It was just the other day that Mike Krzyzewski took a potential opportunity for foreign diplomacy -- an olive branch, if you will -- and flossed his teeth with it. I believe he then threw it back at the horde of foreign journalists with "diplomacize this, b----." Nice guy, that Coach K.

That was a genuine issue, one that probably deserved to be talked about a little more. The new U.S. basketball team is supposed to be humble, and classy, and all of those things that people usually cite as the (silly) reasons they dislike the NBA. Krzyzewski's comments weren't any of those things.

Today, there's a new mini-controversy, though I'm not sure if it matches the one that preceded it. Judge for yourself: Coach K is aware that Duke-haters -- and they are legion -- are probably rooting against the U.S. men's national team. What does he think of such people? Not much:

Coach K: "I don't really care who people cheer for when I'm coaching Duke. I like to know somebody for who they are. But when you're representing your country, get real about things. Otherwise you're a very low-level, and they don't matter. It's the United States of America. These are your guys. What, are you going to root against Kobe because you're a Cleveland fan?"

Anchor: "Well, somebody will."

Coach K: "Well then those people are low-life people, and don't deserve to be thought of, you know. Let's think of the positive people who want their country to do well."

Always so diplomatic! Dad, I can't see real good -- is that Winston Churchill over there? (Waves glasses up and down, pulls up pants, etc.) 

While it's not a very nice way of saying it, Coach K isn't entirely wrong here. I just think he's missing the point.

Krzyzewski is an Army man. He seems like the kind of guy that harbors intense patriotism, and who is confused at those who don't. So it's probably hard for him to understand why petty rivalry would keep fans from rooting for their country in the Olympics. Fair enough.

But what Coach K doesn't understand is that the people who are supposedly rooting against him -- more than likely, those people wouldn't root for U.S. basketball anyway. If you hate Coach K enough, you're probably a die-hard college basketball fan, and a decent portion of such people will never like the NBA, or its players, or its style of play, or David Stern, or cornrows and tattoos, and so actually revel in the failures of those players on the international level. "They dribble too much." "They're showboaters." "They're not team players." "Not enough passing." And so on. It's not about God or country. It's about sensibility. Some people will never come around.

So if those people are rooting against Coach K, they're (probably) just using him as an excuse. The real hatred is for the players. The haters may be "low-life people," but if they are, they're a totally different breed of low-life.

Related: ACC Basketball, College Basketball Media