Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

How to Keep Faith and Hope Alive This Holiday Season; One-On- one With Duke Basketball Legend Coach K. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 25, 2023 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:32]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS (through translator): Enough. Enough, brothers. Every human being is sacred and precious in the eyes of God and has the right to live in peace. Let us not lose hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Every human being, whether Christian, Jew, or Muslim, has a right to live in peace. That was Pope Francis' message in the weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas War. As Christians, today celebrates the birth of Jesus, we wanted to reflect on how to keep hope alive and come together during the holiday season.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And to help us, we are joined by three faith leaders, Father Edward Beck, who is a Roman Catholic Priest, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl from Central Synagogue here in New York City, and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the founder of the Cordoba House.

Thank you for being here very much. Merry Christmas.

FATHER EDWARD BECK, RELIGION COMMENTATOR, AUTHOR: Merry Christmas.

HARLOW: Thank you. Imam, let me begin with you. You're optimistic?

IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF, FOUNDER, THE CORDOBA HOUSE: Yes.

HARLOW: And you see the future is bright. Give us some optimism on this Christmas morning?

ABDUL RAUF: Well, you know, Jesus Christ, who is also a prophet that Muslims recognize as a prophet, was once asked, what was the greatest commandment? And he said, to love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your soul, and all of your strength.

And it was after the second commandment, what he said, the second, which is equally important to the first, is to love your brother as you love yourself. Which means really that the divine imperative and demand of all human beings is to love our Creator and to love our fellow human beings and to love for them what we love for ourselves.

And this message is universal, certainly among the three monotheistic religions around the table here, but almost all religion believes in being kind, being generous, being just. And if our political leaders were able to implement this teaching, all conflicts would cease.

MATTINGLY: And it's that -- I'm so glad you brought that up, because it's the through line between faith, where central elements are the same in each. And yet, for people looking around right now and looking over the course of the last several months and saying, everything seems bad. There doesn't seem to be any way to reconcile where different faiths are, where different ideologies are, where different political parties are. What's your message to them?

RABBI ANGELA WARNICK BUCHDAHL, SENIOR RABBI, CENTRAL SYNAGOGUE: Well, we are indeed in a very dark time. We are literally in the darkest days of the year. And it's not a coincidence that almost every faith tradition in this dark season of winter and short days, have celebrations of light.

[08:35:02]

We, as a Jewish community, just recently finished our Hanukkah celebrations, and there is a historical story of a military victory of the few over the many. But the rabbis actually wanted to emphasize a very different message from the holiday, which was that there was only one cruise of oil to rededicate our sanctuary, to go back to being able to practice fully as Jews with freedom. And that wasn't enough. And yet somehow, miraculously, that light lasted for the eight days we needed to celebrate our festival.

So there's a message here for all of us, that in a dark time, and I will say that we feel like we are plunged in a dark time right now, that we actually still have the power to kindle flame. And it's actually every night we're supposed to add an additional light to that menorah, that we rise up in holiness and light, and we share that light. Maybe one of the only commandments of this holiday for us as Jews is to publicize the miracle. And we've done a very good job, unfortunately, as a society, in publicizing all the hate. Let us publicize the miracle of the light that we're seeing in humans all around.

HARLOW: The miracle, the light, the joy, the celebration of Christmas morning. Can I ask you the question that my kids ask me, and I think most people's kids ask them, Ben, why do such bad things happen as we sit here on Christmas, there is still so much pain and suffering, particularly right now in the world. Can you speak to those who feel hopeless this morning, Father?

BECK: I don't think, Poppy, we get an answer for the why. But I think the message of Christmas is that God enters into it with us, and we're not alone in it.

What I'm so struck by is that the story of Christmas is about a Palestinian Jew. Now, how often do you find those words put together. A Palestinian Jew born into a time when his country was occupied, right? They can't find a place for her to even give birth. His mother, they're homeless. They eventually have to flee as refugees, into Egypt, no less. I mean, you can't make up the parallels to our current world situation right now. And so in some way, that is who we believe, God becomes, born into that situation. And yet that very man, Jesus, says, love one another, love your enemies. There is hope. There is light in the darkness. I'm attesting to that.

So somehow that God enters that experience of suffering and that struggle and is actually born into it. That is what is so miraculous about this celebration for me.

HARLOW: You said something about God being with us the whole time. A couple of weeks ago, our pastor said, God is closer to you than your breath. And it just struck me so much. And I wonder how you think about that on this Christmas morning that as alone as many people feel, we are not.

BECK: It's an interesting thing you just said about in our breath. Because when I pray, the meditation is to breathe in that spirit of God and try to pray that it becomes more a part of me. So that the Jesus that Imam was talking about, this Jesus who says, love God and love neighbor, I struggle with that. I mean, we're struggling right now in our world how you do that. So if you can actually ask it not to be your own breath all the time, but you breathe in the spirit of God, that kind of inclusive God. And so I think that is a wonderful analogy right there.

BUCHDAHL: I mean, I would just add that in Hebrew, the word for breath, neshama, is also the same word for our soul. So really we are re-ensouled with our sense of connection with our own divinity with every breath. It's just most of the time our problem is we're not paying enough attention to it.

ABDUL RAUF: May I add to that also, so the Quran tells us that when God says in the Quran that when he created Adam from the clay and then he said to the angels, and when I have blown into him from my spirit, then fall in prostration to him, so the human soul is created from the divine spirit and therefore every human being has within himself or herself part of the DNA of God. We human beings don't know that we are created in God's image. And the purpose of our religious traditions and our spiritual traditions in particular, is to teach us and to make us connect to the God. And we know God from within our own souls.

BUCHDAHL: Key to being -- to recognizing that we each have the breath of divine, is not just for us to own that sense of connection with divinity, but to treat others with that same divinity.

ABDUL RAUF: Yeah.

MATTINGLY: Father, Edward Beck, Rabbi, Imam, thank you guys very much. This is a wonderful conversation.

ABDUL RAUF: Thank you.

BUCHDAHL: Thank you.

ABDUL RAUF: Merry Christmas again.

MATTINGLY: Well, 2023 was defined in many ways by the power of women in culture. Concert venues, even movie theaters were dominated Taylor Swift to Beyonce, the impact they had on the economy.

[08:40:05]

HARLOW: Forty-two seasons, five national championships, and more than a thousand wins. We sat down with the legendary Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski to talk about his journey and life after basketball.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI, HALL OF FAME BASKETBALL COACH: You know a quick story?

HARLOW: Yeah.

KRZYZEWSKI: OK, Jason.

HARLOW: I want all the stories.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: There are legends in basketball so famous you know them by one name, Jordan, Kobe, LeBron. And then there is a legend whose status is so iconic you know him by one letter, K, as in Coach K. For 42 seasons, Mike Krzyzewski served as the head coach for the Duke Blue Devils. He won 1,129 games at Duke, including five national championships before retiring. I sat down with him to talk about life, coaching wisdom, and what is more important than winning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRZYZEWSKI: It's a pretty cool view and, you know, all the banners and --

HARLOW: That's all your national championship.

KRZYZEWSKI: Five, and then final fours, the ACC championships.

HARLOW: You're often described by people in profiles of you as the son of a cleaning woman and an elevator operator, but I don't think that's how you would describe your parents.

KRZYZEWSKI: No, my parents were the basis of who me and my brother became. They taught us the dignity of work, You know, I even tell my teams for years, I want you to be as tough as your mother and just think about your mother, was there ever a day that she didn't show up? Did you ever see her sick? Did you ever see her tired? I never saw my mom sick or tired. I saw her every day doing everything that she could possibly do to make it nice for me and my brother, Bill.

[08:45:19] I didn't appreciate it until later in life. And my dad died when I was a senior at West Point. He didn't go by the name Krzyzewski. He went by the name Kross. Because he was always afraid of losing his job because there was a lot of ethnic discrimination at that time. I didn't realize all the things that my parents --

HARLOW: Gave up?

KRZYZEWSKI: Gave up.

HARLOW: Hid. Your parents didn't even want you guys to learn to speak Polish.

KRZYZEWSKI: Polish, right.

HARLOW: Why?

KRZYZEWSKI: And I didn't find out this until later. They didn't want us to have an accent because they were afraid, again, during that time that somebody with a vowel at the end of their name, they even looked at differently. They were concerned.

HARLOW: They were trying to protect you.

KRZYZEWSKI: They were trying to protect me and my brother.

HARLOW: So much so it wasn't on his tombstone until?

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, he was in World War II as William Kross. And so when he died and we, you know, a well-income family, the government provides a tombstone that said Kross. And we weren't able to change that until my mom passed. And then my brother and I made sure it said Krzyzewski.

You know, I was fortunate to be inducted into the basement basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. And one of the parts of the speech, and probably the most emotional for me was, I said I wish my mom and dad were here tonight. I'm going to start crying, to see a Mike Krzyzewski going to the Hall of Fame. It was emotional then, it's emotional now because I recognize just the life they led to make sure being billed would be taken care of. Amazing.

HARLOW: How much of what you've done and how you've led and carried on this name so proudly. It's so famous. I just walked in the Krzyzewski Center?

KRZYZEWSKI: They couldn't find another name for it, so they put one that no one could pronounce.

HARLOW: I love this picture.

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, that's -- you can tell she's --

HARLOW: Proud.

KRZYZEWSKI: Proud, I've been married 53 years to Mickie and we knew that it was going to be a partnership. I call it two is better than one, if two can act as one. And we were able to act as one. That's my family. Whenever we played in the Olympics we brought everybody.

HARLOW: You did?

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah.

HARLOW: You did a lot of it all together?

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, we have three daughters.

HARLOW: They hold you down here.

KRZYZEWSKI: They have -- whatever humility I did not have, they tried to interject in me over and over. So when there used to be family dinners.

HARLOW: Yeah.

KRZYZEWSKI: And people would eat together, and I'd be sitting at a table with my four girls and we're playing Caroline or Marilyn or whatever, we just want a big game.

And we're talking and nothing is said --

HARLOW: About your win?

KRZYZEWSKI: Or about the game. My wife did a great thing, Poppy. When all my girls were growing up, we never had anything basketball in the house. The players would come over at times, but there weren't trophies, pictures.

HARLOW: There was no shrine to coach K in your house?

KRZYZEWSKI: There's no shrine. And there shouldn't be. You know.

HARLOW: Well, there are in some people's houses.

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, now because it's just me and Mickie and our dog, Coach.

HARLOW: There is a shrine?

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah. Well, I'm in a basement off it. Well, the lower- level boss and I can put anything I want in there. So whenever I need my ego boost I go down there and start working.

Man, you were really good. No, I don't do that.

HARLOW: Do you ever come stand here alone?

KRZYZEWSKI: I do, usually not a lot but later at night when all the lights are out and there might be just a little bit on the national championship banner so whatever you walk in and you feel like you're in a Field of Dreams.

HARLOW: This is your Field of Dreams.

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, why don't you feel like I better get out of here because the basketball gods are going to play pick up here in a little bit.

HARLOW: There are stars, there are star players, but we've seen in college basketball, in the NBA, that when you just put a bunch of stars together, it often doesn't work.

KRZYZEWSKI: You hear that expression, leave your egos at the door, I hate that expression.

HARLOW: You do?

KRZYZEWSKI: I hate it.

HARLOW: Bring your ego?

KRZYZEWSKI: Bring everything you got. Bring who you are. Why wouldn't you bring -- why would you leave something you are --

HARLOW: To make room for others?

KRZYZEWSKI: No, no. We should make the room bigger. You know, you're not confined by the room. And when you bring all the egos in, put them under one umbrella. That's what we did for you. And it was said USA. All right. And then you develop common ground.

[08:50:03]

You want a quick story?

HARLOW: Yeah.

KRZYZEWSKI: OK, Jason --

HARLOW: I want all the stories.

KRZYZEWSKI: Jason Kidd, first practice, our captain, Hall of Famer, leading a fast break drill. Dwyane Wade's in one lane, LeBron's in another, and the ball's going everywhere. So I bring them together like, I know we can't play like this. And before I say anything, Jay Kidd says, "Coach, I'll tone it down." And immediately, Kobe, LeBron, Dwyane said, no, no. We've never played with a talent like you. We'll adapt to you.

HARLOW: Really?

KRZYZEWSKI: Yes. It was one of the great moments in my coaching career where I saw talent say, come on, talent. Give me more, like the piano player telling the sax player, come on, go. I can play the piano better. You know, singer. And all of a sudden, if you can get everyone playing with all their talent, why wouldn't you want talent to maximize?

HARLOW: Yeah. Yes. KRZYZEWSKI: And it doesn't mean you have to give up talent to

maximize. And if all that works together. Wow.

HARLOW: How many presidents have you met?

KRZYZEWSKI: You know --

HARLOW: All of them in your lifetime?

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, the -- who were in when we won and 41. President Bush became a close friend.

HARLOW: That's you and Kobe.

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, this is U.S. Thanks for all the golden moments. This is a great book for me because each player gave their quote.

HARLOW: So can we read what LeBron said about you?

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah.

HARLOW: He allows us to play the game of basketball and just go out there and have fun, but at the same time, he wants us to be perfect. We should expect perfection, and that is what he is about. We like that. We like that kind of challenge.

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah.

HARLOW: Read the last line Kobe said about you.

KRZYZEWSKI: Coach K is one of the best coaches of all time, period. No question about it.

HARLOW: One of the things that I've learned about you is how hard you are on yourself and that there have been moments when you're actually, you've looked in the mirror over your career and cursed yourself out.

KRZYZEWSKI: We're all better if we're held accountable. And how you hold players accountable along the years change, but you still have to hold them accountable.

HARLOW: You've been tough on them very?

KRZYZEWSKI: Well, you hold them accountable, and sometimes there's nobody that holds the leader accountable. It's on you. It's -- I did it. I need to change. And it was always not about winning and losing, for me, it was about being worthy of winning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Such a great interview. One of many you've had this year. Can I tease maybe some more next year?

HARLOW: Yes, more to come. But sitting down with Coach K was like a Christmas gift for me. He's just so wise, and I learned a lot that I hope to achieve as well as he has sitting with him. MATTINGLY: Also being in camera is pretty awesome.

HARLOW: It is amazing, right?

MATTINGLY: Well, we all remember this Christmas classic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, that's not it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What else could we be forgetting?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kevin?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That, of course, was the holiday hit "Home Alone." And while hopefully none of you forgot any of your children at home this Christmas, you certainly might still be feeling that holiday stress. You see, Catherine O'Hara epitomize.

HARLOW: That's right. Joining us now with a look at the good and the not so good data surrounding the holidays, CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten in full Festive Garb. Looking great.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes. Thank you very much. The girlfriend, Laura, picked this out for me.

MATTINGLY: Wow.

ENTEN: Yes. I could not dress myself this well.

MATTINGLY: Fancy.

ENTEN: Fancy, fancy.

MATTINGLY: All right, give us the fun numbers for the holiday before we get into the intense stuff?

ENTEN: Yeah, let's start with the fun numbers. So this was a question that Phil and I were discussing earlier, Poppy. I'd be interested in your insight. Do you have a Christmas tree in your home? The majority of Americans do, but interestingly enough, the majority say yes. They have an artificial one. Just 22% say yes, a real one. There is, of course, 22% who say no.

But the fact that artificial is so high to me was so interesting because. I always thought, you know, I see these people selling Christmas trees out on the street here in New York, that a lot more would have a real, but artificial. Why? What's with the artificial?

HARLOW: What do you think I have?

MATTINGLY: There's in no world does Poppy have an artificial tree.

HARLOW: That's exactly right. This is why -- MATTINGLY: It's just, not even remotely possible. We were very much in

the same place, except then we had four children, and then it got really, really stressful. We still decorate the tree, but we made the shift, and it's actually been helpful.

HARLOW: Next year, I'm going to --

ENTEN: Oh, you're going to chop it down?

HARLOW: -- chop it down. Yeah.

ENTEN: That's your Minnesota spirit.

HARLOW: I want to know. Yeah.

ENTEN: Oh my goodness. My New York accent couldn't quite participate in that Minnesota accent. But one of those things that you might watch around the Christmas tree is the Christmas movie. We obviously saw that tease from "Home Alone" in the intro there. That comes in your favorite Christmas movie, "Home Alone," comes in at 6%. It's a wonderful life leads the packet 9%. A Christmas story, of course, always plays on TBS every single year, 7%, elf 6%. I'm a little bit of a Grinch at 6% here. And then, of course, Christmas vacation with Chevy Chase at 6% as well.

[08:55:05]

MATTINGLY: Can I just say there's like 70% missing. I assume they're all for "Die Hard," right?

ENTEN: That's, of course, correct. This is --

HARLOW: With "Vengeance."

ENTEN: Yeah, exactly right. Jimmy, who of course here helps direct on the stage, said, is "Die Hard," a real Christmas movie? The answer is yes, folks, it absolutely.

HARLOW: I don't know. I've never seen it. But this is by far our favorite Christmas movie in the house. But --

MATTINGLY: You should watch "Die Hard."

HARLOW: I will never. It is also stressful, the holidays.

ENTEN: It is also very stressful. What causes you the most stress during the holidays? 28% say finding the right gifts. Finding the right gifts. How about traveling at 24%? I avoid the airports at all costs, folks.

Nothing. No stress at 16%. I don't know who those folks are, 17% being with family. That's why you can just avoid them. How about cooking at 9%? Putting those cookies in are quite the thing. Can those Pillsbury Doughboys actually rise up correctly? I don't necessarily know. The other thing, though, you know, we said finding the right gifts. What happens if you find the wrong gift? What are you supposed to do? I'd be interested in your two insight in this. When you get a holiday

gift you don't like, do you? Keep it. Return it. Regift it. 49% say keep it. I don't like folks that much. I don't feel the social pressure to keep it. I return it, 31%. Regift it, you know what, Phil, I got something during last year's holiday season. Maybe I'll bring it in for you and you'll never know the difference.

MATTINGLY: I'm thinking in my head right now, like I would watch just like a YouTube channel of Harry giving holiday life advice.

HARLOW: Oh, yeah, that would be good.

MATTINGLY: Like how to survive the holiday. Like don't like people, don't travel, don't cook, give gifts back.

ENTEN: And it's smile.

MATTINGLY: It's not terrible.

ENTEN: Smile and say thank you very much.

HARLOW: Thank you. Working on teaching the kids that.

MATTINGLY: Harry Enten, we love you, brother. Happy Holidays.

HARLOW: Merry Christmas.

ENTEN: Merry Christmas.

MATTINGLY: Christmas greetings. And thank you all for joining us this morning.

HARLOW: On behalf of all of us here at "CNN This Morning," we hope you have a very, Merry Christmas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)