A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play.
Mike Krzyzewski

Actually, the Kentucky moment was better than winning the two National Championships, because it was the epitome of what I try to get from a team in a crisis situation.
Mike Krzyzewski

Basketball was not my main sport in grade school, or even the first year of high school.
Mike Krzyzewski

Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.
Mike Krzyzewski

Even though we want huge individual egos, our collective ego is unbelievable.
Mike Krzyzewski

Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.
Mike Krzyzewski

First of all, what happens is, when you're good at something, you spend a lot of time with it. People identify you with that sport, so it becomes part of your identity.
Mike Krzyzewski

I always wanted to teach.
Mike Krzyzewski

I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one.
Mike Krzyzewski

I had a really bad temper, when I was growing up. Sport helped me channel that temper into more positive acts.
Mike Krzyzewski


I hated to lose.
Mike Krzyzewski

I have a rule on my team: when we talk to one another, we look each other right in the eye, because I think it's tough to lie to somebody. You give respect to somebody.
Mike Krzyzewski

I think some parents now look at a youngster failing as the final thing. It's a process, and failure is part of the process. I would like it if the teacher and the parents would connect more. I think that used to be, but we're losing a little bit of that right now.
Mike Krzyzewski

I think you're not a human being unless you have doubts and fears.
Mike Krzyzewski

I'm fortunate now that I coach at Duke University and we've won a lot. I have some kids who haven't failed that much. But when they get to college, they're going to fail some time. That's a thing that I can help them the most with.
Mike Krzyzewski

I'm still not a great reader, but my wife is and my daughters are, and I envy them. I think I got into a bad habit of trying to do something all the time, instead of trying to sit down and take my time a little bit.
Mike Krzyzewski

I've been so fortunate in my life that my family has never been jealous of my success. They have shown true love and commitment to me by being supportive. They shared in it.
Mike Krzyzewski

I've tried to handle winning well, so that maybe we'll win again, but I've also tried to handle failure well. If those serve as good examples for teachers and kids, then I hope that would be a contribution I have made to sport. Not just basketball, but to sport.
Mike Krzyzewski

If you win a National Championship, or you win two, people think you have not only seen the Holy Grail, but you've embraced it. Basically, I do what a lot of people do, but I've been able to win.
Mike Krzyzewski

Imagination has a great deal to do with winning.
Mike Krzyzewski