Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim says there’s no chance his friend and colleague, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, would take the now-vacant Lakers’ coaching job.
“No!!!!!,” Boeheim told SNY.tv Thursday morning by text.
An NBA source concurred.
“Mike makes like $9 million at Duke and he has a really nice team going into the season next year,” the source said. “I do not see it at all.”
(According to USA Today, Coach K makes $9.7 million at Duke.)
Duke has the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation for 2014, highlighted by 6-10 Chicago center Jahlil Okafor, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. In wing Justise Winslow and point guard Tyus Jones, Duke also has the projected No. 7 and No. 12 picks in 2015, according to DraftExpress.com.
The Blue Devils will be among the contenders — along with Kentucky, Arizona, and Wisconsin — to cut down the nets in Indianapolis in 2015.
But now that Mike D’Antoni has resigned, Coach K has already been linked to the Lakers’ job, as have his fellow college coaches John Calipari of Kentucky, Billy Donovan of Florida, Kevin Ollie of UConn and Tom Izzo of Michigan State. (Calipari took to Twitter Thursday to deny his interest in the job.)
One of my colleagues at NBA.com, Sekou Smith, has even advocated for the Lakers to hire Coach K, 67.
Coach K is close with Lakers’ star Kobe Bryant and coached him to Olympic gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
It’s the Lakers and they currently have the No. 6 pick in this loaded draft plus ample cap space to work with.
The Lakers came calling on Coach K in 2004 and he admitted in 2011 it was one of the few times he considered jumping to the NBA.
“They were great with me,” he said then. “I could not give up what I’ve got, what I have at Duke. It just wasn’t worth it.”
He added: “I’m good with where I’m at, I’m too old to do anything else.”
That logic still applies three years later.
Coach K is close to 70 and recently said he planned to remain at Duke for five more years.
“I’m looking forward to the next five years,” Krzyzewski said last month, via the Charlotte Observer. “What do we do in the next five, not just what do we do next season. What are the decisions? The first thing is I look at me. I’m going to be here.
“This past year I had a few setbacks and I had an episode with health at the Wake game. I wanted to clear the air that I’m good. I’m going forward.”
And in all likelihood he will finish his career at Duke.
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