Mike Krzyzewski discussed the rumors and innuendo that he is going to “pull a Tom Brady” and un-retire from coaching with a quick denial.
The recently-retired Duke coach was asked by Sean Farnham, his co-host on his SiriusXM show “Basketball and Beyond with Coach K”.
“What is your reply to all of those people that are asking those questions today [about pulling a Brady]?” Farnham asked.
“Well, to even be put in the same room maybe that Brady would be in is an honor, but, you know, he still has talent that can be used at a really high level. I’m done with the coaching part of it,” Krzyzewski answered.
Brady, widely considered the greatest quarterback of all-time, recently announced he was returning to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after a brief retirement.
Coach K denies that he is thinking about pulling a Tom Brady and un-retiring from coaching.Getty Images
After his initial denial, Coach K talked about how grateful he was for his 47 years in coaching.
“But wow. You know, I’ve been so lucky to be in it for 47 years, almost five decades of coaching at either West Point or Duke, and then 11 years with U.S. How lucky can you be?” he asked. “To be in that arena with two of the best institutions in the world, and then to represent your country in the global arena, it’s been an unbelievable honor. And I’ve loved it. I I’ve loved doing what I dreamed I wanted to do when I was 16, and that was to be a coach.
“And it went on steroids, you know, I mean, all the opportunities and the people who’ve helped me, and obviously one of the main things is the players that you have an honor to coach who have been so very talented and so very committed to team play. As a result we’ve won a lot of championships and obviously you lose too, but those times that you win are cherished.”
Earlier this week, Jay Williams, who played for Coach K at Duke, speculated that the departure of assistant coach and ace recruiter Nolan Smith to Louisville could cause Krzyzewski to postpone his successor Jon Scheyer’s tenure for a year to preserve the program’s top-rated recruiting class.
“Here’s why I give it a legit chance,” Williams said on his ESPN Radio morning program. “If you’re Nolan Smith, and you have a great relationship with all these players, you’re in the (same) conference. You’re at Louisville. You’re picking up the phone and [recruiting the stars from Duke]. It weakens the hold of Duke. If you’re Coach K, how do you strengthen that hold? You’re coming back.”
Williams had hardly been alone in his speculation, but his proximity to the program carried a lot of weight in driving the conversation this week.
Horny wine moms everywhere were ecstatic to learn that Tatum, 41, will be reprising his role as an oiled-up exotic dancer in the “Magic Mike” movie franchise — but their ogling has apparently gone a bit too far.
It has been reported that the British set of the third movie, “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” has been “disrupted” by a group of “salivating admirers,” according to the Sun — a “legion of horny, middle-aged women,” to be exact.
The flock of ladies has caused “Magic Mike” filmmakers to increase security measures around the set and the movies’ hunky stars.
Details of the production schedule were reportedly leaked in a WhatsApp group chat of superfans who apparently couldn’t wait until the release date of the third installment, which has not been disclosed.
Several scenes of the highly anticipated movie are being rehearsed at a dance studio where a swarm of lusting women goes to great lengths to see the hunky, presumably shirtless cast.
“It starts as a bit of fun and it’s great that the fans are so engaged. They’re just passionate — and plainly sex-starved! But after a while it has become problematic and there are now a lot of fans trying to get hold of the guys pretty much everywhere they go,” a source told the Sun.
“The security team are concerned about what they might be prepared to do just to get their hands on them.
“Obviously the previous films have had a huge impact but also left this legion of horny, middle-aged women, who are making it their business to know the guys’ every move and follow them all over the place,” the insider continued.
“Sadly, the only option has been to move things around and take security precautions by bringing in some proper heavies to make sure nobody gets hurt.”
According to IMDB.com, Tatum and Thandiwe Newton, 49, are the only confirmed cast members, with the latter London native starring as the lead love interest.
But fans may still be hoping to get another chance to drool over other former “Magic Mike” stars, including Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello, Alex Pettyfer and Matt Bomer.
It’s only been three days since Mike Krzyzewski’s final game at Duke, but speculation is already rampant that he could return to the program.
On Monday, ESPN’s Marc Spears reported that top Duke assistant Nolan Smith, responsible for recruiting much of the school’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class for Coach K’s successor Jon Scheyer, is leaving to become associate head coach at Louisville under Kenny Payne.
On ESPN Radio’s “Keyshawn, JWill & Max”, former Duke star Jay Williams wondered aloud if this would potentially open the door for Krzyzewski to return for one more year to fortify the Blue Devils’ transition.
“I don’t know this for a fact — this is sheer speculation on my part — but there’s a lot of moving parts here,” Williams said. “First off, I’m really happy for Nolan Smith. He deserves to be an associate head coach. To go back to where his father played — he lost his father when he was younger … I love that for Kenny Payne, who was an assistant coach with the Knicks and worked under John Calipari at Kentucky, now the head coach of Louisville. Louisville is about to be a crazy program for bringing Nolan Smith on as associate head coach.
Jay Williams thinks there’s a ‘legit chance’ Coach K un-retires and coaches Duke next year after assistant coach Nolan Smith left the program.Getty Images
“But I think it leaves a huge gap at Duke. And the question is, who fills that void from a recruiting perspective? And it leads me to think, which I’ve been thinking a lot about since I heard this news (Monday), does Coach K come back for another season? One more final season.”
Williams was clear that he was not speaking with inside information, but continued to apply logic to the possibility of a return.
“Now, I’m not saying I know this,” he said. “I’m just throwing it out there because these kids are coming in expecting to win a championship. They were recruited [by] and have close relationships with Nolan Smith. It’s like, if I recruit Key, and I’m one of the main reasons he’s coming to my school, and now I’m leaving the school — even though the school has a great footprint — that creates a different dynamic between all these players.
Nolan Smith (left) with Mike Krzyzewski on Oct. 15, 2021Getty Images
“So now, will some of these players de-commit? Will they go to other schools?”
Keyshawn Johnson chimed in and asked about the dynamic on whether Duke could lose any of the players who are in the No. 1-ranked recruiting class.
“That’s a legit question,” Williams said. “If you’re Dereck Lively II, who’s a top-three rated player in the class, if you’re Tarik Whitehead, who’s the No. 1-rated player in the class as a guard — do you want to come to a first-year head coach where the relatability you had with the assistant is no longer there?”
Max Kellerman entered the chat and asked if Smith’s departure would create a “plausible” situation where Coach K could justify returning because the institution needs him, after the “bitter taste” of losing his last game to rival North Carolina in the Final Four.
“Here’s why I give it a legit chance,” Williams said. “If you’re Nolan Smith, and you have a great relationship with all these players, you’re in the (same) conference. You’re at Louisville. You’re picking up the phone and [recruiting the stars from Duke]. It weakens the hold of Duke. If you’re Coach K, how do you strengthen that hold? You’re coming back.”
The crowded Republican Senate primary in Ohio is drawing new controversy, with candidate JD Vance slamming front-runner Mike Gibbons for “shamefully” taking $1.5 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans for his investment bank.
Brown Gibbons Lang & Co. LLC was approved for a forgivable PPP loan on April 14, 2020 — two days before the program’s initial $350 billion in funding ran out, as larger firms scooped up the cash while lockdowns crushed smaller restaurants and shops.
“How many struggling small businesses in Ohio went bankrupt or were forced to fire their workers just because Mike Gibbons cut ahead of them in line for PPP funds that he didn’t even need?” Vance told The Post.
“Gibbons has spent over $11 million self-funding his Senate campaign since he took the $1.5 million from taxpayers, so he clearly didn’t need the money to pay his bills or keep Ohioans employed.”
Vance added that Gibbons “shamefully abused the trust of taxpayers to line his pockets, at the expense of those who truly needed that money to survive.”
Gibbons is the current front-runner in the Ohio race. Joshua A. Bickel/The Columbus Dispatch via AP, PoolVance is third in polls go ing into the May 3 primary election.REUTERS/Gaelen Morse
Vance, a venture capitalist best known as the author of the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” is currently third in polls going into the May 3 primary election. He raised the attack ahead of a Tuesday night Republican primary debate.
At a debate last month, Gibbons and former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, currently second in GOP primary polls, came close to a physical altercation on stage as Mandel slammed Gibbons for business links to China.
Congress established the Paycheck Protection Program in March 2020 to help small businesses with up to 500 employees. Lawmakers approved a second batch of PPP funds in late April 2020, though some smaller companies still struggled to navigate the process.
Loans were forgiven if companies spent a certain percentage on payroll. Initially, the requirement was 75%, but was later reduced to 60%.
Records show that Gibbons intended to use the funds to pay for his employees’ salaries.Getty Images
ProPublica’s database of PPP records indicates that Gibbons’ company received $1,513,100 in PPP loan money and said all of it would go toward payroll for 72 positions. The government converted the loan to a grant because it met the program’s conditions, according to the database.
It’s unclear which employee salaries were covered. Staff-reported pay information on Glassdoor indicates that six-figure salaries are common at the company, which describes itself as “a leading independent investment bank and financial advisory firm.”
Although Gibbons benefited from the PPP funds, he said in October that he would have voted against the CARES Act, which contained the first installment of the program’s funds.
Gibbons has self-funded about $11.4 million out of the total $12.1 million raised by his campaign, according to federal campaign finance data.
According to the RealClearPolitics average of recent polls, Gibbons is leading the GOP primary with about 20% support, followed by Mandel at 18.7% and Vance at 11%. The primary remains unsettled, however, with two other candidates polling above 5% and former President Donald Trump not yet issuing an endorsement.
Gibsons spokeswoman Samantha Cotten returned fire on Vance and said her boss did nothing wrong.
“JD Vance clearly has spent too much time in the CNN green rooms. Donald Trump’s Paycheck Protection Program as laid out by law, was used to pay the salaries of employees during the 2020 lockdown,” Cotten said. “Mike Gibbons has created thousands of jobs, and at any given time has hundreds of employees. President Trump’s program helped ensure they continued to receive paychecks during the government imposed lockdowns.”
“Shahs of Sunset” star Mike Shouhed was arrested for domestic violence on March 27, Page Six has exclusively learned.
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Monday that West Valley officers responded to a call of “unknown” trouble at approximately 10 p.m. local time.
Shouhed, 43, was then arrested for “intimate partner violence with injury,” which an LAPD public information officer explained is another legal term for domestic violence. It is used when there is “visible injury” on the victim.
A description of Shoued’s alleged victim was not provided.
Shortly after his arrest, the Bravolebrity was booked on March 28 at around 1:05 a.m. local time, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department court records.
Shouhed was charged with corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, which is a felony, per LASD.
He was given a $50,000 bond and held until 6:35 a.m., at which point he was released for paying the money. He is due back in court on July 25.
Shouhed’s attorney, Alex Kessel, tells Page Six his client denies all the allegations.
The reality star has not posted about his arrest on social media.
However, he has shared a series of cryptic graphics on his Instagram Stories recently, including one that read, “Your life is your responsibility. Your success is your responsibility. Your failure is your responsibility. Your reaction is your responsibility. Your behavior is your responsibility.”
Shouhed also posted a video of himself Monday dancing along in his car to a popular Spanish song by Celia Cruz and Joe Arroyo called “No Le Pegue a la Negra,” which translates in English to “Don’t Hit the Black Woman.”
Shouhed has appeared on “Shahs of Sunset” since Season 1, which premiered in 2012.NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
As of Monday morning, Shouhed appeared to still be following his fiancée, Paulina Ben-Cohen, on Instagram, though she has since deactivated her account. It is unclear whether she was involved in the domestic violence incident.
Ben-Cohen did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
The couple announced their engagement in August 2021 following a cheating-sexting scandal.
Shouhed was accused of sending racy texts to another woman while he was dating Ben-Cohen, and despite denying it for some time, finally copped to it in May 2021.
“We were going through COVID, being on lockdown, and I let the anxiousness of going through that and just being bored allow me to do things I shouldn’t have done,” he previously told E! News.
“Looking back, I feel really stupid for allowing myself to engage in that conversation, even though those text messages were for a few hours and one day that those messages happened, reliving it now feels like … like it was going on for a long period of time.”
Shouhed’s fiancée, Paulina Ben-Cohen, showed off her engagement ring during a “WWHL” appearance.NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Ben-Cohen, who has two sons from a previous marriage, revealed during the “Shahs” Season 9 reunion that she and Shouhed did not plan to sign a prenuptial agreement.
She said, “I would not marry someone if I felt that I need to protect myself. In my eyes, that’s not a marriage. Then I’ll just date someone.”
The blogger also affirmed her love for Shouhed, saying, “The love and the connection that we have with each other, like, I would not be able to live a day without him in my life.”
On March 18, about a week before Shouhed’s arrest, Ben-Cohen posted a photo of herself on Instagram with the caption, “waiting for your call ….”
When a pal asked whether the captioned was directed at her or Shouhed, Ben-Cohen replied, “both.”
Shouhed was previously married to nurse and influencer Jessica Parido, but their union ended because of admitted cheating on the Iranian-born TV personality’s behalf.
ORLANDO, Fla. — RJ Barrett, the one-time Duke star, watched the Final Four on Saturday from his hotel room and said he mostly noticed the walk-off after the game.
In particular, Barrett noticed Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski’s stoic demeanor in congratulating UNC coach Hubert Davis and the rest of the Tar Heels after his final game, losing in the national semifinals in a 81-77 heartbreaker in New Orleans.
RJ Barrett (left) and Mike Krzyzewski (right) while at Duke. Getty ImagesMike Krzyzewski congratulates Hubert Davis following Duke’s Final Four loss to North Carolina. USA TODAY Sports
“Man, that game was up, down and crazy,’’ Barrett said. “Tough for them to lose. I admire the way Coach K walked off the court. He always says ‘strong faces.’ He walked off like a champion. He’s the greatest ever to do it. It was his last time on the court and I’m just thankful I was able to be a part of that Duke history.’’
In his lone season at Duke in 2018-19, Barrett, Zion Williamson and Cam Reddish were ousted in the Elite Eight by Michigan State.
NEW ORLEANS — Mike Krzyzewski took his seat in the back of a golf cart next to his bride of 53 years, Mickie, the flight attendant he married the day he graduated from West Point. He faced some reporters who were documenting the moment, and decided to have some fun with the bitter end of his incomparable career.
“Maybe you can superimpose a sunset,” he said.
And off he went down a Superdome tunnel with a smile on his face, and with a smile on Mickie’s, after North Carolina shut down his bid for a sixth national title just as it had shut down his bid for a proper farewell in his last home game at Duke. Krzyzewski saw his players cry in the locker room Saturday night and actually called it “a beautiful sight.”
Beautiful because those tears proved how much his kids cared, and how hard they had competed.
These impossibly young Blue Devils gave him a precious going-away gift. They came together in the nick of time, delivered those remarkable five endgame minutes against Michigan State in their second NCAA Tournament game, and sent Coach K on this wild ride. He was never going to break John Wooden’s record of 10 national titles, of course, but these kids pushed him past Wooden with that 13th trip to the Final Four, and Krzyzewski could never fully repay them for that.
When it was over and this 81-77 North Carolina victory was frozen in forever’s lights, I asked the 75-year-old grandfather of 10 if that Michigan State rally that started it all would be his enduring tournament memory after the pain subsides. Eventually he started talking like old warriors talk.
Mike Krzyzewski leaves a news conference with his wife Mickie after Duke’s 81-77 Final Four loss to North Carolina. “Maybe you can superimpose a sunset,” Coach K jokingly said to reporters.AP
“I’ve been blessed to be in the arena,” Krzyzewski said. “And when you’re in the arena, you’re either going to come out feeling great or you’re going to feel agony. But you always will feel great about being in the arena. And I’m sure that’s the thing when I’ll look back that I’ll miss. … But damn, I was in the arena for a long time. And these kids made my last time in the arena an amazing one.”
Amen to that.
Krzyzewski watched Duke’s final futile possession from his chair on the elevated court, with his arms crossed against his chest. As the last seconds bled from the clock, he rose and walked solemnly toward the Carolina bench to congratulate the winners, who greeted him graciously. Hubert Davis’s Tar Heels did manage to party on the court like it was New Year’s Eve. Man, did they ever earn the right.
And yes, this was a fitting final act for Coach K, given that he’d effectively started his Duke career by picking a fight against North Carolina. In his third game as Blue Devils coach, with a Tar Heels victory secured, Dean Smith made the mistake of walking toward the Duke bench for a handshake while two meaningless free throws still needed to be shot. Coach K rejected the handshake. “The damn game isn’t over yet, Dean,” he barked. On the Carolina bench, assistant Roy Williams initially thought an ACC rookie shouldn’t treat a legend like that before he pivoted on further review. “This is a competitive guy,” Williams said of Krzyzewski back then. “He has the right to his own standards. And he was right, the game wasn’t over.”
All the games are over now for Coach K, his 42-year run at Duke closed down for good in the Superdome, which opened the same year (1975) that Krzyzewski started his career at Army. At times Saturday night Coach K jumped out of his chair and pumped his fists and exhorted his team with a fury, to no avail. Mark Williams missed two crucial free throws late, followed by a Caleb Love 3-pointer that was the dagger. In a rivalry defined by hate, Love was the difference, finishing with 28 points.
Mike Krzyzewski Getty Images
Now the Blue Devils have to deal with those consequences of losing one of the biggest games in the sport’s history to their neighbors. Frankly, Krzyzewski and his legacy will be just fine. His five national titles equal the combined total won by Roy Williams (3) and Smith (2). He also retires with a personal winning record against the Tar Heels at 50-48, and with a victory total of 1,202 — including 101 in the NCAA Tournament — that no man will ever match.
But he won’t be returning to the arena, and that will hurt more than anything. Krzyzewski ran his first basketball program at age 12, when his Chicago elementary school, St. Helen, refused to give him the team he wanted to enter in a CYO league. Young Mike instead organized a team that took on all comers in other neighborhoods. “No parents involved,” he said. His winning percentage was better than most.
Sixty-three years later, it’s all over. No more pep talks to give. No more plays to call. No more games to win.
No more teams to lead.
His career started seven months after the fall of Saigon in 1975, and ended five weeks after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It started in an old, dusty fieldhouse near the river at West Point and ended in the Superdome in New Orleans. What an incredible journey it was.
The greatest to ever do it, Krzyzewski sure adored his last group of players. “They’ve been a joy for me to coach,” he said.
Late Saturday night, Coach K knew when it was time to say goodbye. He loaded himself onto that golf cart, and slowly disappeared down a tunnel. All good West Point men know how it goes.
Separately from each other, producers Mike Dean (pictured above) and Jeff Bhasker (below) are both synth gods in their own right. As a unit, performing their first show on Friday (April 1) at OffSunset in West Hollywood, the two were otherworldly.
The intimate set reunited the Kanye West collaborators, who each have five Grammy Awards, and included an all-star guest list that both teased on socials prior to the event. Among the music celebrities in attendance were Travis Scott, Diddy, Ludacris, Diplo, music producers Metro Boomin, Rostam and Anthony Rossamondo, as well as music executives Mike Caren, founder and chief executive of APG, and Ron Perry, chairman of Columbia Records.
Courtesy Charlie Macmillan/@dondasplace
That the show was scheduled for two days before the Grammys, which take place in Las Vegas on April 3, was no coincidence seeing as West’s “Donda” is up for several awards, including album of the year.
The night kicked off at midnight, when both Dean and Bhasker took the stage — with the former rocking Nike Air Yeezy 1 Blink’s and a Gallery Dept shirt, and the latter in Nike Air Yeezy 2 NRG’s. Highlights from the 30-minute set included their versions of “we are young” by fun. (which Bhasker produced), “Runaway” by Kanye West, Bhaker’s demo version of Beyonce’s “Party,” and endless freestyling both on guitar and a mound of synthesizers, including the Juno 106, Moog Voyager Electric Blue and Korg Triton Extreme.
Courtesy Charlie Macmillan/@dondasplace
“The show was a full aural assault on the crowd,” says Dean, who was honored by Reporter Door as 2021’s producer of the year. “Great night, epic music, epic guests. Thanks to everyone who came out. Great jamming with Jeff!”
Courtesy Charlie Macmillan/@dondasplace
Bhasker echoed the sentiment, telling Reporter Door, “What an incredible vibe in the room! Such a rush to be on stage again after two years and with my brother, the incomparable Mike Dean.”
Both producers have an extensive catalog and credits on West’s influential “808s & Heartbreak,” “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and “Donda” albums, among many more. They also worked together with such artists as Beyonce and Kid Cudi. No word yet on whether the two will perform more joint shows in the near future.
More than anyone or anything, it was the recruitment of Paolo Banchero that carried Coach K on his magical Farewell Tour to Saturday night’s historic Final Four showdown with North Carolina.
Banchero, who has a chance to be the first-overall pick in the NBA draft, visited Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Gonzaga and Tennessee before he cast his lot with Coach K … with the help of Breakfast at Coach K’s.
“You walk into Coach K’s house and it’s a little surreal … He’s an icon,” Banchero’s father Mario told The Post. “But then you sit down and you start talking, and he’s a real guy. It’s been great. He’s been great. He’s been fun to talk to. My wife [Rhonda] is really the basketball aficionado in our house — she played at a very high level, coached at a high level — and so they connected on that. There was just a connection. He’s about as solid as a guy that you can hope your son to play for.”
Paolo took his father’s advice and was thorough during the entire process.
“ ‘You have these five incredible coaches,’ ” Mario told him. “ ‘So during this process, utilize that. Talk to ’em about basketball. Have ’em break down your film. Really take advantage of that.’ And he did. And in addition to that, he would jump on Synergy [Sports] and watch for hours. He would watch film of Duke going back 10 years. He would watch film of Coach [Roy] Williams at North Carolina all the way back to Kansas and Coach Cal [John Calipari at Kentucky].
“And so, all the way through the process what these guys were telling him, he was matching it up with what they actually did, what they actually ran. … Paolo dove into that and really, really looked at who is going to play me which kinda way, like how am I gonna fit, how’s this gonna work, and at the end of the day, he settled on what Coach K was telling him. He saw that in the film, and it fell true. Our experience here at Duke has been incredible, and everything Coach K said he was gonna do he’s done.”
Paolo Banchero (left) and Mike Krzyzewski (right) speak during practice ahead of the Final Four. USA TODAY Sports
Coach K and Paolo Banchero — one-and-done partners in crime.
“He’s always been a gamer,” Mario said. “When the chips were down, he always came through.”
Over the first four games of the Tournament, Paolo averaged 18.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.8 assists. During the season, he was 17.1/7.7/3.2.
Rhonda played basketball at the University of Washington and was drafted into the WNBA and played in the ABL and overseas. Mario was a tight end at Washington.
“I think he has a great deal of love for his family,” Mario said. “I think he has a great deal of affinity for the city of Seattle. He understands that those two things have given a lot to him. And so he wants to give back to them.
“He wants to be great, and he understands what that takes. He understands the work it takes, both mentally and physically. Ultimately, he wants to be great, he wants to be the best, and he wants to win above all else.”
As a 6-foot-10, 250-pound shot creator with versatility, Paolo would love to be the belle of the NBA ball over Jabari Smith and Chet Holmgren.
Paolo Banchero shoots during Duke’s Elite Eight win over Arkansas. Getty Images
“I think to a degree,” Mario said. “He wants to win. When he went into college, he wanted to be Player of the Year, he wanted to be All-American, he wanted to be the No. 1 pick, all of these things. And he believes he is those things. He has a high level of confidence. They all sit just under winning a national championship. ’Cause at the end of the day, he wants to win first. He understands that winning takes a lot of hard work, and then a byproduct of that hard work, then comes kind of the individual accolades as a secondary deal. So he’s always been a kid who, if he focuses on the work and focuses on winning, the rest of the stuff will come.”
Paolo was a 6-foot-7 schoolboy quarterback in ninth grade until a final growth spurt pushed him once and for all to the hardcourt.
“He probably would tell you he thought he was gonna be a football player,” Mario said, “because he was electric on the football field. He really was at the top of football for his age group before he was at the top of basketball for his age group. I used to tell him: ‘6-7 or under, you gotta play both. You get over 6-7, OK. At that point, you can move to basketball exclusively.’ ”
Mario — who is president of Mondo & Sons Inc., a meat processor and distributor in Seattle — sent gift boxes to all the head coaches involved in Paolo’s recruitment as appreciation. Coach K, of course, wound up with the real filet mignon.
“I feel an immense pride in watching Paolo play,” Rhonda said. “I’m watching him grow up on the court as the games progress! All of his work and hours in the gym are showing up in his game and in his quiet leadership. He’s a great teammate.”
“Sometimes you’ll watch a game and it can be in San Francisco versus Texas Tech, and you might as well pull me out of that Chase Center and plop me back in a gym in the seventh grade,” Mario said. “Even if it’s just a game at UNC at the Dean Dome, or if it’s a first-round game NCAA Tournament game, or a game that punches your ticket to the Final Four, you do have those moments too, and it’s just incredible to see him sort of mature and grow into this role and have success, you see all the hard work that he’s put in pay off. … Proud is an understatement.”
The worst shooting night of RJ Barrett’s lone season at Duke brought an unexpected criticism that turned into lasting wisdom.
Barrett sensed he was going to get an earful from coach Mike Krzyzewski after making just 8 of 30 shots in an overtime loss to Syracuse on Jan. 14, 2019. And he was right. Sort of.
“He got mad at me because I started to hesitate,” Barrett recalled Friday after the Knicks wrapped practice. “So he told me, ‘Don’t hesitate, because you should have shot 10 more shots.’ I said, ‘Dang, coach, 40 shots?’ He said, ‘I don’t want you to hesitate. Play free. Be yourself. We’re living and dying with you.’ You know that’s always something you could appreciate from a coach.”
Barrett’s evolution into a big-time scorer for the Knicks runs parallel with his willingness to become a volume shooter. He can boost his numbers in a Saturday matinee against the Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden and then find a place to watch the retiring Krzyzewski in what could be the Hall of Fame coach’s last game in the Final Four later in the evening.
“That’s my mindset: I’m going to be myself. I can’t hesitate,” Barrett said of applying “Coach K’s” advice. “I’ve got to make the right play.”
RJ Barrett, Mike Krzyzewski Getty, USA TODAY Sports
In the 18 games since the All-Star break, Barrett is averaging 25.7 points per game (upping his season average to 20.1) and the Knicks are 9-9. Barrett’s shooting percentage during that span (41.2) is the same as over the course of the season but down from a year ago (44.1) when he averaged 17.6 points as the clear second fiddle to teammate Julius Randle.
Of the NBA’s 30 scorers averaging at least 20 per game, only Randle (41.1) and the Raptors’ Fred VanVleet (40.8 percent) are shooting lower percentages than Barrett. And yet there are no signs of hesitation even in the few games when he hovers near the 26.2 percent he shot on that fateful night for Duke.
“The way I like to view it is he’s 21 years old, and there’s been a progression to this,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “When you look at players in this league, we all tend to measure someone where they are today: So-and-so is averaging 27 a game or 25 a game. You forget all those years there were 14, 17, 20, 21 and 23. I like where RJ is. I want him to continue to approach each day the way he has.”
Barrett said last month that joining the 20-point-per-game club was a significant individual goal. Well, with the Knicks eliminated from playoff contention and five regular-season games to go, milestones and individual development is all that’s left to track.
RJ Barrett speaks after Knicks practice Friday. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
“I feel like I have five more games to get it higher,” Barrett said. “I’ve been working towards it. I wouldn’t be able to do it without my teammates and coaching staff. I’m thankful that, ‘Wow, I’ve been able to do this because we’ve also been playing really good basketball.’ I don’t want to do anything to hinder the team, and hopefully continue to get better.”
In Barrett’s perfect world, this personal hot streak and improved team play would carry over similar to what happened in the COVID-19 bubble with Devin Booker and the Suns in August 2020. Booker averaged 30.5 points per game as the Suns reeled off eight straight wins. It wasn’t enough to sneak into those playoffs, but the Suns are the NBA’s winningest team over the next two seasons.
“Your best players have to help set the tone for the team and it’s not only the words; it’s the actions, to me,” Thibodeau said. “Your actions will always respect your priorities. I look at what he’s done since the All-Star break. He just keeps going this way.”
