Billy Dat
10-14-2013, 09:26 AM
Following the coverage of the team's Columbus Day weekend trip to NY made me think of the following quote K issued when Lebron won SI's Sportsman of the Year:
"The game is a house, and some players only have one or two windows in their house because they can’t absorb any more light,” says Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of Team USA. “When I met LeBron, he only had a few windows, but then he learned how beautiful the game can be, so he put more windows in. Now he sees the damn game so well, it’s like he lives in a glass building. He has entered a state of mastery. There’s nothing he can’t do. God gave him a lot but he is using everything. He’s one of the unique sports figures of all time, really, and he’s right in that area where it’s all come together. A voracious mind has caught up with a supreme body. The marriage is a marvel.”
I feel like K has reached some new level of mastery when it comes to the whole package of running a college basketball program, and I am not sure he could have reached this level until this moment in time because many of the seeds he planted long ago have now fully flowered.
This trip to New York is the "launch" of a new program called "Duke Elevate". Here's the official language from Duke Blue Planet, "The trip is part of our new Duke Elevate program, which has already included speakers Grant Hill, Gerald Henderson and Jay Bilas. We launched Duke Elevate because a Duke Basketball player is always a Duke Basketball player. On and off the court. In practice and on campus. You learn it, you understand it and then you own it. Duke Elevate is our way of teaching and promoting Duke Basketball’s values, standards and lessons that transcend the game. The program provides memorable experiences that will outlast the bouncing ball. Our players interact with and learn from uncommon professionals we respect at the highest level. Duke Elevate has four themes that are essential to a Duke Basketball Player: PERSPECTIVE, CHARACTER, PRIDE AND ACCOUNTABILITY. Launched officially this weekend in NYC, Duke Elevate’s mission is to help Duke Basketball players win now and forever."
To me, this is K, the master "brander" further positioning the program in the one-and-done era. How do you maintain your brand if a certain percentage of your players leave after one year? Two years? It seems to me that you more aggressively demonstrate the connection that player can have with Duke, if they want it, throughout their lifetime by (A) connecting them with past players and influential alumni from the school and (B) showing how you (K) are still connected to your alma matter.
The team flew to NYC in a chartered plane and immediately headed for dinner at "The Modern", a very upscale restaurant at MOMA. Waiting for them was a collection of alumni from former players (Singler, Zoubek, Grant) to Wall Street executives and other professionals. The guys ate, and heard the alumni speak about leveraging the Duke network to better their lives. The next day, they head up to West Point on a bucolic fall afternoon for an array of activities including an Army football game - seeing how their coach stays connected to his alma matter. They also saw "Motown" on Broadway and we know K is a huge Motown fan - further connecting himself to the players. They visited Ground Zero, again, connecting several related threads - the virtue of living in a free country, the opportunity that comes with being young and alive at this point in history, the sacrifice others have made to provide this opportunity for the players, etc.
Anyway, it struck me that, 30+ years in, K has it all mastered. He's got former players who have excelled at the highest levels of the NBA. He's got tons of current NBA players. He has former players in many NBA and college front office and coaching position as well as former players and managers that are Wall Street tycoons and innumerable icons he can ask to address his team. He's got the program financed to the point where first class trips like this are the norm. And, he uses platforms like Duke Blue Planet to show the world that this is how we roll.
It also sends a message that the program isn't for everyone. In fact, there are probably a lot of players who look at a trip like the one these kids took as "too bougy" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bougy. But, I like that K continues to define, refine and broadcast his standards and expectations to, basically, the rest of a players life. You wanna come play for Duke? OK, well, we have certain expectations, and, we hope, you'll embrace them and let them lead you to a great life. K has become Oprah, in the best way possible. It just struck me that this trip with this team marks some kind of new peak in program mastery.
"The game is a house, and some players only have one or two windows in their house because they can’t absorb any more light,” says Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of Team USA. “When I met LeBron, he only had a few windows, but then he learned how beautiful the game can be, so he put more windows in. Now he sees the damn game so well, it’s like he lives in a glass building. He has entered a state of mastery. There’s nothing he can’t do. God gave him a lot but he is using everything. He’s one of the unique sports figures of all time, really, and he’s right in that area where it’s all come together. A voracious mind has caught up with a supreme body. The marriage is a marvel.”
I feel like K has reached some new level of mastery when it comes to the whole package of running a college basketball program, and I am not sure he could have reached this level until this moment in time because many of the seeds he planted long ago have now fully flowered.
This trip to New York is the "launch" of a new program called "Duke Elevate". Here's the official language from Duke Blue Planet, "The trip is part of our new Duke Elevate program, which has already included speakers Grant Hill, Gerald Henderson and Jay Bilas. We launched Duke Elevate because a Duke Basketball player is always a Duke Basketball player. On and off the court. In practice and on campus. You learn it, you understand it and then you own it. Duke Elevate is our way of teaching and promoting Duke Basketball’s values, standards and lessons that transcend the game. The program provides memorable experiences that will outlast the bouncing ball. Our players interact with and learn from uncommon professionals we respect at the highest level. Duke Elevate has four themes that are essential to a Duke Basketball Player: PERSPECTIVE, CHARACTER, PRIDE AND ACCOUNTABILITY. Launched officially this weekend in NYC, Duke Elevate’s mission is to help Duke Basketball players win now and forever."
To me, this is K, the master "brander" further positioning the program in the one-and-done era. How do you maintain your brand if a certain percentage of your players leave after one year? Two years? It seems to me that you more aggressively demonstrate the connection that player can have with Duke, if they want it, throughout their lifetime by (A) connecting them with past players and influential alumni from the school and (B) showing how you (K) are still connected to your alma matter.
The team flew to NYC in a chartered plane and immediately headed for dinner at "The Modern", a very upscale restaurant at MOMA. Waiting for them was a collection of alumni from former players (Singler, Zoubek, Grant) to Wall Street executives and other professionals. The guys ate, and heard the alumni speak about leveraging the Duke network to better their lives. The next day, they head up to West Point on a bucolic fall afternoon for an array of activities including an Army football game - seeing how their coach stays connected to his alma matter. They also saw "Motown" on Broadway and we know K is a huge Motown fan - further connecting himself to the players. They visited Ground Zero, again, connecting several related threads - the virtue of living in a free country, the opportunity that comes with being young and alive at this point in history, the sacrifice others have made to provide this opportunity for the players, etc.
Anyway, it struck me that, 30+ years in, K has it all mastered. He's got former players who have excelled at the highest levels of the NBA. He's got tons of current NBA players. He has former players in many NBA and college front office and coaching position as well as former players and managers that are Wall Street tycoons and innumerable icons he can ask to address his team. He's got the program financed to the point where first class trips like this are the norm. And, he uses platforms like Duke Blue Planet to show the world that this is how we roll.
It also sends a message that the program isn't for everyone. In fact, there are probably a lot of players who look at a trip like the one these kids took as "too bougy" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bougy. But, I like that K continues to define, refine and broadcast his standards and expectations to, basically, the rest of a players life. You wanna come play for Duke? OK, well, we have certain expectations, and, we hope, you'll embrace them and let them lead you to a great life. K has become Oprah, in the best way possible. It just struck me that this trip with this team marks some kind of new peak in program mastery.