Very Inspirational and Stands the test of Time!
What one thing did you take away from this talk? It is different everytime I listen.
Mine was @ 13:20-14:00 The Journey (practice) is better than the end (game). Giving your best!
John Wooden on the Difference between Winning or Succeeding
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Very Inspirational and Stands the test of Time!
What one thing did you take away from this talk? It is different everytime I listen.
Mine was @ 13:20-14:00 The Journey (practice) is better than the end (game). Giving your best!
Thanks OP. That made my day.
People who judge success or failure in the result, rather than the journey, are missing something IMO. Whether it is the football coach, your boss, your children, etc., it is important to celebrate the effort, not just the result.
John Wooden was quite a man. We need more people like him today. RIP.
People who judge success or failure in the result, rather than the journey, are missing something IMO. Whether it is the football coach, your boss, your children, etc., it is important to celebrate the effort, not just the result.
John Wooden was quite a man. We need more people like him today. RIP.
I wish I could say that I thought the players and coaches had reason to be proud of their journey last year. If there is dramatic improvement this year after a lot of hard work by both the players and the coaches, then this could be applicable.
I think Coach Wooden had a lot of great qualities, but don't forget that his domination was mostly the result of probably the most overlooked cheating in the history of college basketball.
Thanks for posting this. I enjoyed it a lot. The things I took from this are:
1) Do your very best and try not to "outbest" your opponent.
2) His plan for success.
3) His stress on defense winning games/championships.
4) His wit and poetry.
1) Do your very best and try not to "outbest" your opponent.
2) His plan for success.
3) His stress on defense winning games/championships.
4) His wit and poetry.
But UCLA was cheating big time during most of Wooden's tenure there. The degree to which Wooden was directly involved in the payoffs has never been disclosed, but his success needs to have a footnote how half of the best players in the country were on UCLA roster for about a decade and most of them received enticements...
If you're unaware or doubting of the wide scale cheating that was going on at UCLA at the time I got news for ya, we landed on the moon!
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The "recruiting success" at UCLA was pretty remarkable, for those too young to remember, and it is highly unlikely that it will ever be duplicated, especially with the one-and-done kids today. For example, I think UCLA had probably the 3 best centers in the country on their roster at one time, although Bill Walton and Swen Nater were on the Freshman team (Freshman were ineligible to play), when Lew Alcinder (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) was a senior, if I remember the timing correctly. Jabbar is arguably one of the 3 best players ever. He was so good coming out of high school in NY, that the NCAA outlawed dunking during his college years. (BORING) Walton was one of the greatest college centers ever and was great in his early NBA years, until foot injuries. Nater was an ABA all-star (later merged into the NBA), and also had a long NBA career. For about a decade, you could argue that UCLA regularly had half of the best college players on their team. Wooden was a great coach, but he had plenty to work with, and it wasn't only because of his charisma.
Neither Walton nor Nater was at UCLA when Kareem was there.
And dunking was not outlawed until after Kareem's soph year at UCLA.
I remembered people talking about how the freshman team could beat the varsity when Walton was a frosh. Too long ago, but that year, UCLA was the NCAA champion (in the middle of 7 straight and 10 of 12, I think). If Kareem was gone, that would be not quite as interesting, but basically UCLA could have probably split its team and finished first and second, they had so much talent. I don't think we will ever see that again. Any way you look at it, UCLA was getting a high percentage of the very best players and it wasn't only because of Wooden's coaching.
Couldn't have been as bad as when Evy got Alex Karras to Iowa. From the stories I heard, Karras was 'kidnapped' and hid somewhere in Iowa on a farm after he graduated High School.
off the topic in an off topic thread, have you seen the documentary Hot Rod? I saw it on Root Sports the other night about Hot Rod Hunley. Great show. Thought that would be a documentary right up your alley. At least I think it would be.
On UCLA, and given that I live in CA, this is an interesting article on the status of the program today.
https://www.bruinsnation.com/ucla_b...sketball-espn-no-reason-to-trust-steve-alford
https://www.bruinsnation.com/ucla_b...sketball-espn-no-reason-to-trust-steve-alford
Not in every case, or even in most cases. In UCLA's case, in the 60's and 70's, then yes in that case. There is no arguing that many of their best players of that time were getting something extra to be at UCLA.
I don't know if it was the same guy or not, but a year or two ago a Bruin admin posted a scathing article on why UCLA needed to divest itself of Alford's services.
Or you know, if you’re cheating you’re cheating. It’s not like it hasn’t been documented six ways to Sunday. The guy was an okay coach until he got the best bagman in the business.
