There are two shades of blue dominating the basketball courts in and around Durham, North Carolina. Both are perennial tops in the ACC and are fierce rivals. The coaches of both teams are great leaders on the basketball court and in the game of life. Furthermore, they are able to manage multi-million dollar budgets and maintain the ultra-positive image of their players and their respective school. People like winners. Many have the philosophy that the underdog should win every now and then. In the game of basketball, everyone loves the story of Cinderella. Coach Mike Krzyzewski, affectionately known as Coach K, usually beats everyone in his path on the basketball court. Coach K teaches life and leadership; its motto is commitment, discipline, honesty, integrity, collective response, pride, love and friendship. Recently, I watched my husband, who is neither a UNC nor Duke fan, become anxious about a major upset between UNC and Duke. UNC led at halftime; with a 16-point lead and it had been several minutes since Duke had scored a field goal. However, something Coach K said to his team in the locker room during halftime changed the dynamic of the game. Ultimately the game ended with Duke beating UNC by 6 points. I would describe Coach K as a great motivator. According to Daft in The Leadership Experience, motivation is defined as the forces internal or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and persistence in pursuing a certain course of action. You would notice Coach K's ability to lead others to function at a high performance level and achieve the goal. Additionally, you will find that Coach K's goal is to meet the needs of his players first by treating them like family members and encouraging his... middle of paper... to encourage his key player and talk about his loss. He asked questions and was able to discern what topics needed to be addressed regarding his loss. Coach K said Bobby Knight told him to take all the time he needed. As an effective leader, he communicated his vision for the future because he demonstrated that he was more concerned with her emotional needs. If he had been worried he would never have talked about the two remaining games that could have given West Point the victory (Daft, 2011). Finally, Coach K will continue to teach life and leadership. He believes that your personal signature should be on everything you do; that you should be proud of your performance. People love winners and they love a good Cinderella story. Like Cinderella, results came from commitment, discipline, honesty and respect. This is Coach K's winning philosophy.