The death of UCLA basketball coaching icon, John Wooden has brought about an interesting phenomenon;  his critics have all but disappeared.  And, believe me when I say that when his UCLA teams were beating everyone in sight he had many.

A common referral was to œSt. John.  He didnt socialize with the coaches, they said.  He brought his wife Nell to the Final Four which was a problem to those coaches that chose to run around on their wives.  They questioned how he was able to get all those good players?

They forgot that there were several coaches across the country that would not have traded their team for his, the first year they won a championship.  And, they went undefeated in the process.

How do I know what coaches were saying?  I was there.  I was walking around in the lobby of the hotels hosting the final four.  Yes, every year except 1975 when UCLA won its last championship for Coach Wooden.  I was out of the country at that time.

Back to that first team that brought home a championship.  Walt Hazzard at 63, was the guy from Philly who made things happen.  On the receiving end was a slim 61 scorer named Gail Goodrich.  Up front the big rebounder was a 65,” 250 lb. wide body named Fred Slaughter.  The forwards were Jack Hirsch at 6 5 and the man who made the UCLA vaunted press work, 67 Keith Erickson.

Sure there were three prs on the team.  Thats probably the quota for any team to reach the Final Four these days.  Consider this.  It was those first two teams performance that opened the doors for Lewis Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabar) and Bill Walton to walk through.

Through all the Championship seasons, it would be easy to say that coach Wooden stayed the same.  That would be a lie.  His values stayed the same.  By his own admission, he got better.  He continued to grow.  He continued to develop his œPyramid of Success.

Coach wooden was a learned.  Was he a perfect human being?  I think not.  What I am clear about is he learned from any mistakes he made.  People always talk about doing that.  Rarely do they do it.

As a 17 year old college freshman coach Wooden treated me with respect and actually listened to what I had to say.  When I had the opportunity to speak to him as a rookie head coach; the same respect.  Whenever I had the good fortune to spend time with him (which was never enough) I got the same respect.

Coach Wooden lived his life fully and he lived it his way, no matter what the outside world thought.  There is no œbetter way.  Thank you, coach.  By the way, many of you out there extolling the virtues of Coach Wooden today are the same coaches who were disrespecting him back in the day.  Have you changed or are you just self-serving hypocrites?