Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has defeated a long list of coaching legends during his careers. He’s beaten legendary teams, he’s beaten the best players ever to step on a basketball court, and he’s even beaten entire nations. None of those conquests come close to being as impressive and improbable than Coach K’s latest victim … the media in the internet age.
When Kyrie Irving limped off of the court against Butler 8 games into the season, word slowly spread throughout Blue Devil Nation that Duke would be shutting down Kyrie for a few games to allow him to rest and recover during the Holiday stretch. A few days later, a few games turned into a month, and a month turned into “a very long time”, which potentially meant the end of the season. Each post game press conference for the Blue Devils followed a pattern – opening comments from Krzyzewski, a question specific to the game that had just been played, and then “Coach, tell us about Kyrie.” Each answer got more and more depressing for Duke fans … it was becoming clear that Kyrie Irving’s career as a Blue Devil would likely be only 8 games long. “We’re moving forward without Kyrie,” Coach K confirmed. And with that, the questions stopped coming.
While Kyrie’s diagnosis and recovery was deep and complex with many twists and turns, the recovery process for the team was only one easier-said-than-done step. The team needed to move on and focus on the task at hand and not worry about what could have been, or what might still be. From the very morning after the injury, K convinced himself that Kyrie was not coming back. I say “convinced” because there was never any clear cut truth to Kyrie’s status to accept. You could either choose to be pessimistic, or you could choose to be optimistic (op-TOE-mistic, if you will), or you could choose to be indifferent. Krzyzewski needed his team to choose the one option that had them looking straight ahead at the next opponent and not looking towards an arbitrary date on the calendar when Kyrie may or may not return. Next, K “convinced” his team. Players never addressed Kyrie’s injury because they were never asked about his possible return. Why, in this day and age where a blogger like myself can work my way into a press room, were players not constantly grilled? Because Coach K did what might have been one of the most impressive feats of his career; he “convinced” the media that Kyrie was done.
With almost every day came a new development, a new milestone, a new decision point. Sure, the fans on the message boards went back and forth celebrating every positive rumor and discrediting any negative one. But the overall message was still clear that Kyrie was not coming back. The media went from snickering whenever Coach K would hint that a simple toe injury could keep arguably the country’s best player off of the court for the entire season to snickering whenever a fan might display the slightest bit of hope for a return. “Kyrie was never even close to coming back,” tweeted CBS Basketball anchor and Duke-alum Seth Davis. “He’s not coming back,” growled ESPN’s Jay Bilas when his play-by-play partner hinted at the chance of a return late in the season. “This is hilarious,” exclaimed local sports talk radio personality Joe Ovies as fans buzzed around the Greensboro Coliseum while Kyrie took to the court in game shorts to go through a light workout at the ACC Tournament. Even following Kyrie’s proclamation that he felt great and there was a chance he could play, K’s “We’re not even close to making that decision” was the quote that reporters ran with. In summary, we’re all puppets and Coach K is the puppet master.
Looking back, Kyrie’s injury absolutely threatened his season. For Kyrie to return, he had to convince the doctors, the Duke training staff, the Duke coaching staff, and finally his family, before stepping back on the court in a Duke uniform. That is a lot of moving parts harboring opportunities for something bad to happen. It’s not that K knew Kyrie would be taking the court this afternoon in Charlotte in Duke’s ‘second round’ matchup. But he knew it was possible, and he knew he couldn’t let his team know it was possible. The flow of insider information from the Duke camp stopped dead about a month ago, heading into Duke’s most important stretch of the season. During that same stretch of time, Duke looked flat against Virginia Tech in a loss, looked flat against Clemson in an awkward senior-night victory, and looked flat against the Tarheels in Chapel Hill. Hindsight being 20/20, Duke looked like a team who knew they were missing a piece to the puzzle.
The word leaking out of the program was that the Virginia Tech/Clemson week was the target for Kyrie’s return. Something happened, and what that is, we will never know. But it was the first time all season where Duke went from accepting their roster to anticipating their roster, and it showed in their approach to those three games. It was the attitude that Coach K protected his team from the entire season. And then, as if magically, the spark returned to the team, and to the entire fanbase, when Kyrie Irving took the court in Greensboro. Kyrie missed 26 games during the only season he’ll likely ever play at Duke. Regardless of how healthy he is, regardless of how he plays, or how many minutes he’s on the court over the next month, if Kyrie Irving finishes his career with a 14-0 record, he will forever be a Duke legend. And we’ll never know the story behind it.
Devilwolfing 
Ok, I agree with most of your article, I think Coach K’s “slight-of-hand” with the media was brilliant. I think your synopsis that Duke played flat because of an anticipated return is ludicrous. Very credible until that point. In the end though, I’m ecastatic Kyrie is back win or lose.