DURHAM, N.C. — The news from the other side of the United States landed in this old tobacco town like word of an impending natural disaster, or close to it.
The calamity? The man everyone in these parts knows as Coach K may be history. Going to Los Angeles, perhaps, to coach professionals in the National Basketball Assn.
As the long Fourth of July weekend began, it dominated local headlines. And it was the No. 1 topic being chewed over at the polished wood bar of Devines Restaurant & Sports Bar, where 19 framed photos of longtime Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, who may be bound for the Lakers, are on display.
"I think it would really be a bad decision," offered bartender Jim Haney, 24. "Not that it would tarnish his legacy. But here he's the biggest celebrity in town. Go out to L.A., and you've got Jack Nicholson riding the bench behind you."
Leroy Joiner, 51, who teaches in an adult education program, admitted to ambivalent feelings between sips of Diet Pepsi. He loves rooting for the hometown team, he said -- but he also attended graduate school at USC, lived 15 years in Los Angeles and thinks the Lakers badly need the leadership Krzyzewski has proved he can deliver.
"Coach K is the premier coach at the college level. The Lakers are arguably the premier franchise in the NBA," said Joiner. "A great fit."
Last week, the Lakers announced they were in talks with Krzyzewski, 57, concerning the head coaching job vacated by Phil Jackson after the team's humbling defeat by the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals.
"It was the buzz," said Glen Meynardie, 26, who was in a bar in downtown Durham when the first bulletins of the negotiations were being aired by ESPN. "Everybody was talking about it."
That night, Duke's new president, Richard Brodhead, who was in the first day of his job, grabbed a bullhorn and joined in a hastily organized rally on campus to urge Krzyzewski to stay. "There's no K? Ain't no way!" scores of Duke students chanted.
By the beginning of the weekend, shock and disbelief over the possible departure of the winningest coach in Duke's history seemed to have been replaced by hope and resignation, in roughly equal measure.
"My gut says K stays," the lead headline reassuringly read in Saturday's Herald-Sun, Durham's daily newspaper. The gut in question belonged to Duke assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski, who played for Krzyzewski as a student and has known him for a decade.
