It has been close to 2 weeks now but I didn’t want to not touch on the passing of arguably one of the best coaches, not just in basketball but in any major team sport.UCLA’s icon John Wooden passed away June 4th in his 99th year. He is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player (inducted in 1961) and as a coach (inducted in 1973). He was the first person ever enshrined in both categories. Only two others since have had that honour.
All he did as a coach was win. This is shown by the ten NCAA National Championships in a 12-year period while at UCLA. 3 of his tems went through perfect and undefeated. Also he was a winner off the court in his teaching of his players and just regular people alike. His Pyramid of Success is part of what made him so great as a teacher of both basketball and life.The Pyramid of Success consists of philosophical building blocks for winning at basketball and at life. In his later years he was hired by corporations to deliver inspirational lectures and even appeared in commercials for Hartford Insurance and the NCAA.Some of Woodens Maxims include:
• Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
• Flexibility is the key to stability.
• Be quick, but don’t hurry.
I am glad to say that I was able to get this All Time Greats autograph before he passed away and also received a card with information about the Pyramid of Success and his 7 point creed. Pretty cool to get something like that from a legend.
