski impacted on and off the court. The coachs preternatural ability to motivate people to achieve things they did not believe they were capable of achieving is inspiring, as is the arc that OConnor paints of his life as a low-income street kid who became the greatest college basketball coach of all time. Fans wont want to miss this insightful look at a colossal figure in college sports.
-Publishers Weekly
Who would have guessed that the Chicago-born son of poor Polish immigrants with an unpronounceable surname would grow up to lead an elite private school to five national championships while amassing more than 1,000 wins and producing numerous NBA superstars? Even after a standout high school career that led to him playing for legendary coach Bob Knight at Army, Mike Krzyzewski (b. 1947) hardly seemed destined for superstardom. When Knight left for I
