This was late at night a few years ago, sitting around a saloon at the Final Four, and at the table were four basketball coaches, all of whom had achieved some modicum of success. The subject was Mike Krzyzewski, who wasn’t actually involved in the Final Four that year but was the subject of some speculation about the NBA.
“Why in the world would he do that?” I asked.
The coaches at the table looked at each other knowingly, as if pondering whether to provide their answers in a language that only they could understand. Instead, they went the Greek chorus route.
“Recruiting,” they said, all at once.
“But …” I started to reply.
“Recruiting,” they said, sounding like a Broadway cast album.
“But …”
“Recruiting!” came the verse.
“Look,” one of them said. “I know what you’re saying. You’re Coach K. You’re Duke. The place recruits itself. He does turn away business on signing day. And all of that may be true. But think of this: Think about how successful he is. Think of all he’s done. CEOs come to Duke to listen to the secrets of his success. He makes more on a speaking engagement than I made in my first three jobs. And you know what?”
I shrugged.
“He’s 60 years old and he still has to spend half his year kissing the [butt] of kids young enough to be his grandchildren who look at him as just another hustler. Think about being an encyclopedia salesman at 60 years old, still schlepping Funk & Wagnell’s. It’s a hell of a way to make a living.”
Here’s when the stories really came fast and furious, because none of the guys at the table worked at Duke or Kansas or Kentucky or Carolina, and so every one of them knew their mortgage payments depended on doing the very same schlepping year after year after year after year.
“And I got news for you,” one of them said. “None of us is Coach K.”
I thought of that night on Friday, watching Greg Schiano chat with the media in Tampa, where he just left Rutgers for the open arms of the Buccaneers. He looked like a man who had just taken his first deep breath in years. Some speculated it was because he had hit a five-year lottery, but Schiano was making plenty of coin already at Rutgers and was the undisputed king of the sport in New Jersey.
I suspect it’s something else. I think however daunting the task before him at Tampa Bay might be, he realizes that for as long as he has this job he will never have to worry about kissing the butt of kids young enough to be his children (for now) and grandchildren (soon enough). I suspect that even he understands that the track record of college coaches in the NBA and NFL isn’t good, Jim Harbaugh notwithstanding, and that he doesn’t care.
No more home visits. No more suck-up text messages. No more hand-written notes. No more squirming as an 18-year-old kid brings three hats to a press conference podium, teasing two poor saps (who see their contracts roll before their eyes) as he puts the third one on his head. No more fretting mid-term grades. No more hand-wringing about whether that booster has an envelope in his jacket pocket, whether this fat-cat is dangling temptations …
Yeah. The money’s good. But it’s not the priceless part. When a college coach takes the leap, they never do it for a pay cut, it’s true. But the other benefits are just as enticing. And we don’t mean the dental plan.
Vac’s Whacks
* Is it me or has “30 Rock” gone from Frank Tanana’s 1974 fastball to his 1987 fastball?
* In a mostly mundane season, there are times — such as the way they jumped West Virginia the other night at the Garden — when you can get a sense of just how special this truncated freshman class at St. John’s might be by the time they’re juniors. Or sophomores, for that matter.
* There are a lot of cool things about the NHL, but the way they pick their All-Star teams has to qualify as one of coolest of the cool.
* When I was a kid there was no one else on earth I wanted to be more than Joe Namath — same as about 4 million other kids my age. After watching the HBO special on Namath’s life and times, I’d have to say I haven’t changed my opinion one bit since 1973.
Whack Back at Vac
John J. Matthews: Tell Knicks fans to review the roster before they think Mike D’Antoni needs to go. When he has more than two scorers and a promising rook on the entire roster … then I will want a new coach.
Vac: I just wish I believed he had some answers. Too often he looks — and sounds — like a frustrated fan and not a coach with a belief system.
Jack Kay: I look forward to the Super Bowl as a time of both redemption and revenge for my Patriots. Since my days of going to games at Ebbets Field, before Robert Moses drove my Dodgers out of my native Brooklyn, I welcome any team that can beat the Yankees. As to the competition between cities, there is none. And there is only one: New York. Any other place is Dullsville, USA.
Vac: Or Indianapolis.
Jim Lundigran: You don’t see people like Wellington Mara any more. The Giants are a great organization. My family has had four tickets since 1946. My brother-in-law passed away two years ago and Harry Carson went way out of his way to come to Staten Island and offer his condolences and those of the Giants. He still stays in touch.
Vac: I’ve heard so many stories the past few days about so many similar small kindnesses. It’s so clear why the Yankees may have more sheer numbers of fans, but the Giants have a far deeper place in New York’s soul.
@TheoRabinowitz: In the modern landscape, if you’re not a perennial bowl team then you’re going to be fired from your college. Greg Schiano’s string at Rutgers isn’t much of an accomplishment. And I’m not hating on him taking the job with Tampa Bay, he just hasn’t proven much to gain that offer.
@MikeVacc: The Bucs may be in for a rude awakening when they get a look at Schiano’s game coaching, but I also can see where 11 years in the same job can make a coach restless.