"I took off running": When former Duke guard Corey Maggette recalled hilarious interaction with Coach K ahead of 1999 NBA Draft

Duke icon Mike Krzyzewski, aka Coach K, is one of the most accomplished coaches in college basketball, having won five national titles with the Blue Devils before he retired. He also coached several players who went on to have illustrious NBA careers.

During a Fox Sports segment from 2015, one such player, former Duke star Corey Maggette, told a hilarious story of the legendary Coach K trying to convince him to stay at Duke ahead of the 1999 NBA draft.

"Best K story, I've told this one before," Maggette said. "This is the time when we'd just lost to UConn (in the 1999 NCAA Tournament final). And we go back to Duke. And all this stuff is swirling about, 'Hey, Corey is supposed to come out.' In my mind, I never even thought about coming out. Knowing me, I'm a freshman, so I just took off running."

Maggette said that a Blue Devils assistant finally found him and took him to Krzyzewski's house who tried to convince him to not declare for the NBA draft.

"I'm already scared, and they say, 'Coach wanna see you in his room.' They bring a chair, and coach said, 'We've been looking for you, where have you been?' I say, 'Hey, coach, I don't know what's going on. I was over at the gym, over at the weight room.'

"He comes back with these huge pamphlets and sets them on the table and says, 'Hey. This is if you wanna stay, and this is if you wanna go. We can do all these great things at Duke if you stay. Now, if you go, here's your list, this is where you're gonna be in, and if you go lower than that, you're gonna lose money.'

"He said, 'This is the decision you have to make on your own. This is where you have to be a man, grow up and make a decision.' I ended up leaving."

Corey Maggette was picked No. 13 by the Seattle SuperSonics and traded to the Orlando Magic during the 1999 NBA draft.

Coach K and Corey Maggette had a close bond

Coach K recruited Corey Maggette for the Duke Blue Devils from Fenwick High School in Illinois in 1996. Both the Duke coach and Maggette are from Chicago. During a 2015 segment of "Fox Sports," Magette talked about how their shared hometown affected the coach's personality towards his players.

“He was a hard-ass,” Maggette said. “What you see on TV, it’s not what Coach K is like in practice. He’s a Chicago guy, and you know, it comes off that way. He’s a little older now, so I don’t know how it is now. But (back then) he was an a**hole. That’s just the truth. As time goes on, you learn to appreciate it."

Maggette further highlighted how he kept in contact with Coach K during his 14-year basketball career with the former coach giving him advice throughout his career.