(ATR) As Team USA prepares for Rio 2016 and beyond, U.S. men's basketball team head coach Mike Krzyzewski delivered an inspiring keynote at the USOC Olympic and Paralympic Assembly.
Organizers of the assembly have asked Krzyzewski to speak at the annual event for the last four years, yet Friday in Colorado Springs was the first time the college basketball coach with the most career wins was able to clear his schedule.
Krzyzewski was introduced by USOC chairman Larry Probst. Probst and Krzyzewski are good friends who each serve on the board of directors for TheV Foundation, an organization that raises millions of dollars annually for cancer research.
He opened his keynote in typical coaching fashion, calling for a team meeting with the leaders of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements within the United States.
"I’ve learned a few things about team building. In the last ten years [as the national team coach], I’ve learned an awful lot. As teammates, when we leave here we need to feel empowered and inspired in our movement to make sure it’s done better," he said.
On Krzyzewski’s team, everybody is important. He drew from his first experience as a coach for USA Basketball with the 1992 Dream Team to explain this concept.
"Everybody needed to have a good ego. That’s the way to win. Michael Jordan had a horizontal totem pole where everyone was important," Krzyzewski said.
He says when everyone feels like they are important, everyone can begin to feel and take ownership of the common goal. For USA Basketball, it is winning gold medals. For the USOC, it’s performing well at the Rio 2016 Games and bidding for the Olympics in 2024.
"Do you do the Olympic Movement, or are you the Olympic Movement?" he asked the 300-person crowd. "If you have ownership, it becomes yours. It’s tougher to beat you. It’s easier to win," he says.
Krzyzewski also refers to this as collective responsibility, something he says has allowed his USA basketball teams to stay strong in defeat and humble in victory. Every player is willing to do what the team needs to succeed. He says this is the type of commitment that will be needed from the entire country as Los Angeles bids for the 2024 Olympics.
"The bid is not L.A.’s responsibility, the bid is our country’s responsibility. It’s everybody’s responsibility in whatever way they can to help and support that. If you just leave it on them, I don’t think we’re using all of the resources that we have," he tells reporters.
The combination of everyone feeling important enough to contribute and taking ownership of a goal can lead to the ability for the team to adapt to hardships and challenges. Coach Krzyzewski demonstrated the power of adaptability through the story of his team’s most recent national championship.
Due to pre-season issues, Duke University’s basketball team was down to eight players near the start of the season. Instead of adding players, he told his team they were going to win the championship with these eight players and adapt to any challenge by playing with energy, enthusiasm and emotion.
Three months later, losing to Wisconsin late in the national championship game, Krzyzewski subbed in his eighth player who immediately scored eight straight points and got fouled diving for a loose ball. The player screamed "Let’s go!" to bring back the emotion the team had been playing without. The team went on to defeat Wisconsin and win the championship.
Krzyzewski says the adaptive performance by that player would not have been possible if he did not feel important or did not feel ownership of the team’s goals. However, Krzyzewski reminds the audience that accomplishing the goal means nothing if you don’t feel inspiration and joy afterwards.
"You’ve heard and seen a lot these last two days. It would really be a mistake if you leave here without feeling. You can put that USA shirt on and it goes over your heart, but if you don’t feel, your heart will never be in it," he says.
He says one of the best ways to feel the accomplishment is hearing the national anthem in the stadium and seeing the American flag rise high above the rest.
Since becoming head coach of the national team in 2005, Krzyzewski has won two Olympic gold medals and two FIBA world championships. He will seek to win a third straight Olympic gold and hear the national anthem once again in Rio next August.
"[The national anthem] is going to be played on August 21 in Rio because we’re going to win that damn thing again," he proclaimed.
"When you leave here tonight remember that you’re all important, you own this team. You’re not paying rent. You’re here. It’s yours. You can adapt to any situation that there is and you can win and leave here feeling the Olympic Movement, because you are. Let’s go!" he yelled emphatically, signaling the end of his keynote.
Written by Kevin Nutley
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