Kevin White inherited two Duke icons. Nina King will be judged by how she replaces them.
Nina King has been around Duke long enough that she understands as well as anyone the task that lies ahead. Her predecessor came and went without having to hire a football or men’s basketball coach having inherited both Mike Krzyzewski and David Cutcliffe, good work if you can get it. King won’t be quite so lucky.
In being promoted to replace Kevin White, King inherits an athletic department known for broad-spectrum success in everything from soccer to golf to lacrosse -- and now softball -- that won six ACC titles in sports that aren’t basketball or football this year. But those two drive the bus, and her tenure will unavoidably be defined by how those two programs transition from Cutcliffe, 66, and Krzyzewski, 74, when that time comes.
That doesn’t mean she’ll have full autonomy over the process, especially in basketball where it’s hard to imagine Krzyzewski not exerting considerable influence over his succession, nor acting as abruptly as Roy Williams did last month. It does mean she will inevitably be judged by how both are handled.
There’s so much more that comes with this job, especially at a time of rapid and uncertain change in college athletics, yet it all pales in comparison to those two transitions, which already tower over everything else, whenever they may arise.
That won’t come as a shock to King after 13 years as White’s deputy; she’ll have as good a handle as anyone on both the stakes and the internal politics.
The good news for both King and Duke is that her heavy involvement in the search for a new women’s basketball coach that led to Kara Lawson bodes well for her ability to find the right person, even if that person isn’t perhaps the obvious choice.
Lawson didn’t meet the standard for an ACC head job in terms of experience, but she remains one of the most powerful personalities in the sport, and while COVID-19 put a premature halt to her first season at Duke, there’s every reason to expect Lawson to be a leader both on the court and on campus.
That hire showed some savvy and some guts, and while White certainly signed off on it, King played a critical role in the choice.
If Lawson was an inspired but slightly unconventional pick for that job, there’s nothing surprising or controversial about King’s elevation.
Duke’s a big job, one of the biggest in the college-athletics industrial complex, and the Blue Devils could have gone any number of directions. (So, too, could King, a finalist for the opening at Northwestern created when Jim Phillips left to become ACC commissioner.) Staying in house made the most sense.
King has NCAA experience as the chair of the women’s basketball committee, she earned the promotion as an important part of a smooth-running athletic department for more than a decade and she’s a role model in an industry that still too often defaults to white males. And at 42, she still has a long career ahead of her and should be in better touch with the current generation of college athletes.
She’s the ACC’s second Black female athletic director, joining Virginia’s Carla Williams, and third woman, and that kind of representation matters to not only athletes but aspiring administrators working their way up, hoping those opportunities will be available to them when they’re ready.
King was ready when this opportunity arose at Duke. The big chair and the responsibility are now hers. So are the two big decisions looming just over the horizon like distant storm clouds, their timing uncertain but their importance unparalleled.
This story was originally published May 19, 2021 at 2:36 PM with the headline "Kevin White inherited two Duke icons. Nina King will be judged by how she replaces them.."
