The Gold Standard

Duke University and Olympic coach Mike Krzyzewski (author) teams up with daughter Jamie Spatola (narrator) to offer a powerful audiobook that helps the listener make meaningful connections between leadership-building skills and the rise of the 2008 gold-winning U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball team. Coach Krzyzewski relates his team-building techniques to personal experiences that occurred at both the individual and team level team took shape. Jamie Spatola's relationship to Coach Krzyzewski gives breadth and depth to her narration and helps this audiobook to become a much more intimate experience for the listener. Spatola's passion and belief in the wisdom of her father's words are felt with every syllable she speaks. J.P.D. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

April 15, 2009
The U.S. reasserted its dominance over the basketball world by winning the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Krzyzewski, with an unquestioned track record as the head coach at Duke, was chosen to lead the team. His challenge was to adapt the coaching methods that worked so well with college kids to a team of NBA superstars. The naysayers felt no one could rein in the egos of millionaire NBA stars, but Coach K obviously succeeded. In his telling of the tale, the egos werent an issue. To a man, the players sublimated their games to the needs of the team. If anything, Krzyzewski had to guard against excess deference. Kobe Bryant, the NBAs premier scorer, for example, was so determined to prove his unselfishness that, in an early scrimmage, he did not take a single shot. Krzyzewski relates his team-building techniques, offers numerous anecdotes about the players, and provides insightful commentary on the key games. This is not a great book, but it will serve as the definitive account of the U.S.s climb back to the top of the international basketball mountain.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)