Coach K smacks down reporter about boat question

The U.S. men’s and women’s basketball teams are not staying in the Olympic village along with the rest of the athletes at the Summer Games in Rio. Instead, they’re staying aboard a cruise ship, which has led to interest and questions from the media.

After Team USA beat Venezuela 113-69 on Monday in Group A play, men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked by a French reporter about the team’s accommodations. He had quite the response to the reporter.

“Well, we don’t live on a boat. We’re staying on a boat,” Coach K said via the Raleigh News & Observer’s Luke DeCock. “I actually live in Durham, N.C., and have a swimming pool. Once in a while I get on a raft and lie in there. But I’ve never really thought about living on a boat. Since 1992 the U.S. teams have stayed in different locations and because of the accommodations here, that was good.

“And it’s not our boat. We’re not the only people on the boat. There are other people on the boat that we see, that we say ‘good morning’ to, ‘hello.’ We’ve actually made friends on the boat. I never knew I would have boat friends. In fact now that I’m talking about it, I might go buy a boat. And put it in my — I’d have to have a bigger swimming pool. It’s a place to stay and we’re here to play basketball.

“And I’ll tell you what, the people in Rio have been unbelievable as far as their treatment of us and their hospitality. We’re fortunate to be here for the Olympics whether we’re on a boat or not.”

Who knew that one simple question like that would lead to such a lengthy and explosive response from the coach? You give a rant like that and people get scared off of asking questions about it in the future, which may have been the coach’s motivation.

Between this and his finger-wagging at an opposing player back in March, we’re seeing more and more that there’s a testy side to Coach K.