Last summer, I ate, breathed, and slept Team USA basketball.  Kobe and I did Pilates.  Dwyane and I painted each others’ toe nails.  LeBron was quite the gossip.  But in between all the team slumber parties, I started to notice a few things.  And not just Kobe’s simple excellence, Wade’s resurrection, or James’ tremendous LeBronness.  In particular, I noted the work of one Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team, who has committed to another Olympic run in 2012.

Good for K.  The man can always sell more books, and who wouldn’t want more merit badges?  But the real question is: is Coach K returning truly a boon for Team USA?  That, friends, is a question that requires a bit more nuance.

My natural instincts are to deny Coach K’s influence on the team entirely.  In 2006, Krzyzewski showed his college chops as he let the Americans be devoured by a routine pick-and-roll offense.  It’s something pro coaches deal with on a daily basis, and yet something that lives on in but a few NCAA arenas.  Yet here were a hand-selected group of American elites, worn down by injury and circumstance to be fair, unable to stop the basketball equivalent of bread and butter.  Maybe even sliced bread.  Maybe even the very notion of food.  No offense is more basic, and while the pick-and-roll isn’t always easy to stop, it sure as hell better be when the chips are stacked in favor of a man who supposedly has command over his X’s and O’s.

No disrespect; the man’s a living legend, and I’m not sure I could coach my way out of a garbage bag.  But in preparing a team of pro ballers to complete on a stage very foreign to them under a semi-ridiculous set of silly international rules, one would think it prudent to hire a coach accustomed and experienced in dealing with pro level talent.  K’s methods have a time, a place, and most importantly, a specific audience.  Given his pedigree, I’m not sure that it’s safe to assume NBA All-Stars are among them.

This is about the time where an angry mob of Duke fans sets my car on fire.  But guys, before we get too out of hand here, let me finish.

…I haven’t railed on his insignificance as a motivator, yet.

In the Beijing Olympics, Coach K got to lean that La-Z-Boy back as far as it goes and enjoy the view.  Provided he didn’t do anything brash or reactionary, the Americans were practically fated to take the gold.  For one, the talent level on that team was superior to any team in international competition since 1992.  But also, the Redeem Team needed no additional motivation.  Krzyzewski fed them the inspirational calendar lines about leadership, patriotism, and the like, but K’s work had already been done by a force much more powerful than a tagline: revenge.  The losses in 2004 and 2006 made things personal, and nothing gets the blood of an American, much less one that’s a professional, hyper-competitive athlete, pumping like being wronged.  Americans losing in basketball was an offense to the highest orders of sporting logic, a crime punishable by 30+ point differentials.

K may have done his job on that front, and he may have even done it well.  All I’m saying is we’ll never know, because Jabberjaw could’ve coached that team to the gold.  Nya, nya, nya.

So given all that we think we know about Coach K and his time with Team USA, it would be understandable to be a bit worried about his decision to return.  I’m not.  In fact, I’m actually quite pleased with the possibility, because it helps shift the team’s interest from that fun American pastime of revenge to establishing consistency.  That was one of Jerry Colangelo’s primary goals in creating the blueprint for the national team, and it’s why Team USA was able to look so dominant in Beijing.  Bringing back a coach with a name and a gold medal should definitely work in the program’s favor on that front, assuming he doesn’t drive the whole thing straight into an iceberg.  Not impossible, but frankly, I’m not crediting K with that much influence over our country’s most hegemonic players.  The top-tier talent that fills the rosters spots and then some creates a system where the players may eventually be able to coach themselves.  The natural leaders exert influence through their play and their own motivational tactics, as teams often do.  However, maintaining the illusion that there is a system of order and responsibility among the coaching staff is important in keeping things consistent.  Krzyzewski certainly has that going for him, even if the real responsibility falls on the players.

Mike Krzyzewski may not have been the ideal coach for the job, but at this point he’s the ideal name; Coach K as an idea is more important to Team USA than another coach likely would be with the clipboard.  As long as the Team USA machine is self-sustaining and the players continue to push one another toward desired goals and golds, the very idea of a head coach may be rendered obsolete.