Kobe, Durant salute Coach K ahead of Team USA finale

Sunday's men's gold medal game in Rio will be Mike Krzyzewski's last act of duty for USA Basketball before turning over the head coaching reins to Gregg Popovich. The Duke boss has been credited - along with his assistants and executive director Jerry Colangelo - with turning around the fortunes of a national program that reached a low point with a third-place finish at the 2004 Olympics.

Ahead of Sunday's game against Serbia, two-time Summer Games gold medalist Kobe Bryant said Krzyzewski re-instilling pride in the team was key to the turnaround.

"Coach K brought the pride of being an American back to the team," Bryant told ESPN's Marc Stein. "He brought in army vets and generals to speak with us and share their stories. He helped us see that we, as athletes, are an inspiration to the men and women that protect the freedoms we enjoy. That is the biggest impact."

West Point grad Krzyzewski's first Olympic squad as head coach was also Bryant's first as a player - 2008's "Redeem Team."

"The gold medal now meant so much more. When we won (in Beijing), I envisioned our troops abroad celebrating," Bryant said. "I did it for them. That's the perspective Coach K brought. He made it not about us but about the U.S."

Current USA players also saluted Krzyzewski, 69, who's about to enter his 37th season as Blue Devils head coach.

"We were taught not to like Duke," Kevin Durant said. "I grew up in Maryland, so they used to always play each other, so we hated Duke. And I didn't think that was my style of play, just from hearing from everybody (what Krzyzewski) was like.

"But once I got to play for him, I was like, 'Wow, I should have looked at Duke a little bit more than I did,'" Durant added. "He literally told me one time, I think it was 2010, he was like, 'Don't pass the ball.' And I was like, 'All right, cool, that's the way I want to play.'"