By Brian Mahoney
Associated Press
NEW YORK ó Mike Krzyzewski still hasn’t decided if he will return as U.S. basketball coach. He’ll need to make up his mind soon.
Krzyzewski led the Americans to the gold medal in the 2008 Olympics, and he said Thursday the coaching job has been offered to him again. However, he said he didn’t want to make any decisions until after the NBA season ended so he could talk to some players and assistants.
Krzyzewski and USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo plan to announce the coaching decision before the Americans begin a minicamp for young players July 22-25 in Las Vegas. The camp is being used to identify prospects for available spots on the 2010 world championship and 2012 Olympic teams.
Speaking before hosting an offseason broadcast of his Sirius XM radio program “Basketball and Beyond with Coach K,” Krzyzewski said he wanted to make sure he could juggle the requirements of the U.S. job with his other responsibilities.
“You have to do justice to both, to all three: family, Duke and USA Basketball,” Krzyzewski said. “Although having done it, it’s not like I don’t know. I’ve just gone through it and I felt I did do justice to all of those things, but there are things you have to sacrifice to do something that you really want to do, and I want to make sure that I’m not messing over anybody if I do accept it.”
Krzyzewski added he hopes some of the ’08 Olympians could attend the minicamp.
If Krzyzewski declines to return, New York Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, an assistant the last three years, is a leading candidate to take over.