A Winning USA Olympic Men’s Basketball Team

In the early summer of 2008, the leadership of the 25th Infantry Division participated in a program designed to prepare them to build an effective team for their upcoming Iraq deployment.  Complicating the team-building process was the fact that the Division would not deploy with all of its own organic subordinate commands.  It was being assigned units from other U.S. Army divisions, thus making the team building effort even more challenging.  As the commander of the 25th Division, it would be my responsibility to build this team into a cohesive and effective fighting force.

My Assistant Division Commander, Brigadier General Bob Brown, a former West Point basketball player and team captain, was fortunate to have a strong relationship with Duke Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, who had been Brown’s coach at West Point. To assist the 25th Infantry Division in team building, Bob reached out to Krzyzewski (commonly known as “Coach K”), asking him to talk with Division leaders before their deployment.  Coach K was extremely busy preparing the USA Men’s Olympic Basketball team for the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, China. But he made time to spend an evening with the Division. In that single evening, he taught the leaders of the Division a lesson on leadership; one that he later used to completely turn around the fortunes of the Team USA Basketball Team (they won the 2008 gold medal after an embarrassing showing in the 2004 Olympics); and one that taught the Division leaders lifelong lessons on team building and leadership that played out significantly during combat operations in northern Iraq once the Division deployed. 

What Coach K did in turning around the fortunes of the USA Basketball team is nothing short of amazing.  Contrary to the winning traditions of USA basketball over many years, and contrary to the tremendous talent compared to all the other international players, the 2004 team lost three games and ended up settling for an embarrassing bronze medal.  An average person would think that an Olympic Bronze Medal is a great achievement, but looking at the talent, and the circumstances and the tradition of excellence over many years, everyone both in the United States and across the globe knew that the 2004 team had all the potential to repeat its continued gold medal performance but failed to do so.  There are numerous articles and opinions written about why the team did not win, but it was clear that this group of All-Stars was unable to become a cohesive unit, that individual players were more concerned with their own performance than with what was good for the team, and there was a coaching style that was not applicable to the talent on the court.  The result:  a lackluster performance and great disappointment for both the players and the American sports world. 

In order to change this culture and prepare for the 2008 Olympics, the USA Basketball director brought in Krzyzewski, who emphasized team unity. Coach K recognized the huge athleticism advantages with the NBA players and learned how to exploit these gifts without too much focus on a stricter set of offensive sets and defensive rules.  In other words, his players were not only playing for the team but were also allowed to showcase their athletic prowess.[i] 

What was not discussed in any analysis or articles written about the transformation Coach K was able to achieve is what he shared with the 25th Division leadership at their team building session.  He knew he had to select the best players but what was revealing was the criteria he would use in that selection process. 

Keeping in mind the lessons of the past teams, he decided that character was the most important criterion of his 2008 team selection. To personally assess the character of each potential team member, he flew to each player’s home and talked with them in their living room or kitchen with their family present.  While discussing the prospect of playing on Team USA, he would also watch how the players interacted with their family.  Coach K felt that how each player treated his own family was a crucial indicator of how they would treat the other members of the Olympic team and balance the team's importance with their own ego. In other words, the most important criteria to a successful team’s winning performance was the team’s character defined by the character of each individual team member.  Would they be out there playing only for themselves?  Or would they play for the good of the team?  What was most important?  Me?  Or Team? 

It was an incredible lesson that is applicable not only to athletic sports teams at the highest level but in all other aspects of leadership as well.  The 25th Division hung on to that lesson throughout their entire deployment.  And all of America was proud to see how well that culture took hold within the 2008 Team USA Olympic Men’s Basketball Team, as they played an undefeated tournament, leading once again to a USA Gold Medal with a resounding victory in Beijing.

Krzyzewski also coached the USA basketball team from 2013 to 2016.  During that time, I was the Superintendent of West Point, and Coach K asked me if he could bring the team to West Point, engage with cadets both informally and in scrimmage basketball, and schedule a guided tour of the West Point Cemetery.  The West Point Cemetery is hallowed ground – the final resting place of West Point graduates who have served their country and given their lives.  It includes notables like General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of coalition forces in the 1991 Gulf War; Lieutenant Laura Walker, the first female West Point graduate to die in combat during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2005; Lieutenant Emily Perez, the first female West Point graduate to die during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2006; General William Westmoreland, who served as U.S. Army Chief of Staff, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, and commanded U.S. forces in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968; and Lieutenant Colonel Ed White, the first American to walk in space, who was killed in the Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967. 

I asked Coach K why he wanted his basketball players to visit the cemetery, and his reply was simple but personal and meaningful.  Knowing these well-known NBA players would be playing for their country, he wanted them to understand the meaning of sacrifice and service and duty to country.  At the West Point Cemetery, they would visit the graves of men and women of all ranks who have given their lives in defense of our country’s values.  He wanted the players to reflect on that sacrifice and to know that playing for your country is nothing compared to giving your life for your country.  But being on the USA Men’s Basketball team, is not just about me.  There is much more to it, and the sacrifice of the men and women they observed on that hallowed ground demonstrated what true sacrifice and service to your nation is all about.  It is simply more than me. 

The result:Teams that win on the global stage with honor and integrity

[i] Eric Freeman, “New Details on What Went Wrong for USA Basketball in 2004,” Yahoo Sports, August 2, 2016