LOOK: Nike has Coach K Appreciation Day
College basketball coaching legend Coach K might have retired at the end of the 2021-2022 college basketball season, but he’s still making the rounds on his farewell tour. The head of Nike, Phil Knight, decided to have Coach K Appreciation Day on Wednesday.
Check out the picture below.
It’s not the first time Nike has honored Coach K. A few years ago, they celebrated his 1,000th win with a special T-shirt. The company also created a special fitness center named after the college basketball coaching legend. The third floor of the fitness center features a basketball court that pays homage to Coach K, his family, and Duke basketball.
Coach K Accolades
The legendary college basketball coach won five national championships with the Duke Blue Devils, including two years where he won back-to-back national crowns.
In winning back-to-back NCAA titles in 1991 and 1992, he became only the second coach to do so since John Wooden (Billy Donovan is the other).
The legendary basketball coach established an incredible level of dominance at Duke basketball during his previous 42 seasons there.
Coach K, a member of the Naismith Hall-of-Fame, won 1,202 games in his storied career, the most in college basketball history. As the head coach of Team USA basketball, he won six gold medals during his time.
The iconic coach has enough accolades to fill up a few pages, but here are a few from his Duke coaching career: 15 ACC tournament championships (most in league history), 13 Final Four appearances (most in NCAA history), 12 National Coach of the Year honors, 36 NCAA tournament bids (most by one coach), and 126 weeks ranked No. 1 in AP poll (most by a coach in poll history).
The Redeem Team
One of Coach K’s most famous teams with Team USA basketball was dubbed “The Redeem Team”. The team was playing in the 2008 Olympics and Team USA had just won a disappointing bronze medal in 2004. The Redeem Team was absolutely loaded with talent; such stars as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, and others.
In the gold medal game against Spain, Kobe Bryant scored 13 of his 20 points in the final eight minutes of the contest. The game was a classic contest and Bryant ensured that Team USA would not be denied.
With 3:10 left in the game and USA up 104-99, Bryant unleashed a devastating dagger for the ages, a four-point play that saw him bring out the silencer for the hostile crowd in Beijing. Bryant, nicknamed, “The Black Mamba” delivered a lethal dose of poison from which the Spaniards would not recover. Team USA would go on to defeat Spain in the contest 118-107, securing the gold medal for Coach K and Team USA.