Editor’s note: The original version of this story appeared in the St. Helena Star. Garrett Whitt, who has been a contributing writer for the newspaper since 2000, caught up with Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski at the V Foundation Wine Celebration at Nickel & Nickel Winery in Oakville.
Garrett Whitt: This is the 19th annual V Foundation Wine Celebration, what are your reflections on the maturation of this event?
Coach Krzyzewski: Well the main thing is how it’s grown, and how Napa Valley has embraced us where $80 million dollars have been raised and more and more over the last few years and a lot will happen during this one. But even more so than the money is the incredible confidence that’s developed with the amount of researchers that have been funded that they’re finding cures for cancer, and the advancements in the last couple of years have been staggering and some of them were announced. Now we’re going to have the BRCA grants to marry up to amazing families to give $3 million dollars for research. So, (former NC State men’s basketball coach) Jimmy (Valvano) would have been shocked that something like this could happen.
Whitt: It has been 24 years since Coach Valvano delivered his iconic speech at the inaugural ESPY Awards. What are your reflections of that evening over a generation later? And it (the speech) seems as poignant today as it was then.
Coach Krzyzewski: Well, you bring up a great point in that it’s never going to outdate itself because it’s fundamentally right where he had a vision to fight cancer. And even though he knew he was going to die he (Coach Valvano) wanted to make sure that he set the stage to help others. And that’s what the V Foundation is all about, providing help, providing hope. And he would have been very, very proud, and the game’s not over because the V Foundation’s going to keep going until this disease is eradicated.
Whitt: You are the keynote speaker (Saturday night) what is your message to the people who attend The Wine Celebration?
Coach Krzyzewski: Well, the theme of heart, mind and soul. I will try to emphasize that and use some examples with what we do with USA Basketball to get those guys to not just play but, be, feel, own, but also, I am going to do something at the end where we try to bring maybe the souls of some of the people from the past that will enter the hearts of all these people and maybe motivate us to do even a little bit more.
Whitt: Cancer has touched your family a couple of times, and it recently touched my family with the passing of my mother, Barbara Whitt, this past Monday, July 31, due to lung cancer. When your family has been touched by cancer what have you learned from the experiences? And what would be your advice to somebody or a family that is going through it for the first time?
Coach Krzyzewski: Well, first of all it’s a tremendous loss. You’re angry at cancer, but then you’re sorrowful because you’ve lost someone. And we have to maintain that anger toward cancer as we find remedies as we find cures. The one thing I would say is whenever it happens is to make sure you celebrate the life of that person and not maintain sorrow. But also, it motivates you to join a team. Jimmy used to say a person doesn’t become whole before he or she becomes part of something bigger than himself or herself and that is really what the V Foundation is about is for us to be a part of this.
Whitt Where do you see your role as part of the V Foundation team? And how would you define your role?
Coach Krzyzewski: Well, I’ve been on the Board (of Directors of the V Foundation) Jimmy recruited me in his hospital bed. I’ve been there (from the start in 1993). I know my place. I hate to say this. I’m the pretty face, maybe not the pretty face, (smiling), but you end up being one of the faces of the foundation. And I try to always, at board meetings and that, reference what Jimmy might think. But the board has grown immensely. There are so many smart people and the Scientific Board.
Whitt: It’s amazing.
Coach Krzyzewski: It is amazing and what’s been done. And so, I just try to fit in and whatever they need me to do, I try to do it.
Whitt: So, in about two weeks you will begin your 38th year at Duke. How do you react to the fact that a couple of your grandchildren are as old or nearly as old as most of the players on your team this year because you have one of the youngest teams you’ve ever had?
Coach Krzyzewski: You know Garrett, I feel very fortunate to have been at a great school. I’ve been at two great schools, my alma mater, West Point, and Duke. And (Duke) has attracted great young men who are balanced and they’re good players and they want to be a part of a championship team and so what I try to do is be in their moment, and it keeps me young. Instead of looking in the rearview mirror and saying boy, you did this; no, we haven’t done anything. Let’s see what we can do. So, I’m very enthusiastic about that. We start in two weeks because we take a foreign tour to The Dominican Republic for about eight days.
Whitt: How has Gary Trent JR been doing?
Coach Krzyzewski: Gary’s going to be one of our key players. He’s already more physically mature than most freshmen. He’s kind of a man already. I think being out here at Prolific Prep (Napa) has helped him mature even more.
Whitt: What has been the biggest adjustment you have had to make in connecting with and relating to your players in your 43 years as a head coach?
Coach Krzyzewski: Things are constantly changing. So, it never stays the same, and that’s why cultures have to be renewed. You adapt. To me, the thing is don’t change your fundamental principles: how you work together, how you form a team, how do you develop loyalty, trust. How do you do those things within the current culture that you have? For us, the biggest change, lately, has been the fact that we don’t have the amount of upperclassmen to teach our culture.
Whitt: And you only have one senior (Grayson Allen).
Coach Krzyzewski: And one junior (Antonio Vrankovic). So, we have to think of different ways of doing that in a shorter period of time. But yeah that’s one of the challenges. So, we’re going to try to meet that challenge.
Whitt: So what do you want the people who attend the Wine Celebration to take away from their experience?
Coach Krzyzewski: Well, we want them all to become part of our V (Foundation) family, not just to attend the event and drink wine, and give money, although all those things are good. We want them walking away being part of our team. So, in addition to raising money this is a big recruiting dinner, and a recruiting weekend. And that’s a huge part of what (the V Foundation) wants. They want to develop the feeling of family.
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