Page 16 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Prologue
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But something came over me that I had never felt before in 41
years as a coach. I had the strongest feeling—almost revulsion—
that I couldn’t go through it anymore: the questions and answers,
the never-ending speculation and examination; the crowds and all
the folderol that had become such a disproportionate part of my
daily life. Not just from reporters doing their job, but from the out-
side world.
While it’s true I appreciate recognition for a job well done, just
like anybody else, UCLA’s success in basketball had created some-
thing I never aspired to, and didn’t want, but eventually couldn’t
get away from, specifically, such overwhelming attention, inspec-
tion, and curiosity that it became more than an irritation. It was
deeply disturbing.
I felt more and more that crowds were closing in and enveloping
me. I seemed to be constantly surrounded. This great frenzy of ac-
tivity and attention was more than unwelcome; it was unnatural.
At one coaches’ conference I was asked to stand outside the
meeting hall before I spoke, so as not to take attention away from
the other coaches who were also guest speakers. I had become a dis-
traction, a disruption, someone who needed special handling—a
coach separate from other coaches. I was a celebrity who genuinely
had never wanted to be one. I only wanted to be a coach among
other coaches, a teacher among teachers. Now, I was being asked
to stand outside the door while the coaches, teachers, and leaders
gathered within, without me.
If this had happened in a dream, I would have said upon wak-
ing that I’d just had a terrible nightmare. What was happening,
however, wasn’t a dream.
What am I? Just a teacher—a member of one of the great pro-
fessions in the world. My teaching had accomplished good things,
but in the process it had created a level of attention that eventually
drove me away.