Page 134 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership
116
Most of all he taught us unity and oneness of purpose in
what we were doing, namely, working to be the very best we
could be—to perform our best out there on the court.
And he understood how to get you to listen. When I arrived
at UCLA, I was shooting a fade-away jump shot and it was
good. I used it in high school to become the number-one high
school player in Kansas. But Coach Wooden didn’t like it. He
told me, “Fred, you know what I want is when you’re finished
with the shot to be around the basket. We need you to rebound.
Now, if you fade away, you remove yourself from rebounding.”
But I loved that shot. I wouldn’t give it up until I heard him
say very calmly, “Fred, you can do it the way I am teaching
you or you can watch the game next Saturday sitting next to
me on the bench. Your replacement knows how to shoot the
jump shot correctly.”
Oh my goodness, I’ve got to tell you, you don’t understand
the impact of that statement. And he didn’t have to throw a
chair across the floor to get his point across to me.
We lost to Cincinnati in the semifinals of the national
championship because of a bad charging call on us during the
last minute of the game. It was a phantom call, and it cost
UCLA the game and maybe the national championship.
Coach’s reaction in the locker room was the same as if we’d
won—cool. No complaining; he told us to keep our heads
up: “Adversity makes us stronger.” And then he said, “Re-
member, you’ve still got one another.”
But he should have added, “and you’ve still got me.” He
was part of us. He was out on the court with us even when he
was sitting on the bench. And, he was right about adversity.
It made us stronger. Two years later, UCLA won its first
NCAA national championship.