Page 169 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Little Things Make Big Things Happen
room, all the Bruins were very interested to see Coach 151
Wooden’s reaction. As UCLA players we had never seen him
lose a single game. Suddenly, he had lost, and it was a big
game. How would he react?
When Coach walked into the locker room after losing the
Game of the Century, he was very even keeled. There was
even a slight smile on his face. He told us, “It’s not the end of
the world. We’ll do better next time.” He was pleased with
our effort. The score was secondary; having our winning
streak snapped was not his concern. Our effort on the court
had been total. That made him happy.
In 1967, UCLA played in the finals of the NCAA tourna-
ment in Louisville. We hadn’t lost a game all season. Just be-
fore we went on the court to play Dayton for the national
championship, the whole team sat in the locker room for
Coach Wooden’s pregame talk. Four of the starters were first-
year varsity players who were about to face their first national
championship game in a few minutes—Kareem, Lucius
Allen, Kenny Heitz, and me.
Coach Wooden walked up to the chalkboard and began to
diagram something, maybe a new play or defensive tactic. But
it wasn’t. Coach was diagramming where we should stand
during the national anthem! He then spoke about our con-
duct following the game. The day before, players on another
team had gotten rowdy, and he cautioned us about behaving
badly. He never mentioned anything about the opponent we
were going to play for the national championship; no plays,
no specifics of the game. None of that.
What this was about, of course, was his belief that by game
time his teaching was complete; if he hadn’t taught us what
we needed to know by then, it was too late.