For those that don't know who this MAn is, you're looking at possibly the greatest coach in sports history. Here is a MAn who won 88 straight games and 620 overall including 10 championships which included a streak of 7 in a row during the 60's and 70's. He left a MArk on the game of basketball and coaching that is unheard in sports today. He revolutionized the game and with the help of stars like Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, and Kareem made UCLA a college basketball powerhouse. Often times when I was at AAU basketball practice my coach would hurl Wooden quotes at us to inspire. I don't remember MAny of them but one I do remember is "be quick, but don't hurry", seems like a weird thing to say but as a player and student of the game myself it is something that would have MAde me smile if I heard my coach say it during practice. As I have heard players who were coached by him the MAn had a patience and love for the game that it was shown through how his players went out and dominated college basketball. It not so much that we lost a great coach or symbol for the game of basketball but we lost a great MAn. His legacy will live on because of that fact. He changed the way a coach should be looked at, he was a coach and mentor he not only taught a game but he taught about life. Nowadays coaches leave schools to get a bigger contract or develop their name as a brand in coaching, most have lost sight of the importance of sport and the role a coach like Wooden can play. He was a one of a kind and frankly it is discouraging that more coaches today don't try to emulate his way of thinking and coaching. He sought to build young men into adult males through the game of basketball isn't that what every coach should be doing? MAy he rest in peace.
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