The lovely, sprawling campus of UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles, is located in Westwood, a wealthy suburb near Beverly Hills. Since the slim, white-toothed, attractive students look straight out of central casting, a campus stroll is like walking through a movie set. For all its physical charm, academic reputation, and football success, UCLA is most synonymous with basketball and specifically identified with the halcyon days of Coach John Wooden, the “Wizard of Westwood.”
NBA luminary Lenny Wilkens and John Wooden are the only people who have been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and coach.²⁵ He (Wooden) was the 1932 college player of the year at Purdue and three-time all-American. Wooden later coached successfully at the high school level and at Indiana State. He became UCLA’s head coach in 1948 and continued until his retirement in 1975.²⁶
WHEN HE RETIRED AS A PLAYER IN 1975, (Lenny) Wilkens ranked second on the NBA all-time assist list with 7,211 (6.7 avg). Wilkens had the uncanny ability to serve as a player and coach simultaneously, logging three seasons with Seattle and one with Portland before moving on to concentrate solely on coaching.²⁷
THIS BOOK contains stories about many sports dynasties: the New York Yankees, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Celtics, and Calumet Farm. UCLA’s basketball dynasty ranks up there with the best of them, and nearly matches the Boston Celtics’ historic run of eight straight NBA championships from 1958-1966 and 10 championships in 11 years.
ACHIEVING UNITY. John Wooden’s UCLA teams produced a stratospheric 620-147 record, four undefeated seasons, 88 consecutive victories, and 10 national championships from 1964-1975, with an unprecedented seven in a row from 1966-73.²⁸
Wooden was a fine teacher who never swore or raised his voice in anger. He believed that strong personal values were the key to success in any sport. His players were highly disciplined, made few mistakes, and wore down the opposition with unity, an unselfish fast-break offense combined with high-percentage shooting, and a swarming zone press that mercilessly harassed opposing players attempts to advance the basketball.
No college basketball coach ever recruited and developed talent like John Wooden. The list of UCLA and later NBA stars is long and impressive: Kareem-Abdul Jabar, Gail Goodrich, Marques Johnson, Walt Hazzard, Bill Walton, and many more.
The complete and versatile six-eleven Walton was a dominating basketball player from high school right through into the NBA. He was the all-American center on UCLA teams that won 88 straight and recorded back-to-back 30-0 seasons.²⁹
In 1973, as a UCLA junior, Bill Walton delivered an indelible classic that embodied Wooden’s coaching genius. UCLA sought its seventh consecutive national championship when they met a tough Memphis State team in the 1973 NCAA final game. Walton anchored the defense like the team player he was, grabbed 13 rebounds, passed impeccably, and scored 44 points on extrasensory 21-22 shooting as UCLA won another title. Bill Walton’s feat was basketball at its acme as taught by John Wooden and may have come the closest to single-game basketball perfection ever played at any level.³⁰
After many college honors such as Player of the Year, Academic All-American and Sullivan Trophy, Bill Walton went on to a successful NBA career where he won an MVP and two titles, the first with the Portland Trail Blazers. Later in his career, he joined the Boston Celtics in 1986 and won his second NBA title and a Sixth Man of the Year Award. Walton and Larry Bird on the floor together was basketball magic.
Bill Walton’s career was frequently interrupted by myriad foot and ankle injuries. The maladies may have been caused by the fact that although his feet were big for the average person, they were small for a player who was listed at six-eleven, but was probably over seven feet.
Walton’s intelligence, big personality, wit and strong voice were good fits for announcing NBA games where he continues to excel.
NBA BASKETBALL ANNOUNCER Bill Walton on celebrated player John Stockton: “He’s one of the true marvels of Western Civilization.”
Fellow Announcer: “Wow. that’s a pretty strong statement, Bill. I guess I’m no authority on Western Civilization.”
Walton: “That’s because you didn’t go to UCLA.”
(This story was excerpted from Guts in the Clutch: 77 Legendary Triumphs, Heartbreaks and Wild Finishes in 12 Sports, Illustrated, with a Foreword by Drew Olson of ESPN.)
@rnoyes1
SOURCES:
25 Courtesy of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame,
7/27/05
26 Basketball Hall of Fame, Wooden
27 Courtesy of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/bhof-lenny-wilkens.html
28 Basketball Hall of Fame, Wooden
29 Courtesy of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame,
7/27/05
30 Basketball, Hall of Fame, Walton
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