Mike Krzyzewski says 2016 Summer Olympics will be his last

“It is. It definitely is, ” Krzyzewski said in an interview with ESPN about Rio being his last time as United States of America coach.

“Hopefully we can finish things up well with Rio and I would move onto something else with USA Basketball”, Krzyzewski said, according to the report.

Rumors have circulated that University of Kentucky coach, John Calipari, would take over as Team USA’s lead man after Krzyzewski steps down. Those marked the first USA losses at the Olympics since National Basketball Association players began playing in 1992. He was also an assistant coach for the 1984 and 1992 U.S. Olympic champion teams. Coach K broke the news to ESPN’s Andy Katz and said a successor will be announced before the Olympics.

“There has to be a succession … a planned succession with really good people so we can keep the continuity of the program going”, he continued.

The USA men, who won Olympic golds in Beijing and London, have gone 75-1 under Krzyzewski.

“I think it would be good if somebody had experience in worldwide basketball, ” Krzyzewski said. “When I said I wasn’t going to do it, I felt that I wasn’t going to do it. I felt it gave USA Basketball an opportunity to look at everything”. He’s led the Americans to pair of gold medals in Olympic and FIBA World Cup competition, reshaping the once fledgling program back into the sport’s dominant global side – all while leading Duke to a similar brand of success marked by NCAA Championships in 2010 and 2015.

As recently as April, Krzyzewski’s said he’s not close to retiring.

“[What does] Jerry do?” A different calendar after 2016 with the World Cup [2019] and Olympics [2020]. As for who will replace him as head coach when he steps down, he is unsure but Coach K did say that it should be someone with global experience and that is doesn’t matter if it’s a college guy or a pro guy. “They will pick the best person, from whatever – the National Basketball Association or collegiate environment”.