Jay Wright was two lackluster years into his tenure at Villanova in May 2003, so far from being considered the best coach in college basketball that the assertion would have seemed laughable, certainly not a credible candidate for the job that had just become available in his hometown.
Larry Brown had done what he always did. He had left, resigning as the 76ers’ head coach and director of basketball operations, bolting for better money and a better team with the Detroit Pistons. At the time, Wright didn’t have the experience, the cachet, and certainly not the desire to jump to the NBA and try to coax compliance and excellence out of Allen Iverson. But Billy King, the Sixers’ president and general manager then, had the ear and trust of someone who did. So King picked up the phone, dialed Mike Krzyzewski’s number, and offered him the chance to coach the Sixers.
“I asked Coach, ‘Before I start this search, would you be interested?’ ” King, a Duke alumnus who played for Krzyzewski from 1984 to 1988, said Monday. “And he said, ‘No, Billy, thanks. I’m good.’ I figured I had to ask. Thinking back on it, oh, my God, if he’d said yes, I don’t know if the Duke alumni would have ever invited me back.”
