The most celebrated college coach of all time has gone to the great game in the sky. John Wooden has passed on. If you know and love basketball, you know his name, if only as myth. He was the equivalent of Red Auerbach, yet on the West Coast and coaching the college game. He coached Red's favorite team's most certain and tall opponent in Kareem. Wooden also coached one of the best passing centers of all time in Bill Walton, who managed to find a late resurgence on a Celtics team in the 80s. He did things as a coach that are simple pipe dreams these days.
In case you're confused: John Wooden = dynasty. 10 championships in 12 years.
His players woke up early. They started in the morning. They worked harder and more often. It was expected. If you've read the best basketball book of all time, "The Breaks of the Game," you know that in the 60s and 70s, ballplayers thought there should be two championships: one for UCLA and one for the rest of the country. Wooden was just that good - as a coach, as a recruiter, as a persuader. If you've read that Halberstam book, you know very well that Wooden was as flawed as the rest of us. The thing is, John Wooden and Red Auerbach and Bill Russell and Michael Jordan are all made of the same mettle. There are a small number of others made of that special stuff - Morgan Wootten, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade - and we are entirely lucky to see them exact their joy/competition/hate through basketball. Wooden brought his irreplaceable fire to college basketball and a level of joy and hope it might never reach again.
There's the story of when Wooden's scrubs (including Bill Walton) beat his starters in a pre-season scrimmage. His starters won the National Championship that year. His scrubs won it later as starters. He coached a young guy named Lew Alcindor, who was on the losing side of that scrub team. Wooden always got the best players. He also got the best out of them. He is the one coach any other coach in the history of the game would love to play against and be okay losing; after an 88 game win streak, it was expected. Wooden brought the NCAA to the nation with his unstoppable march toward victory.
Goodnight, John Wooden. 99 years is a great run. It's even better when you're one of the best of all time. Thank you.
I hate the natural elevation of the recently passed. John Wooden will always be one of the greatest coaches of all time. However, there are many who view his recruiting as nowhere near meeting expected standards of integrity. There is a tendency to beatify the dead, especially with those involved in sports, and it may be unfortunate.
ReplyDeleteThe argument presented in Halberstam's book is that Wooden himself never sleazily recruited, but his staff pulled the surrogate routine.
Regardless, John Wooden is one of the greatest coaches of all time. Diminishing his accomplishments is unwarranted. He did what no coach had done before and no coach has done since. For that alone, we should mourn him.
Jack Ramsay just paid homage on ESPN. Jack Ramsay took over a fantastic team with the Blazers and happened to have a young center with brilliant vision (and tragically terrible feet) with Bill Walton, a Wooden study. Ramsay won a championship with those Blazers and came brilliantly close later.
ReplyDeleteAhhhhhh tragedy.