Weekend of Waiting for Lakers

It was Monday afternoon and some Duke basketball personnel had gathered on a campus court in Durham, N.C.

Mike Krzyzewski entered the gym, according to a witness, and approached the group. The conversation stopped.

“You’ll never guess who called,” Krzyzewski told them. “Kobe Bryant. He wants me to come coach him.”

Three days later, not far from that gym, Krzyzewski sat with Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak discussing the details of an offer to leave Duke for Los Angeles, perhaps to coach Bryant, also presently deciding if he wants to be a Laker.

Bryant’s future with the Lakers could be tied to Krzyzewski’s decision, which the organization expects shortly, perhaps by the end of the weekend. Neither Krzyzewski nor Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva was in his office Friday, the day after news broke in Durham the Lakers had come calling.

Krzyzewski was believed to be spending the weekend with his family at a beach home in North Carolina.

As Krzyzewski pondered a future in Los Angeles, and Bryant pondered two franchises in Los Angeles, and Shaquille O’Neal pondered leaving Los Angeles, the Lakers waited. They do not expect to have a new coach, no matter who it is, in place until the middle of next week, at the earliest. Bryant is expected to meet next week with Clipper officials, including Executive Vice President Andy Roeser, General Manager Elgin Baylor and Coach Mike Dunleavy.

Meanwhile, Rudy Tomjanovich sits in Houston, going on two weeks since his interview with Kupchak and owner Jerry Buss, having known all along the Lakers had at least one more call to make.

Bryant and Tomjanovich have tried to contact each other, though it is unknown if they have connected. It would appear Bryant’s preference is Krzyzewski, once nearly his college coach.

Tomjanovich would be coming from semi-retirement, a year in which he recovered from bladder cancer, worked his garden and scouted basketball players.

In the days before his interview, he had decided the Lakers would be a good course for him, and his urologist, Dr. Bernard Goldfarb, forwarded examination results that proved Tomjanovich was in good health. Friends of Tomjanovich said Friday he was not put off by the sudden and intense interest in Krzyzewski, and that, either way, the process has been good for him; it told him he was ready to coach again.Back in Los Angeles after a day spent flying in and out of North Carolina, Kupchak returned to the busy work of O’Neal’s trade request, Bryant’s free agency and rebuilding a roster that, depending on what happens with O’Neal and Bryant, will need a lot of work or a little.

Laker management assumes Bryant would return if Krzyzewski accepts its offer, presumed to be for $8 million annually over at least five years. But O’Neal has yet to be traded, another potential condition of Bryant re-signing.

All the while the Clippers lurk, probably not unhappy the Phoenix Suns spent their money on guard Steve Nash instead of saving it for Bryant and the Dallas Mavericks weakened their chance to pull O’Neal away from the Lakers.

In the meantime, as the first Laker domino teetered, Duke officials clenched their jaws as they entered a long weekend. After 621 victories and three national championships in 24 seasons in Durham, Krzyzewski is considering a Laker offer to take him away from the hardships of the college game. It also would take him from his three grown daughters and four grandchildren, all of whom reside in Durham, just to sort out the Laker mess, and while being recruited by Bryant, who will stand trial for sexual assault in August.

“The Lakers have a lot more they can offer for a coach that other teams and colleges can’t match,” Duke President Richard Brodhead said from Vermont on Friday. “Coach K is going to have to decide in his heart what’s right and best for him.

“I’m going to have to be patient. He’ll have his decision when the time is right. He’ll know it when he feels it. I think now he needs time and distance to think. Everyone knows the attachment he feels to Duke and to college basketball, but this offer has its temptations. The nature of this weekend is to pause. It’s my deep hope he will choose to stay at Duke.”

On a quiet day in the offices at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Arena, senior associate director of athletics Chris Kennedy was one of the few in the building.

“I think the thing is sort of in abeyance right now because Mike has gone off to think about it and what the possibilities are and how he feels about the Lakers’ offer and how he feels about his 24 years at Duke,” Kennedy said. “He’s just gone off to think. He needs time and distance.”

The timing of the Laker offer, given the nature of the industry, according to Kennedy, has many on campus believing they could actually lose Krzyzewski, who has fended off NBA advances before.

“A lot of stars have lined up,” he said. “The whole college basketball atmosphere, the turmoil in Los Angeles, Larry Brown winning the NBA championship as an ex-college coach and playing the kind of basketball that he played.

“I think yeah, [this offer is more serious] because of other circumstances. He talked about the landscape of college basketball and how dramatically it’s changed and how difficult it is and how unstable the platform with which you’re operating has become. Planning for the future is getting harder and harder to do.”

Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy’s son, Mike, played three seasons for Krzyzewski, from 1999 to 2002. Dunleavy did not coach during Mike’s junior season, allowing him to attend many Duke games.

“Quite honestly, it’s very surprising to me,” the elder Dunleavy said. “At first I thought there would be absolutely no way. As a matter of fact, when people asked me early on who the Lakers would get, I said, ‘Pat Riley, Coach K or Rudy Tomjanovich’ -- those are the biggest names, you know. But did I think Coach K would ever leave? I’m sitting there saying, ‘Why would he ever leave?’

“He’s got an incredible house in Durham. His family, all his girls live there, and they’re a very close-knit family. They’ve got a storybook life going there. He’s got a program that produces every year, he’s got a lifetime contract at Duke. It’s almost like what every coach would love to have. So it would be surprising. But who knows?”