Coach K shares his Beyonce story
Thanks to a 2011 national championship -- the fourth of his career -- and leading Team USA to two consecutive gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, Mike Krzyzewski has really loosened up as he's cruised into his 60s. This is a good thing for everyone, but a really great thing today. Here's why.
In this video we've got K holding court in a public way unlike anything most have seen or heard before. The original video was curiously scrubbed from YouTube late Tuesday, so the backup has audio that's tougher to hear. K's story mostly involves Jay Z and Beyonce, but really is all about his massive (understandable, evolutionarily correct) crush on the one the cool kids call "Bey."
"I'm always looking for street cred," Kryzewski said to the horde of Duke students who were camped out -- on the second football weekend of 2013 -- for basketball tickets. "That's why I'm doing the United States team again."
Krzyzewski then shared a story from last November about when he introduced LeBron James at Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year dinner. He was in the front row and noticed two empty seats next to him. Vexed, he wondered how anyone could be late or absent to such a huge event.
Then, in strolls modern music's most powerful couple.
"I really love Jay Z, but I'm madly in love with Beyonce," Kryzewski said.
"So anyway I go up on stage and do 10 minutes and say really nice things about LeBron, Jay and of course Beyonce. The event's over, and this is where my street cred, like, was bouncing all over the world. I'm asked to come up on stage and take a picture with LeBron and Jay. So it's LeBron, Jay, and K. It's on Twitter, Instagram, I don't know, was Vine going then? It's on all that crap. I mean in Hong Kong, Beijing, Moscow. My shit's going all over the place. I am the coolest 65-year-old . However, however, what I want has not happened yet. I want to meet Beyonce. ... I go up to Beyonce. You know how guys think they have a lot of good lines? And, so I go up and I'm nervous as I can be. I'm like a teenager. And I go to her with a great line. I say, 'Hi, I'm Coach K.' And she said, 'Coach, I know who you are. I just listened to you for 10 minutes.' Like, patting me on the head. Little boy. So now I feel like I'm 11. So what's my next line? I come up and I say, 'You're my favorite.' My face is red as can be, you know, I'm like 4 feet tall right now. And she says, 'Well, that's nice.' And I asked her -- and I don't usually do this -- but I said, 'Would you take a picture with me?' So she takes a picture with me and I look, really, like I'm 12. But my street cred, as big as the other one was, goes everywhere. So, tonight, it's not like being with Beyonce -- it's as good as being with Jay Z."
