After the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio Di Janiero, Brazil, it’ll truly be the end of an era, not that Americans will notice.
Since 2005, Mike Krzyzewski and Jerry Colangelo have transformed the Team USA Basketball team and has gone as far as creating the Dream Team 2.0. (Oh whoops, how dare I say that) as head coach and team president they have restored the USA’s international dominance in the sport of basketball, the international team has never looked so prosperous. But after the 2016 Summer Olympics, Krzyzewski will resign as head coach.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski told ESPN that the 2016 Olympics will be his last coaching the United States men’s basketball national team, and that a succession plan to replace him will be announced in the coming year before the Games in Rio de Janeiro next summer.
“It is. It definitely is,” Krzyzewski told ESPN about this being his last stint as head coach with USA Basketball. “I think it’s time to move ahead. During the next season there will be a number of decisions made about the future of USA Basketball with Rio [the roster] and coaching.
“There has to be a succession … a planned succession with really good people so we can keep the continuity of the program going.”
Whoever the successor is, they got a challenge on their hands. The international competition is getting better year by year, the steady flow of international players coming to the NBA is partly because we’re starting to recognise how good these countries are getting.
I’d say that coach K will ride off into the sunset with a gold medal but after that, other countries will begin to make their moves and try to topple the USA. And even if Team USA don’t win it all, it’s been a historically good stint nevertheless.
