Coach K by Ian O'Connor

Author:Ian O'Connor [O'Connor, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

10

Breakdown

IN THE SPRING OF 1993, Jim Valvano was dying of cancer inside Duke University Medical Center, with Mike Krzyzewski constantly at his bedside. Jimmy V had become a TV star after being forced out at NC State, and now that he was no longer fighting Krzyzewski for ACC supremacy, the old rivals had grown close.

They had become like brothers over the previous four or five months, when the monster within Valvano, metastatic adenocarcinoma, was slowly but surely taking him.

Krzyzewski would walk across campus to visit his friend in his room, and the two of them would ask family members, nurses, and staffers to keep out while they swapped stories about their lives and careers and told jokes about Dean Smith. In Duke’s first year without Christian Laettner, the Blue Devils lost to the University of California–Berkeley and Jason Kidd in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, leaving Krzyzewski in tears as he said goodbye to seniors Bobby Hurley and Thomas Hill. But Duke’s earliest exit from the tournament since 1985 had one benefit: more time for Coach K to spend with Jimmy V.

Krzyzewski and Mickie had flown with Valvano and his wife Pam to New York on March 4 for ESPN’s first Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly, or ESPY, awards show. Valvano was being given the first Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award. On the plane, he kept filling up the big gold vomit bag his wife had brought for the trip. He was taking a couple dozen Advil a day to temper the pain. Nobody close to the former North Carolina State coach thought that he would make it to the ceremony, but somehow he willed himself there, dressed in a tuxedo, and ordered his ESPN colleague Dick Vitale to find a way to get him on that stage.

Vitale wrapped his right arm around Valvano and guided him up those seven steps to the microphone, and then, as always, it was lights, cameras, action for Jimmy V. He told the emotional crowd to do three things every day — laugh, think, and cry — and then he made every man, woman, and child in the house do all three. Vitale stayed up there, off to Valvano’s right, just in case he needed any physical help. Jimmy V quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson, told the audience that Krzyzewski was “a ten times better person than he is a coach,” and introduced the motto of his new V Foundation for Cancer Research: “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”

When Valvano was done, Krzyzewski walked up to help Vitale escort him down the steps and back to his seat. Valvano had a little more than seven weeks to live. Coach K was with him nearly every day. He had enjoyed his visits when Valvano was assigned to broadcast Duke games. They both realized that despite their stylistic differences, and despite the fact that Krzyzewski admitted to once having hated Valvano, so much more united them than divided them.

“I know I’m gonna die, but I’m gonna win,” Jimmy V told Coach K one day.

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