The Business Plus Blog

We’re thrilled to be working again with legendary Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) on his forthcoming book about his experience as head coach of the gold-winning U.S. Olympic Basketball team. We’ll keep you updated on the details but look for the finished book in spring 2009.  Until then…

USA Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski (Duke University’s Coach K) to write about World-Class Team Building and the Olympic Gold Medal Quest

New York, NY — Business Plus, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group), has announced it will publish a new book by Duke University basketball coaching legend and U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K).  Tentatively slated for publication in Spring 2009 and co-written with his daughter, Jamie K. Spatola, Krzyzewski will reveal the unique leadership skills that he used to unify a diverse group of NBA superstars and win the gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

In his previous bestselling books including “Leading with the Heart” and “Beyond Basketball,” Krzyzewski guided readers to success the way he has guided his teams at Duke—with his inspirational words and phenomenal leadership skills.  Now, after stepping up to take on an entirely new challenge by volunteering to coach the U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball team, Coach K has achieved another great accomplishment—leading the team in Beijing to a gold medal.  Krzyzewski will reveal how he took some of the biggest NBA stars and molded an American team that won against the best competition in the world and restored Team USA to the gold standard of basketball.

More than a celebratory book, it will be Krzyzewski’s first-hand account of how he worked with such stars as Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony to buy into his “total team” play. A book on basketball and on management techniques, it will feature Krzyzewski’s personal style and approach to getting people to work together and succeed in reaching a common goal.

“There are so many amazing stories from this recent Olympic experience and to share them in a book project will be fantastic,” said Krzyzewski.  “I’m looking forward to collaborating with Jamie and working with all of the great people at Grand Central Publishing again.  The U.S. Olympic gold medal team has served as a perfect example of what successful team building is all about.”

In making the announcement, Rick Wolff, Vice President, Executive Editor, Grand Central Publishing and Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Business Plus said, “We absolutely cherish our long-term publishing relationship with one of America’s truly legendary coaches, and we’re thrilled to be able to work with Mike and Jamie on this project. All basketball fans know that America still has the highest total of top stars, but it took the coaching magic of Coach K to find the right players, get them to work as a team, and to bring home the gold. We anticipate this work to be a meaningful case study in fundamental management techniques, and as with his previous books, transcend the world of sports.”

Mike Krzyzewski has been the head basketball coach of the Duke Blue Devils for 28 years, winning 730 games and three NCAA championships at the school, while also earning National Coach of the Year awards twelve times. Coach K was inducted in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and is the sixth winningest NCAA Division I coach with 803 total wins, including five seasons as the head coach at West Point, his alma mater.