Krzyzewski has said that the Blue Devils scouted James back in high school, although it was a foregone conclusion that he would be skipping college and going straight to the NBA. Krzyzewski said he never saw James play live until his rookie year with the Cavaliers.

Yet when the two met with Team USA, James gravitated to the successful coach. Perhaps it was Krzyzewski’s sense of humor. Krzyzewski recalls seeing James in the locker room one day. He noticed the huge “Chosen 1” tattoo on James’ back and went up him.

“He is a massive human being. And a gifted athlete. Those guys all have tattoos like crazy,” Krzyzewski said. “In one light moment, he had his shirt off in the locker room, and I said, ‘chosen one?’ And he said ‘yep.’ And I said, ‘I think I’m going to get one of those.’ And he look at me and leaned over and says ‘No, coach, there’s only one chosen one.’ ”

Heat the favorite

NBA.com polled all 30 general managers for its 11th annual preseason survey, which was released Monday.

In the survey, 70 percent of coaches voted for Miami to repeat as NBA champions — 74.1 percent made that same pick last year. The Lakers received 23.3 percent of the vote and were picked to win the Western Conference over Oklahoma City (60 to 36.7 percent).

Other predictions from the NBA general managers include: Miami was picked by 29 of the GMs to win the East (Boston got the other vote — by Miami, since teams cannot vote for themselves); 20 voted for James to repeat as league MVP.

Ray Allen also was voted the top pure shooter in the league, as well as the best mover without the ball. Erik Spoelstra also received votes for best defensive and overall coach in the league.

The entire poll can be viewed at NBA.com.