He's also a man who is plying his craft in an area near and dear to his heart.
And he's doing it quite well. The Stampede are near the top of the CBA standings, and the team's success garnered Krystkowiak one of the head-coaching slots for the CBA all-star game played earlier this year in Yakima, Wash.
Not every basketball coach can say they work where they live and love where they work.
Krystkowiak can.
He's a Montana native, an NBA veteran and he's starting his head-coaching career only a few hundred miles from where his love of basketball blossomed in the Montana towns of Shelby and Missoula.
"I love this area and love the Northwest, and I've always felt I've been a 'this area' kind of guy," Krystkowiak said. "This was the whole package. That made it a real easy decision."
It's easy to take a job when your intensity is bubbling, too.
"I haven't had this type of fire burning from within since my playing days," the nine-year NBA veteran said. "Being a head coach takes me back to my playing days. I love the adrenaline.
"I love feeling a little nauseated and sick. I'm not so sure I'm going to like it as much as playing, but I think it will be similar."
With or without Maalox at his side, Krystkowiak is ready to take on his latest challenge. He'll definitely have the wisdom of coaching greats like Phil Jackson, Del Harris, Jerry Sloan and Mike Montgomery ringing in his ears.
A former standout for Montgomery at the University of Montana, Krystkowiak knows his style will meld bits and pieces from his mentors.
On Montgomery, now the coach at Stanford: "I really believe in everything Mike did and how he did it."
On Harris, for whom he played with the Milwaukee Bucks: "He's one of the best Xs and Os guys in the game."
On Sloan, his coach with the Jazz: "I like his no-nonsense approach. He didn't have a whole lot to say. But when he did say something, it was important."
On Jackson, for whom he played with the Bulls: "What I learned from Phil was his demeanor."
So, if you throw all that into the Krystkowiak stew, what do you come up with?
"I'm not a guy who talks a lot. You try to be organized ahead of time," he said. "With Phil, things were always planned out. You can't bore players with the same old song and dance.
"You find a simple plan and stick to it."
That simple plan will include the triangle offense, but Krystkowiak says there will be flexibility to showcase his players' strengths.
"There's something that Coach Montgomery wrote on the board before every game: 'Play hard, play smart and play together,' " Krystkowiak said. "That's going to be on our board before every game, and it's not going to be lip service. We're really going to focus on that."
Krystkowiak, who also was a forward with the San Antonio Spurs and Orlando Magic during his NBA days, is eager to get back to coaching the game instead of wading through the administrative quagmire that most college assistant coaches face.
The former second-round pick of the Bulls in the 1986 NBA Draft took a year off from coaching to regroup after resigning at Old Dominion. He also spent time as an assistant at Montana, helping the Grizzlies win the 2000 Big Sky Conference championship.
He spent last season as an assistant at Norfolk Collegiate High School in Virginia and as a coach of a YMCA team of 8- and 9-year-olds.
"I wanted to spend some time with my boys," said the father of three young sons. "It was important for me to spend time with them knowing that's time you can't get back."
But now Krystkowiak has the fire back, and he'll stoke it in the arena where he wound down his playing career. He played four games with the Stampede in the 1997-98 season.
And he'll use the wisdom he has gleaned from a lengthy NBA career to help the Stampede players win and prosper.
"I think having been there before, I know what they're going to be going through," he said of the players who are striving to get to the next level.
He also knows what the players will be going through because his rookie season as a head coach also will be a time to show his stuff, just like his players are doing.
"I have to prove myself when games are on the line," he said. "I have to prove to people that I can do some of those things that some coach with 30 years experience can do."
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