President Obama seems to have a lot of critics in the sports world right now. Last week, Michael Jordan had some not-so-nice things to say about the President's golf game. And now, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski has offered up his opinion on the Commander-in-chief's strategy for dealing with ISIS.
During a speech that he gave at the Association of the U.S. Army conference last month, Coach K revealed that he does not agree with the way that President Obama has utilized the U.S. Army with regards to ISIS. Specifically, he thinks that the President has disrespected the Army by not allowing it to hit the ground and deal with ISIS directly.
"I know it's upsetting to many of you when you hear 'no boots on the ground.' It upsets me too," he said, "because that's like saying I'm not going to play two of my best players. Because that's what you are trained to do. And for decades and decades, the fact that we are a free country and we don't play home games here is a result of having boots on the ground. That's the problem."
Coach K continued by talking about how he doesn't think President Obama should have told the world that the U.S. isn't going to send troops to fight ISIS.
"It's about letting your opponent know we are going to use our best players," he said. "And whether we use them or not, that's up to the coach. You never tell your opponent you are not going to use [them], like I'm not going to play Grant Hill, J.J. Redick, [Christian] Laettner."
Coach K then finished his speech by giving props to the U.S. Army as a whole.
"In our country today, the most respected group is the United States Army. Please understand there's power to that," said Krzyzewski, who played and coached at Army in the 1960s and 1970s. "I want to thank you for the countless times your boots have been on the ground, and as a result has given me an opportunity to live in a free country, to do what I want to do, to coach the United States team, the Duke team, whatever. So on behalf of the ordinary people, we love you and thank you for doing that."
You can watch Coach K's entire speech here:
Safe to say President Obama won't be picking Duke in his annual NCAA Tournament bracket next year?
[via The Daily Beast]
