Oct. 23, 2007

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Duke University head men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Foundation, and NABC Executive Director Jim Haney have been selected among the 100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America by the Institute for International Sport.

"In America and in many other countries, we honor elite athletes, winning coaches, wealthy team owners and media moguls. We praise sports educators yet we really do not honor them in a manner befitting their admirable impact on society," said Dan Doyle, executive director of the Institute for International Sport. "This project is aimed at honoring individuals and organizations that have creatively and effectively used sport in the very best way - as a means to educate and shape positive values."

Krzyzewski, in his 28th season at Duke, has been named national coach of the year 12 times. He has led the Blue Devils to three NCAA championships and has an overall won-lost record of 775-261, including five years as head coach at the U.S. Military Academy, his alma mater. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001, he is the head coach of the USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team, which won the FIBA Americas championship this summer and qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

In addition to developing winning teams on the basketball court, Krzyzewski has been a leader in numerous community and national campaigns for the enhancement of educational and charitable programs. The former NABC president has been instrumental in the development of the new College Basketball Experience (CBE), which is operated by the NABC Foundation. He was the recipient of the NABC Literacy Champion Award in 2000 for his efforts in the greater Durham community schools and with the development of the national NABC Ticket to Reading Rewards program. Krzyzewski is also closely involved with the Duke Children's Hospital, Children's Miracle Network, the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research, the NABC Coaches vs. Cancer program, the Brain Tumor Center at Duke, Hoop Dreams Advisory Council and the Emily Krzyzewski Family Life center, a community center named in honor of his late mother.

"No Coach could better represent the NABC Foundation than Mike Krzyzewski. He is respected by coaches and administrators and understands the world of fundraising better than anybody," said Jim Boeheim, NABC president and head basketball coach at Syracuse University who is an assistant coach for Krzyzewski with USA Basketball. "A great coach and a great leader, Coach Krzyzewski will lead the NABC Foundation to all of its goals."

A former head coach at the University of Oregon who also served as commissioner of the Missouri Valley Conference and Big West Conference, Haney joined the NABC as executive director in 1992. Working in concert with the NABC board of directors over the last 15 years, he championed the creation of the "Guardians of the Game" awareness and education program to focus attention on the positive aspects of the game of basketball and the role coaches play in the academic and athletic lives of their players through advocacy, leadership, service and education.

Haney's vision and leadership led to the creation of the NABC Foundation, which just last week opened its $24 million College Basketball Experience in downtown Kansas City, Mo. The 41,500-square foot structure shares a common lobby with the new Sprint Center arena and offers basketball fans of all ages a wide variety of interactive venues. The CBE enables fans to learn about the history of men's college basketball while enjoying state-of-the-art, hands-on opportunities to test their basketball skills. The CBE is also the home of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

"Jim Haney has moved the NABC forward at lightning speed. Creating the College Basketball Experience is certainly a tremendous milestone for Jim and the Association," said Boeheim. "This, along with our improved relationship with the NCAA and its staff, are hallmarks of Jim Haney's tremendous accomplishments as executive director of the NABC."

Haney's tenure as NABC executive director has also included the creation of the NABC Congress in each division of NCAA Basketball to work more effectively with the NCAA; the formation of a partnership with the American Cancer Society that launched the widely successful Coaches vs. Cancer program; the development of the One Nation, One People, One Flag initiative, which has been adopted nationally from high school programs to all levels of college basketball; a partnership with the Josephson Institute of Ethics on "Pursuing Victory with Honor", which emphasizes the six pillars of character (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship), and the Gold Medal Standards for amateur basketball.

"I have been extremely fortunate to work with a group of outstanding college coaches on our board of directors," said Haney. "Our board members have set the course for the membership and have worked tirelessly to implement programs and reach goals we have set to make our Association better."

"The NABC Foundation is comprised of some of our nation's finest business and community leaders as well as several top basketball coaches," Haney said. "The board members shared the vision for the College Basketball Experience, and their work and support was invaluable in enabling the project to be completed."