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Thursday, March 19, 1998

They call him coach

Q&A: Wooden speaks about his legacy, state of basketball today

By Brent Boyd

Daily Bruin Staff

In the second segment of a two-part series, UCLA coaching legend John Wooden talks about a variety of things - ranging from his decision to turn down the NBA, to the likelihood of some of his records being broken, to his definition of an ideal basketball player.

You accomplished a lot at UCLA - both on and off the court. What are you most proud of?

I'm most proud of the fact that almost all of my players graduated and most of them have done well in almost any profession - whether it's been medicine, law, teaching, the ministry, whatever it's been - and it's not just professional basketball.

I'm very proud of that. What they did after pro basketball is more important to me than what they did during professional basketball.

When you were at UCLA, you set some incredible records - 10 championships in 12 years, seven championships in a row, 88 straight wins, 38 straight tournament wins. Of all those records, or others which one do you think is the least likely to be broken?

Well, it's going to be very difficult for one of two - the 88-game winning streak or the seven consecutive national championships. Records are made to be broken, and if anyone said that was going to happen before it happened, you would say that would have been impossible. And it's no more impossible today than it was then in my opinion. In some ways it's easier and in some ways it is difficult - so it offsets.

You are obviously one of the best college basketball coaches of all time. I'm sure that you had chances to go to the NBA, but you never did. Why not?

For a number of reasons. There's only one reason at all to go and that's money. And if you make money, by God, you're going to be unhappy. True happiness comes from things that can't be taken away from you, and all material things get away from you.

I wouldn't have liked the travelling. You're away from home, it would have been tough on family life. There are so many problems in the families of professional athletes because they're away so much. Also the coaches in the NBA, the players can get you fired.

If they don't like you, and they're a star player, they can bring about the dismissal of the coach. You're not really in control, some general managers are in control, some it's the owners, some it's both or either, and I wouldn't like that.

To say if I would like the money, yeah, I would like it. Of course. But, I turned down far far more than I ever made for pro offers -- if you base your happiness on the material things, than you are going to be very disappointed.

Speaking of the NBA, three Bruins will most likely get drafted next year. If you could give them one piece of advice, what would it be?

You got me thinking. There are so many things.

Well, some of the things would be to behave yourself. I think the vast majority of professional athletes should never be married. Now I'm not going to go into telling you why they shouldn't be, but the vast majority shouldn't be. I think many get carried away with the enormous amount of money they are making now. And most of them have never had that kind of money, and suddenly to have an awful lot, they're going to have an awful lot of people taking care of it. And many of them don't want to take care of it, they just want to part with it.

It's hard to lead a normal life. There are so many temptations up there. It's hard for them to be able to resist it. You need to be strong, but still not everybody can resist it.

One of those players is Kris Johnson, the son of one of your players - Marques Johnson. What is it like to see him out there?

Well, I could name you the sons of some of my players that are doctors, attorneys, or teachers - I don't care what they are, I just want to see them do well. I don't like to base everything on professional athletics because that is temporary.

I understand the life of the average professional basketball player is four and a half years. They've got long, long years after that, and they better be thinking of that. The income they're going to make in the years they are having there. They aren't going to make that income later on.

When many think of professional basketball, they think of the Dream Team. Do you think amateurs or pros should play in the next Olympic Games?

I'm very, very unhappy with the Olympics now. I know that in some ways it was never truly amateur, but I think a concerted effort was made to make it that way. I think it should be that way. I think our amateur basketball players in the United States would still win the Olympics most of the time.

But we'd have great competition. There's not much competition in basketball now, taking all the pros. I like competition, and we'd still win it most of the times. Do you have to win it all of the time? That may be one of the things there is too much thinking about. I don't like the pros. I wish they would have kept it as amateur as possible.

Now, I know you won't tell me who the best basketball player you ever coached was, but if you could take certain aspects out of certain players to make your ideal basketball player, how would you go about doing it?

I would want one that knew why he was at UCLA - and that's to get an education. That would be number one. Education must be number one. You're here to get an education and that's going to be with you all your life and your basketball will be with you a very small number of years.

Second as a player, I want one that is very courteous and polite and well-mannered and will never do something on or off the court to bring discredit to him, to his team, to his family, to his coach, to his school.

I want one that understands that defense is what usually wins championships. I want one that plays good defense, enjoys defense and understands that is what wins championships.

I want a good offensive player too - one that could pass well, one that could shoot well, one that could rebound well. I want an unselfish player at both ends of the court.

Why not take someone like Keith Wilkes (who played for the Bruins from 1972-74) and let it go at that? He's a good student, an honor student, well-mannered, courteous, excellent defense and fine offense.

Now, I'm not saying he's the best player that I ever had, but, you'd have to go a long ways to find a better player with whom to work.

The player of the year in college basketball is given the John R. Wooden Award. What does it mean to you to have the award named in your honor? Would you pick a winner for us?

Here, I will enlighten you a little bit. When that originated, I wanted it to be a well-rounded player. On the trophy, there are five players. One is playing defense, then the other four are on offense - which I don't particularly care for.

I wanted in the very middle of that to be one player in a cap and gown. I wanted it to go to a graduating senior. I didn't want this trophy to be for the best basketball player. I wanted it to be for the best graduating basketball player, and I went along with it, and I'm sorry I did. And they know that.

But, I did get one thing in, and they haven't followed it the way I wanted them to and that is the player who receives it must be making normal progress to his college degree, whatever year he is in.

In terms of picking a winner, no, I do not know who I would choose.

Who is the best coach in the college game today?

I would never attempt to say anyone is the best. Generally speaking I would say, "I have never seen a better one," or I would say, "He's as good as anybody else," or, "he's among the best, I could go on and on."

But, there are many great coaches, and coaches are really only teachers - in places that you have never heard of. But, they're doing a better job than many of these coaches you hear about all the time.

It's just like the Thomas Graves Elegy - one verse in there says "Full many a gem of purest ray serene, the dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air." Is the flower less beautiful because nobody sees it? Or the gem any less beautiful because it's on the bottom of the ocean and nobody sees it?

Well, now there are many coaches that way - wonderful teachers in places you have never heard of and they may be doing a better job than the more publicized coaches.

I will say without pinpointing, I have been impressed with the team play through the last number of years I have seen from Roy Williams and the University of Kansas. I think his team plays beautiful team play. I'm not saying he's the best coach at all, I just don't think I have seen anybody play better team ball.

You had so much success here, every coach from then on is kind of set up to your standard. Is it fair that they get set to that standard?

Life isn't fair. Life isn't fair in any way. The only thing that matters is to think of yourself, nothing else matters. If you let the things over which you have no control affect you, whether they are good or bad, they will affect you in only one way and that is adversity.

I used to tell my players early, "This year you are going to get praise that you don't deserve. And you're going to get praise that you deserve and you're going to be liked by everybody. You are going to get criticism at times that you deserve and criticism that you don't deserve and you won't like it in any way. But, your strength, your absolute strength as an individual is going to depend on how you react to both praise and criticism. If you take both praise and criticism with a grain of salt, it will be a great weight off your shoulders. Just make the best effort you can."

In my seven-point creed, one thing is "Take each day as it is something over which you have control." I tried to use that one - make each day your masterpiece, and I tried to get that across to the players. Do what you can, you're not doing it for somebody else. You'd like to be well thought of, of course, but to me the main thing is what you think of yourself. What others see is what you are perceived to be, you are the only one who knows what you are. Do the best you can, make mistakes, but don't make them over and over again.

Do you have any last comments to the UCLA student body?

Just to the student body, remember first of all why you're at UCLA - it is for the education and I said the same thing to my players. But support your various other activities - whether it's athletics or music or whatever.

But, whatever it is enjoy them, support them, and don't be too critical.

Criticism eats on you. Forgiveness sets you free.JAMIE SCANLON-JACOBS/Daily Bruin

Retired coach John Wooden