Mike Krzyzewski, the last dance of the army captain who became the greatest coach of all time

• LUCAS SAEZ-BRAVO

  @LucasSaezBravo

Updated Saturday, April 2, 2022-01:19

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That boy raised in the humble Ukrainian Village of Chicago, where his grandparents had emigrated from Galicia when it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and whose parents never wanted him to learn Polish so that he would not be conditioned by the accent, became a legend.

With permission from

, he is the greatest college basketball coach in history.

, or

(he hates when his interlocutor does not know how to pronounce his last name correctly), the guy in whom

thought he saw "all the reasons why we are proud to be Americans", puts the climax this weekend to an unrepeatable race.

It will be before 73,000 spectators, at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, in the 13th Final Four that the legendary coach will play, all with Duke, in search of his sixth title.

The last lesson from a manager who landed on the Durham bench 42 years ago, during which he has imparted the military discipline he learned at West Point and the tactical wisdom he inherited from

, his mentor.

"I don't see myself as a basketball coach. I see myself as a leader who happens to be a basketball coach."

It is one of his great phrases, through which he has been building his fame as a guru, backed by his successes.

Because the dimension of Coach K is based on the times he rejected offers to train NBA teams and multiplies exponentially thanks to his journey through the USA Team, which he gave the lost identity and with which he only lost one game in 11 years, that 2006 World Cup semi-final against Greece.

Along the way, three Olympic golds, two world championships and recovered honor.

Like so many other times, in the origins is the secret of everything that would come later.

In the efforts of their parents, children of immigrants, so that their offspring would have a respectable American life.

Even pushing him into a military career.

His father,

, operated an elevator in the center of Chicago's Willoughby Tower and later ran a bar called the Kross Tap.

He died young, during his son's senior year at West Point.

Bob Knight

Mike left the Academy with the rank of captain and a passion for basketball running through his veins.

There he played, as a point guard, under Bob Knight, who soon filled his father's void.

And there he started as a coach, from 1975 to 1980, before landing in what would be his home forever, that of the Blue Devils.

"Discipline is doing what you're supposed to do in the best possible way at the time you're supposed to do it", some of his illustrious pupils have heard (

...): 16 of them were chosen among the first three places in the draft.

The last great pearl of his is the Italian-American

, with which he will face the last and perhaps most morbid of his challenges, the semifinal against neighboring North Carolina, one of the greatest rivalries in American sports, the 'Battle of Tobacco Road'.

With the 'Most Hated Team in America', Coach K has been monopolizing merit while growing his checking account.

Along with

, he is the only NCAA coach to have won the title in three different decades (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015).

And he was the first to exceed 1,000 wins.

His wisdom and his meticulousness regarding the rival was also joined by his sometimes volcanic character.

He also smashed chairs and blackboards against the parquet, like Bob Knight.

He has made his young pupils cry -remembered is when he yelled at them in a time-out: "Your fucking faces suck"- with his rants, which have so much to do with his time in the army.

Together with Harden at the World Cup in Spain.

Like when shortly before the London Games, he took Team USA to Arlington National Cemetery, where soldiers from all the wars the US has fought rest.

"I will never forget that day," said

, impressed at the graveside of the Unknown Soldier.

Before the World Cup in Japan he also stopped with his players at a Korean military base.

Coach K's goodbye had a bitter preamble.

On March 6, at a packed Cameron Indoor Stadium despite tickets reaching a price of $5,000, North Carolina ruined its last game in Durham.

Among heartfelt tributes, Duke lost against his closest rival, the same one who is now on his way to the final, a match that has never been played in a Final Four (Kansas and Villanova play the other semifinal this Saturday).

"Throughout the year there has been a lot of talk about my departure. That has been a great toll for my players," he acknowledged, after apologizing again and again.

"It's an honor to have all those records. We've won a lot of games. But the 'Final Four' is the biggest thing, now we have it here."

At 75 years old (he has 10 grandchildren), he awaits a movie The End for the technician who,

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