RIO DE JANEIRO — There might not be a more thankless job in sports than being the head coach of the US men’s Olympic basketball team.
If your team takes the gold, everyone points to the embarrassment of riches known as your roster and says the local CYO coach could have coached the team. If you get any other medal, you’re the captain of the basketball Exxon Valdez — at the helm for an embarrassing mess and a national disaster.
Mike Krzyzewski has navigated these tricky international waters better than anyone since taking over Team USA in 2005, following the nadir for American NBAers at the Olympics, the 2004 bronze medal in Athens. Coach K brought the Duke Blue Devils Way to the Red, White, and Blue and restored the program’s primary color to gold.
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Rio was Krzyzewski’s best coaching job with Team NBA, er Team USA. In his final game on the US bench, Coach K and the American ballers added to the US medal mint at the Rio Games, outclassing Serbia, 96-66, Sunday in a game that wasn’t even that close.
Make no mistake, Krzyzewski, who became the first coach to guide three US Olympic teams to gold, had to do some coaching this time.
The 2016 Olympic basketball team was not a Dream Team. It was a team that needed a wake-up call.
This team was not an artistic success or a harmony of hoops precision. We should have just sent the Golden State Warriors. This team gravitated a bit too often toward Ugly American one-on-one basketball. It didn’t display American exceptionalism enough.
But these guys got the job done, and that’s what matters.
Simply rolling out any of our NBA All-Stars and the basketball isn’t enough to guarantee gold. Close calls against Australia, Serbia, and France in pool play reflected that. A team that had never played together and had 10 first-time Olympians and six guys who hadn’t experienced international basketball needed a guiding hand.
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“They see the guys on the roster, and they just automatically think, ‘Oh, they’re supposed to win,’ ” said DeMarcus Cousins, who delivered 13 points and 15 rebounds against Serbia. “This isn’t our game. This isn’t the way we play. This is an adjustment for every guy on the roster. No matter how much time that it is.
“If your guys can’t come together and mesh and play with some type of chemistry you won’t win games. It’s been proven in the past. We’ve had some of the most talented teams in the past and we didn’t win. So, it’s not as easy as people think it is.”
Cousins said the team’s first meeting with Serbia, a 94-91 nailbiter that wasn’t over until Serbia missed a late 3-pointer, was the best thing that happened to this group. It let them know it wouldn’t be a walk in Olympic Park to get America’s 15th gold.
There are some who are rubbed the wrong way by Coach K’s success and his occasionally condescending demeanor at Duke. The Blue Devils are one of the most despised brands in college basketball. They’re like the Patriots of college basketball for some with Krzyzewski’s five national titles and 12 Final Fours.
But the man can coach.
The sign of a well-coached team is one that keeps getting better during the season. The United States saved its most complete effort of the eight-game Olympic run for last.
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“This team kept getting better,” said Krzyzewski. “Even those three games in pool play, we had not played that type of game against that type of level of opponent. We said it was a learning experience. Our guys learned. We put it to good practice. We kept getting better, even though it didn’t necessarily reflect in the differential in score. We were getting better and more knowledgeable.”
Serbia already had scored one dramatic upset victory over the US team in a court sport at these Olympics. The Serbian women’s volleyball team upset the top-ranked Americans in the semifinals Thursday.
There would be no upset on the basketball court, just the United States’ 53d straight victory in international play under Coach K.
Led by a 24-point first half from Kevin Durant, who scored 18 of his 30 points in a scintillating second quarter, Team USA was up, 52-29, at halftime. They suffocated the Serbians’ brilliant ball movement and crafty point guard Milos Teodosic with hermetically sealed defense.
The United States led by as many as 41 in the fourth before taking its foot off the gas and Serbia’s throat.
It was the type of performance it didn’t look like this group was capable of delivering.
The Americans came in with an average margin of victory of 21.7 points per game. The average margin of victory in London four years ago was 32.1 points and that team averaged 115.1 points per game, second only to the Dream Team in USA Basketball history.
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But there were only two players left from that team on this one, Durant and Carmelo Anthony, who won his third Olympic gold.
That was obvious at times. So was the absence of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Anthony Davis.
As often happens in these settings some players struggle with how to balance being unselfish with being themselves.
Forced to be a leader, Durant was in that situation until Krzyzewski showed him film from the 2010 World Championship. He told Durant that he needed that guy.
“I was trying too hard to sacrifice and make the extra pass,” said Durant. “I was taking away from my game. Coach just told me to be me, and I went out there and did that.”
The man who owns college basketball’s Big Dance had his last dance at the Olympics. It was a satisfying gold medal samba in Rio.
He leaves with an 88-1 record. Coach K now turns the national team program over to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich in superior shape to the way he found it. Coaching the US men’s basketball team is a thankless job, but USA Basketball should be thankful for its time with Coach K.
Video: Rio Olympics review
Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cgasper@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @cgasper.