Coach John Wooden in Conversation with Former Players at the 2010 John Wooden Global Leadership Awar

thank you all so much for having us in coach thank you this is an honor and a privilege to be here with you all today right thank you it was really a lot of fun I was fascinated behind the curtain earlier in the green room watching all of you all talk and reminisce which one of these guys gave you the most trouble oh no this was it give me any trouble anything you don't look that like that record you they gave me a lot of fun haha well you had some great memories there then we some of them we'd like to talk about but I'd like to hear from your former players a little bit about you because we've heard the descriptions so much tonight Kareem I'd like to ask you because when you were when you first came to UCLA you were in great demand you probably could have gone anywhere but you specifically wanted to come to UCLA to play for Coach wooden why was it that you were seeking well at that time it had mainly to do with the game of basketball I was never a big I was tall but I wasn't a big guy and people kind of thought that the prototypical Center had to be a bruiser I came out of high school weighing about 225 230 pounds but in watching UCLA play um they emphasize speed and defense and agility and those were all my strong suits so I thought I could fit in with the way that they played and the one would ask me to gain 50 pounds try to turn myself into Wilt Chamberlain I've learned a lot from watching Bill Russell and as you possibly remember watching him play he wasn't a bruiser but he got the job done so I had my own ideas about the where my future my best interests lie in terms of where I played the college basketball and I decided to come to UCLA coach do you remember what you thought when you saw this tall gentleman walking to the roof I was amazed what I found out that he was truly interested in UCLA there was a more than amazement iris pleasure and to see the size and I thought that adding image of the players that we had we could in the future do pretty well and and we did Keith you've said that the real competition was that the coach was preparing you for life and I've heard that so much tonight that it wasn't really about basketball at what point did you realize I'm sure as is Michael just said at 18 19 years old you weren't focused on that but at what point did you realize he was Pratt he was preparing you for life after we got away from Coach wooden and all of us went into professional basketball started thinking about I wish I had paid attention when he was talking back then I think that some of the things he said were pretty good when you talk about life I think life what I think about is when as we grow and mature and I think about adversity and things that happen in our lives tough times back in 1996 my wife and I had a visitor one day that came to tell us that my oldest daughter had passed away that day and and it was needless to say it was a shock of shocks and one of the most difficult days of our lives but as I look back and thinking about just which wooden used to carry this card that his father had given him when he was a youngster about 13 or 14 years old he said coach of you he said Johnny if you follow these principles you'll be just fine in life and and a couple of the Lord would that were very important to me at that time or one of them says drink deeply from good books especially the Bible build a shelter against the rainy day faith in God and pray for guidance and counsel and give thanks for your blessings each day and those were the things that that kept my wife and I going and gave us hope because of these little things that he had written on there just about about going to to God to his word the Bible and faith in Him and and going back all the way back to when he had put this together you know his pyramid-- back 14 years it took him to put that together the principles that he lived by and this little seven-point Creed at that point was very very important in our lives and I get the impression that there's been this relationship that has continued to Jamal what are your earliest memories about coach though in terms of what he did mean because you all say that you recognize later that he was a mentor was he a tough taskmaster though just you more than anything else when you were playing for him he was a very tough taskmaster by the time I got there these esteemed gentlemen Keith Ericsson and Kareem had set the bar so high that we were just honored to even be invited to be in the program man I know when Coach recruited me he was probably the only coach that didn't promise me the moon and I know my mother just really had profound respect for that and for him so when I was in the program I just truly I knew I was with a basketball genius that spoke for itself I had no idea what a remarkable human being I was around but I I just trusted him I totally trusted him and whatever he said do I did it the best I could with a sense of urgency and I just trusted the man I trusted the program I trusted what these guys have done and to this day I don't believe what we accomplished but it really doesn't matter because what he stood for it really wasn't about winning games Michael talked about how he cared about you as individuals not as about just about ball players would you would you agree with that well I did and how I hit that I had moments I was from a small town Deborah and sometimes I just was overwhelmed with being LA being at UCLA and I would go to his office sometimes and I guess he knew I was there I didn't even know I was there I just I was totally lost and he would just start reciting this poetry and I would just sit there flabbergasted and he would just go on and on and did not leave so I didn't get it then but I knew it was something really really different and so I got a sense that yeah like Mike said who's also one of my artists that this man I mean we didn't get it but he really cared I mean you know we you know we we just it we intuitively understood that he deeply cared did you worry Karim if you stepped out of line about you know how he would come down on you because some of you talked about how if you weren't doing what you're supposed to do you wouldn't play ball or you know if you were not ready the bus will leave you the discipline was very important discipline yeah absolutely was very important but I had already been to the mill growing up with my dad was a police officer so coach wooden was very kindly old man he was a patient he was forgiving and if I made the decent effort I know I'd be okay plus you know I was an English major and Coach wooden was English teacher so we'd be on the road I could ask him questions about papers that I had to do extra tutoring huh correct use of semicolon of : things of that nature that most people find very arcane coach wooden knew all about it and we could talk about things that had nothing to do with basketball that really impressed me and made me feel a lot closer to him because there was somebody who had been through it all and was willing to share his knowledge and wisdom definitely had a great effect of it one of the things that I read is the sense of racial harmony coach on the team was something that you were known for that one of your players said coach doesn't see color he sees ball players did you make a conscious effort to try to create this diverse environment or was that something that was just intuitive for you I'd say the latter he has more intuitive that I didn't make the special I wanted to work itself outside more than trying to force it in some way or another furthermore I never believed in physical punishment or believing I got that from My Father here's a gentle man yet he could take the most fractious horses and just gentle them in no time dogs scare me to death they meet haven't they been back wagging their tail and just his means of dealing with and my three brothers were not physical not that he never done but that was not isn't that was not his method and ifelse you earned it he no problem you accepted it but no problem at all and that's not answering any question it was about I'd like to add something to what Coach has to say especially about your question about racial issues encounters at Indiana State had a very good team there they were invited to the NAIA tournament in Kansas City and the people from the tournament called coach at Indiana State and said hey you've got a great team once you come to the tournament because they don't we'd be very interested in coming the people that call them said we'll look you know you have a black ball player on your team you can't bring in and coach said oh is that correct well we won't be coming he hung the phone the next year his team did even better and had a better team and he got a call from the nai people think come to Kansas City for the tournament and we still have the same issues there with your black ballplayers coach said well you know we won't be coming and at that point they said no no no it's ok you can you can bring your whole team because it ok and in that case we'll be coming and coach has never mentioned this he's never like put this out there and the reason for that is he just feels that he was doing what he was supposed to be doing and he doesn't want any reward or any credit court or any praise that was what he was supposed to be doing and that's what he did and it's that type of integrity and that type of compassion for his players is that's why we're up here on this dais Keith let me as something about one of my players something that happened at my giving a chuckle bill whoa okay I gotta mention several things that was my kid like them I didn't permit long hair or beards and Bill's sophomore year we had gone undefeated when the national championship and practice starts the next year on October that the 15th you can have picture day and and meeting of the press on the 14th but you can't have Axl Gregor 15 well he showed up for pictures in Velen not permissible at all I was there weatherman is issuing in a uniform but in the game uniforms and I said no bill he said why not I said you know why not bill and he said you don't have the right to tell me how to wear my hair or my facial hair I said you're absolutely right bill I don't have that right however however I do have the right to determine who's going to play for me what a miss you he took off and half-hour so he's been down the village because shaving Erica and then he played yes Keith were the rest of you all aware of these kinds of stories and that that he really would put his foot down I mean you had a situation he said to you earlier remember Kansas City yeah yeah we coach wouldn't we have to be very delicate here with what we say telling tales out of school that's right coach wooden didn't swear and we had a player on our team Walt hazard who was from Philadelphia and and was the ball handler and he used to go between his legs and behind his back and he would throw passes that would that would sail three rows into the stands and and coach wouldn't swear but he would blow that whistle and when he said goodness gracious sakes alive Walter one more time and you out of here we knew we were in big trouble so don't cross the coach yeah absolutely what was the formula Jamal why was it though because by today's standards a man who had these kinds of principles would be considered maybe a little low-key a little soft what was it though about having those principles that led him to such success and let all of you to have such success especially with a team that had not been that successful before him well I'd say a man with those principles today would be considered corny but I think Kareem hit it you know the integrity he didn't do it too and Kareem I'm glad you shared that story I never story but but but it resonates with me because that's just it was just something very genuine and remarkably simple and consistent and you know it's really just hard to describe that's why I used the word corny because you know he was never into self-promotion he was never worried about the media I mean we were fortunate to win a lot of games and he never made an issue of it he just always asked that we be able to look at ourselves in the mirror and have satisfaction or peace of mind referring to the pyramid that that we did our best we gave it our all and you know he's very intense I mean he on in practice he I thought he was the most critical he got your attention and he kind of tapered down as the season progressed but just just you know I really can't describe it other than just a really rare genuine quality of body that even when you disagreed you just you know you just had and then we were all kids so you know we weren't parents and all that I mean but you just have a lot of respect just had a lot of respect and even in your personal lives to you and Kareem both converted to Islam later in life and you had a talk with coach about your decision and changing your name and by the way you still refer to him as Louis don't you coach you still refer to Kareem as Luis the most after I remember not to but most the time but you had a conversation with him about it yes Louis and he understands that for years it was Russians it suddenly changes but it was not that easy I know that doesn't mean I had any objections or anything of that criticism no not at all I wanted my players to somehow know that I love them and that doesn't mean that I liked them there's a difference 1311 like this I hoped I like them all but I I know I love them all regardless of what happened between us amazing love them I'm not liking that I love them and clearly they all feel that well I hope they did and they didn't all feel that I'm sure when I know these these well these gentlemen I definitely noticed tonight singing I think so when they when they approached you tonight the love was definitely there it was apparent

Channel: UCLA

Views: 45,949

Rating: 4.8232932 out of 5

Keywords: ucla, uclachannel, wooden, anderson, abdul-jabbar, keith, erickson, jamaal, wilkes, deborah, roberts

Id: SgqeVIS2wvE

Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 08 2010