NBA Commissioner Adam Silver releases statement following Coach K's retirement

Over the course of his storied 42-year career at the helm of the Duke Blue Devils, Mike Krzyzewski has won five NCAA Tournaments and made it to 13 NCAA Final Fours, all while producing a whopping 22 consensus All-Americans — many of whom went on to successful, or even All-Star NBA careers.

As such, Coach K has been integral to the success of the NBA over the past several decades. Now, much like the college basketball world, the NBA world — particularly, commissioner Adam Silver — are thanking Coach K for all his contributions to the sport over the past 40-plus years, as Silver applauded him for a tremendous career at the helm of Duke in a statement released on Sunday.

“The NBA congratulates Mike Krzyzewski on his record-setting coaching career. In 42 years as head coach at Duke and more than a decade as a head coach for USA basketball his leadership and mentoring have had a profound impact on countless NBA players, coaches and executives, including me,” Silver said. “We thank Coach K for all that he has done for the game of basketball.”

Coach K, of course, announced his impending retirement several months ago, but he was planning on stepping down at the end of the 2022 season, setting the stage for a Duke run in March Madness. The Blue Devils did, in fact, mount quite a run, making it all the way to the Final Four. However, in New Orleans, Coach K’s career ended, as he was upset in the Final Four by the rival UNC Tar Heels, a team that he had never before faced in March Madness.

Mike Krzyzewski explains what went wrong for Duke in his final post-game interview

In what will be his last postgame interview, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski did his best to explain what went wrong for his Blue Devils in the closing minutes of their Final four matchup against the North Carolina Tar Heels. Duke fell to their rival in their first-ever meeting in the NCAA tournament 81-77. So what went wrong for the Blue Devils? Well, according to Krzyzewski, it was a few things, including the play of Tar Heels guard Caleb Love.

“Love really made some big buckets. And you know, obviously we’d like to hit our free throws. And Mark (Williams) not being able, you know he was never in the game. Our guys fought, they’re really good, they’re experience and they hit us with that onslaught of threes and it looked like we’re going to get blown out of the Dome and then our guys came back. We got that one point lead and we fouled. And we did foul you know. But you gotta play defense and make him shoot the ball and then you gotta you gotta put some free throws,” said Krzyzewski.

In the Final Four, Love continued his hot scoring in this year’s NCAA tournament. He finished the game with 28 points on 11-20, shooting from the field with four rebounds. His teammate North Carolina big man Armando Bacot finished the game with his 30th double-double of the season with 11 points and 21 rebounds.

As for the Duke Blue Devils, this loss marks the end of their time in the tournament and, most importantly, the end of a historic career. This game will serve as the curtain call for Blue Devils’ legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski’s career ends with him recording 100 wins in the NCAA tournament with their Elite Eight victory over Arkansas. His 100 wins are the most all-time, which is 23 better than second-place former Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams with 77.