John Wooden: Life Coach Extraordinaire; Oh, He Won Some Basketball Games, Too

John Wooden retired from coaching basketball many years ago. The effects of his tenure at the helm of the UCLA men's program are still being felt, not only in Westwood but also right round the sport.

Yes, he was a winner, if by definition you mean his teams' having won more games than they lost. Yes, he was a winner, if by definition you mean his teams' having won 10 national championships in 12 years (including seven straight). Yes, he was a winner, if his former players went on to become many of the greatest of the pro game.

But the one thing that these players, famous and not, say more than anything else about Coach Wooden is that he taught them to succeed not only on the court but also in life by making themselves better people.

Wooden's famous Pyramid of Success is filled with life lessons and examples of his philosophy, the one that drove him and his players to greatness:

• Have one player on your team that's better than all the rest? Here's what Coach Wooden says: "The star of the team is the team. 'We' supercedes 'me.'"
  
• Think you've found an easy answer? Think again, Coach Wooden says: "Success travels in the company of very hard work. There is no trick, no easy way."
  
• Think some days are less important than other? Coach Wooden didn't: "Perform at your best when your best is required. Your best is required each day."
  

Two of the greatest players in the history of American basketball, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (left) and Bill Walton, played for Coach Wooden. Both remember him fondly and warmly and emphasize that the winning on the court was secondary to the success that he encouraged them to have as people and as teammates. Abdul-Jabbar (who was Lew Alcindor at UCLA) remembered his coach as having a firm hand and insisting on a hard work ethic and a shared team goal but also being caring and understanding.

Coach Wooden was all about the team, the shared success, the goal-oriented program. One of his three hard-and-fast rules was "no criticizing teammates." His players benefited from the strong work ethic instilled in them by their coach's word and examples. They also benefited later in life by the lessons they learned while pounding the boards of college basketball.

It wasn't just about the ball or the score or the player or the team or the coach. Playing basketball for Coach Wooden was learning how live a better life — better individually and better for those around you. One of the Pyramid of Success's 12 Lessons in leadership is this: "Good values attract good people."

Coach Wooden urged his players to look inward and better themselves and then look outward to their teammates and better the team; only then could the team succeed as a team. ("It takes 10 hands to make a basket.")

One final message from Coach Wooden, in paraphrase and in a direct quote: Be the best person you can be — for you, not for anybody else. Here's what Coach Wooden said (and he said it much better):

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

We mourn the passing of Coach John Wooden. He was a man of strong faith, vision, and determination. He valued winning but moreso defined by broad goals like cooperation and achievement of shared goals than by an arbitrary measure such as a scoreboard. He was a lesson to us all that sports performance can be a mirror of players' true selves.