Mikę Krzyżewski has retired as a basketball coach now of course, but the Duke legend has not retired from his other careers. He’s still working for Duke in various capacities, he’s still a special advisor to the NBA, he’s still doing his radio show and he’s still working as a public speaker.
Just as a side note, if you get a chance to go hear him speak, you really should. It’s hard to explain how effective he is at it, but the language that he uses resonates long after the speech is over. It’s not just boiler plate language. Well, it might be for him, he says these things all the time, but for the audience, it hits home. He’s highly effective.
He spoke to the Lancaster Chamber annual dinner and focused a lot on leadership. He talked about Grayson Allen’s big impact on Duke’s 2015 title – he was the last man on the bench and sparked a comeback with his intensity and effort – and how Kobe Bryant could have shot the U.S. out of a gold medal with stupid shots. Bryant accepted the criticism, curbed his shots, and the U.S. won gold.
He also talked a bit about how he had come to understand that Lancaster was special because of the close knit community.
All in all, we’re guessing the audience went home with some things to think about.