John Wooden's view from retirement on basketball, discipline

While Wooden was putting together 120 victories in 124 games during one stretch at UCLA, there were the usual stories that anyone could have done it with the kind of material at his disposal. Always there were references to his great centers: Lew Alcindor (later to become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton.

So how come those great Ohio State teams with Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek were able to win only one national title and the University of Kansas never did reach that level with Wilt Chamberlain? Sometimes, even when the material is there, it can't be taught to ride a bicycle built for five.

For those who have often wondered if it isn't easier for a coach to mold five nearly equally talented young men into a championship team than one dominated by a superstar like Abdul-Jabbar or Walton, Wooden has an explanation.

``If Abdul-Jabbar and Walton hadn't been willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team, it could have been very tough on the coach,'' Wooden said. ``But when people of that caliber come in and do everything you ask them in practice, it makes it almost impossible for your other players to give anything less than their best. And in games, the only thing Kareem and Bill ever wanted to do was win.''

Although Wooden refused to name the two National Basketball Association teams that tried to hire him as coach, he was not reluctant to explain how he arrived at his decision to stay with college basketball.

``I was interested in the pros at the time because it seemed like such a big thing,'' said Wooden, who had 620 wins against only 147 losses during 27 years at UCLA. ``Financially, as I told my family, it was a tremendous opportunity, and I could do a lot more for them personally if I took the job.

``But I left the actual decision entirely up to my wife and children,'' he added. ``They talked things over among themselves and decided it would be best for me to stay at UCLA. Of course, I knew when I asked them what their answer would be!''

Wooden's success as a basketball coach was always based on upsetting the tempo and style of his opponents. He did this by creating a running team, by stressing that his players control both backboards, and by keeping team mistakes to a minimum. His teams were also known for the way they continually harassed the man with the ball and how they always seemed to play as hard at the end of a game as they had at the beginning. Unlike most coaches, he never considered scouting opponents a top priority.

Not long ago, I heard Wooden praised to the skies at a luncheon in his honor in Los Angeles. When the microphone was finally passed to him for a few comments, he replied: ``I hope the good Lord will forgive my introducer for overpraising me and me for enjoying it so much!''

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