Mike Krzyzewski served in the military and graduated college from Army. It makes sense that he would have opinions on political war matters.
Here is what he said about President Obama’s strategy on attacking ISIS via the Daily Beast.
“I know it’s upsetting to many of you when you hear ‘no boots on the ground.’ It upsets me too, because that’s like saying I’m not going to play two of my best players,” he said in his speech accepting the 2014 George Catlett Marshall Award, AUSA’s highest honor. “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.”
After a round of applause, Krzyzewski explained why Obama’s public announcement that he won’t use ground troops against ISIS was just bad coaching – because it allows the other team to stop preparing for it and gives them added confidence.
“It’s about letting your opponent know we are going to use our best players. 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,” he said, rattling off the names of some of his biggest stars at Duke.
I am a proponent of using metaphors and analogies to get your point across, but I would be uncomfortable using a sports metaphors when people are losing their lives daily, but that is just me.
With that being said his analogy is a bit flawed, since you always have to announce your starting lineup before the game starts.
Coach K is entitled to his opinion even if you disagree with it.