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Coach K says he will step down from USA Basketball after 2016 Olympics

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It isn’t clear yet whether LeBron James will play for Team USA in 2016, Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s last with the team. (Charles Krupa/AP)

A big change is coming for USA Basketball after the 2016 Olympic Games.

Mike Krzyzewski, the Duke coach who has led the team since 2005, told ESPN that he’ll bow out after the Rio de Janeiro competition.

“I think it’s time to move ahead,” he told Andy Katz. “During the next season there will be a number of decisions made about the future of USA Basketball with Rio [the roster] and coaching. There has to be a succession … a planned succession with really good people so we can keep the continuity of the program going.”

Under Coach K, the U.S. won Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012 and world championships in 2010 and 2014 as the team recovered from losses that had diminished its international standing. Krzyzewski, hired by USA Basketball’s Jerry Colangelo, will be 69 after Rio and it isn’t immediately clear who will succeed him, but the plan is to have the next coach chosen by the time the Rio Olympics begin.

There will be more than just a visible change on the bench, though. Krzyzewski told Katz that the division of powers will be considered.

“[What does] Jerry do? What do I do? Who comes in?” Krzyzewski said. “It’s a new structure with FIBA. A different calendar after 2016 with the World Cup [2019] and Olympics [2020]. How we navigate that is being discussed.”