Lost: Krzyzewski's Sense of Humour

I told all you bastards years ago that the blue font should be used on interview transcripts.

If we had it, this thread never would have gotten off the ground.















I think.

 

I like Coach K. I always have.

I understand that he's reserved and conservative and maybe a lot different from me, and that's OK by me.

I'd rather have my sons go play for his program than to go somewhere else where the coach is distracted by things not related to basketball and building a national contender every year -- and building leadship in his players at the same time.

Yeah, he's a little dry.
But he has a nice sense of humor, too.
When he's away from the court, that is.

 

You can't be serious with this.

Wooden's UCLA teams won the championship in 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, and 1975.

That's better than "good" and "among the elite," no matter where the campus is located.

 

Whatever, PC. Anybody can win 10 titles in 12 years. That's why it happens all the time in every sport at every level.

 

A lot of misinformation on this thread. I was there, so let me at least get the facts out because I suspect this will come up again in Boston.

During the Wednesday pre-tournament press conference, Krzyzewski was asked why he wasn’t favored in the tournament. But the question was put a little bit differently. The questioner asked why Duke wasn’t picked to go far on a lot of brackets. Krzyzewski at first answered it seriously. “Really, it doesn’t matter at all what anyone predicts, it’s what you do,’’ Krzyzewski said.

That’s when he brought up Obama’s bracket without prompting (and without being asked about Obama’s North Carolina prediction).

Krzyzewski: “Somebody said we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four. As much as I respect what he’s done, really the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets. So why would I care about that? I love the guy and I think he’s going to be great. But I love the fact that so many people are filling them out, because the game is growing so much. …’’

Krzyzewski went on to say he doesn’t fill out a bracket. End of quote.

It was a throwaway line. It was clearly made it jest, although Krzyzewski didn’t actually guffaw. He had more of a smirk on his face (he’s not really an out-loud laugher). Many reporters in the room laughed, including me.

When I wrote it, I went straight for the punchline. Here’s the full quote I used: “Somebody said we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four. As much as I respect what he’s done, really the economy is something he should focus on more than the brackets.”

I ended it like that, leaving the “I love the guy” quote out for the sake of brevity because I felt it was redundant (he already said he respected Obama, did I need to use "love," too?). I also believed it was apparent the humorous intent of the quote. Big mistake on both parts. As comments were posted online by readers, I realized people were taking it seriously, and blaming me for deliberately editing out the "love" part of the quote and trying to make the conservative Krzyzewski look bad in print. I quickly contacted the copy desk, and had the word “lighthearted” inserted in the description to make clear Krzyzewski was joking. I was still hammered.

Fox, Drudge and others also left out the “love” portion of the quote, and did not make clear the statement was made in jest. They misrepresented the question as well, indicating Krzyzewski was somehow bitterly responding to a question about Obama’s North Carolina prediction.

Like or dislike Krzyzewski all you want. But at least know the facts here. He was kidding. He actually was showing his dry sense of humor. It was portrayed otherwise, unfairly so.

People are so angry and divided when it comes to politics, they’ll latch onto anything and assign intent and blame. I found that out the hard way. Holy sh--!

 

For what it's worth, LSU coach Trent Johnson made a similar suggestion to President Obama: