DURHAM, N.C. — Long we’ve wondered when this day would come. It had to eventually, right? No one’s immortal. But 41 years and counting in the same job, the same place, creates that illusion. Tricks the mind. Maybe, just maybe — after so many years, so many mountains climbed — that inevitability isn’t so certain.
Maybe, just maybe, Mike Krzyzewski would never leave Duke.
How could he? He is Duke.
Which is what made Thursday so surreal. It was part celebration, part sendoff, part trying to process the fact that Coach K is actually, really stepping down at the conclusion of the 2021-22 season. For the first time in the 15,054 days since his hiring, it’s possible to envision a future for Duke men’s basketball without Krzyzewski, the man who turned this program into his legacy.
