Sportsmanship, Basketball and Life

Editor's Note: This interview with legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden was originally conducted by Don Showalter, chair of the NFHS Coaches' Quarterly Publications Committee and a member of the High School Today Publications Committee, for a previous issue of NFHS Coaches' Quarterly magazine.

Q: What kind of showmanship don't you like?
Wooden: The fancy dunks. The fancy passing. The calling attention to themselves after they score or block a shot or something. They might as well say, "That's me, me, me." And some of them practically do that. You see it in other sports, too, especially professional football. But I suppose marketing people know what brings the fans in, and that's what they want. I like to see finesse rather than brute power or showmanship.

Q: There's showmanship among coaches, too.
Wooden: I don't like it. Their job is during the week. And for the most part, during the games, they can take their seats on the bench. I don't expect them not to be agitated. I expect them to yell at officials, as long as they don't use profanity and don't get personal. But there are coaches who make a show of themselves, and nobody comes to see them. They want to see the game.

Q: Away from basketball, what were the influences in your life?
Wooden: My mother and father, first of all, especially my dad, who tried to teach me and my three brothers that you should never try to be better than somebody else. Learn from others, and never cease trying to be the best you could be. But don't get too concerned or engrossed in things over which you have no control. That came from my dad. And then, in many ways, my high school sweetheart, (Nell), the only girl I ever went with, and the one I was married to for 53 years before I lost her. She was very influential, too. I came from the farm and was a rather shy individual. She got me to go take public speaking classes. I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been for her.

Q: Your father was a farmer?
Wooden: Yes. Well, we lost the farm between my freshman and sophomore years in high school because of the Depression. Then we moved into this small town, Martinsville, Indiana, only about 4,800 people.

Q: Is the role of college basketball at universities about where it should be?
Wooden: In my opinion, and it's not a popular answer, no. The collegiate athlete should be a student-athlete. And it was for some time. Now it's more and more the athlete-student. I can remember the days when everybody graduated, and they graduated in four years. Now so many don't graduate, and so many are taking five years. I've never believed in that. I don't believe in the redshirt rule. And I think one of the worst rules ever permitted is freshman eligibility. I think most every youngster who goes away to college, the social adjustment is the biggest, and close behind is the academic adjustment.

Q: Why not?
Wooden: I don't want any of my players to feel that I'm selecting one over another.

Q: OK. So your top five?
Wooden: I would say probably the most valuable player that the collegiate or pro game ever had was Bill Russell. When you look what he did with (the University of San Francisco), a smaller school winning two consecutive NCAA championships, and then with the Boston Celtics, which had never won one without him and couldn't hardly lose one with him, he has to rank in there. Then I think you have to say that Oscar Robertson was absolutely one of the best who ever played. I think Larry Bird is one of the best who has ever played.

And I think the best, and I've always been very reluctant to say anyone is the very best, is Michael Jordan. And I believe I'd have to put Elgin Baylor in there, too. Now that's leaving out a lot of great players, including John Stockton.

Q: What about the smartest players?
Wooden: Larry Bird is absolutely, in my opinion, as smart a basketball player as ever played the game. It just came naturally to him. I think Stockton is much like that. Neither of them is a great showman. It's just their game that makes them stand out.

Q: Whom among your peers in coaching did you respect the most?
Wooden: I would say Pete Newell, from the University of California; Adolph Rupp, from the University of Kentucky; Marv Harshman at Washington State University. I don't think there's been a better coach than Tony Hinkle at Butler over the years. Not as much material as others, but an extremely good coach. I'm impressed today with Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and Roy Williams at Kansas (now North Carolina) and Lute Olson at Arizona. Their teams are playing better team basketball than most today. The players have become so great individually that I think many coaches consciously or subconsciously let them go on their own because they are so good individually, and that in turn has hurt the team.

Q: Do you think there will be major changes in style or rules or the way the game fits into our lives?
Wooden: I would like to see in officiating, just call the game according to the rules. It's plain in the rules what a moving screen is. They don't call it. Do you see any player today dribbling without palming the ball? They have a rule against hanging on the rim, you know. It's a technical foul. Do you ever see it called? Do you ever see 'em hanging on the rims? I think it would be a better game if they would call it. But maybe it wouldn't attract the crowds.

Q: With some outstanding players going to college for only a year or two and entering the NBA, has that damaged college basketball?
Wooden: I think it's damaged pro basketball. I think they'd be better off to get the more solid individuals coming out of college. Even Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant, who have been pretty successful in the NBA, they missed a tremendously important part of their lives by not attending college.

Q: The NCAA tournament has exploded in terms of size and popularity. It seems to dominate the country for a couple of weeks. Has that been a good thing?
Wooden: I think it was better in my day when you had to win your conference championship to get in. Then you had a tournament of champions. Now, teams finish fourth and fifth and even sixth in their conference and get into the tournament. The way it is now, I think they'd be better off ending the regular season a week earlier and have all the teams play in the tournament. All of 'em. And divide all the money and let every team get one share for each game they play. Many teams in the NCAA that get nothing now could use that one share more than these teams that are going to the Final Four and getting millions.

Q: If you were basketball emperor and you could make edicts and rulings and people had to obey, what would be some of the things you might do?
Wooden: I would abolish the dunk. I would consider raising the basket. I'm not sure by how much. I would try to get better instruction of officiating, go over the rules book and call 'em by the rules. I'd make the coaches stay on the benches. I think that would help officiating. I would let all the teams into the NCAA tournament.

Q: Of all the things that you accomplished, is there something that you think is the major accomplishment of your career?
Wooden: The fact that almost all my players graduated and almost all of them have done well in their professions -- lawyers, doctors, dentists, eight ministers. I'm very proud of them. And almost all my players graduated in four years. Yeah, I'm proud of that. On an individual basis, I'm more proud of one thing than any other. It's the Big Ten Medal for Academic Achievement. It's given to the athlete with the highest grade-point average. I earned that. That wasn't teammates. That wasn't the coach. So I'm more proud of that than anything.