By now, you would think that Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski would be used to rubbing elbows with some of the most famous people in the world. He did, after all, coach LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and a handful of other NBA superstars during both the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. And the guy has been around the game of basketball for a looooooong time now, so he's a legend in his own right and probably makes a lot of people out there nervous when he meets them for the first time.
But when he introduced LeBron at the Sports IllustratedSportsman of the Year dinner last November, he was the one who was nervous to meet someone. But it wasn't LeBron. At this point, he's spent lots of time around him. Rather, it was Jay Z and Beyoncé—and specifically, Beyoncé—who had Coach K all choked up during the dinner. At an event at Duke recently, he spoke to a bunch of grad students and talked about that night.
"I go up on stage," he said, "and do 10 minutes and say really nice things about LeBron, Jay, and, of course, Beyoncé. The event's over, and this is where my street cred, like, was bouncing all over the world. I'm asked to come up on stage and take a picture with LeBron and Jay. So it's LeBron, Jay, and K. It's on Twitter, Instagram, I don't know, was Vine going then? It's on all that crap. I mean, in Hong Kong, Beijing, Moscow. My shit's going all over the place. I am the coolest 65-year-old…However, what I want has not happened yet. I want to meet Beyoncé."
So far? So good. "My shit's going all over the place"? Awesome quote. But it gets even better.
"I go up to Beyoncé," he said. "You know how guys think they have a lot of good lines? And so I go up and I'm nervous as can be. I'm like a teenager. And I go to her with a great line. I say, 'Hi, I'm Coach K.' And she said, 'Coach, I know who you are. I just listened to you for 10 minutes.' Like, patting me on the head. Little boy. So now I feel like I'm 11. So what's my next line? I come up and I say, 'You're my favorite.' My face is red as can be, you know, I'm like 4 feet tall right now. And she says, 'Well, that's nice.' And I asked her—and I don't usually do this—but I said, 'Would you take a picture with me?' So she takes a picture with me and I look, really, like I'm 12. But my street cred, as big as the other one was, goes everywhere."
Wow. Go 'head, Coach K. We didn't know you had it in you. Between all of this and the Gucci Mane stuff yesterday, you're enjoying quite a moment right now, aren't you?
The audio in the YouTube clip above sucks. But turn up the volume on it to hear Coach K talk more about meeting Beyoncé.
