Page 207 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Make Greatness Attainable by All
an opportunity. I went in at center, replacing Fred Slaughter, 189
who’d gotten off to a slow start. I stayed in until the game was
decided and UCLA had won its first national championship.
The next year, 1965, UCLA played Michigan in the cham-
pionship game. This time I wasn’t on the bench. I was a
starter and played the best 10 minutes of basketball I’d ever
played—running up and down the court blocking shots and
getting rebounds. Then Coach took me out for a breather and
put in Mike Lynn.
Mike played out of his mind—brilliantly. I spent most of
the rest of the game on the bench. Mike was ready when his
opportunity came, just as I had been the previous year. Either
way was fine with me, if it’s good for the team.
The year before, Fred Slaughter was OK with me coming
in and replacing him. Fred also believed that what was best
for the team was best for him.
Where’d we get that concept? Coach Wooden. He taught
that across the board to everybody. There’s always resentment
by some guys who want more playing time, a bigger role, but
Coach was very effective in getting people to understand that
the team’s interests came first, that doing what was best for
the team—even if it meant sitting on the bench—was best for
us. Now that’s a tough lesson to teach. But he did it.
At UCLA we had five guys on the court playing basketball
and seven guys on the sidelines forming a cheerleading squad.
When I was on the bench, I was a cheerleader, and I felt that
it mattered; I needed to be a great cheerleader, because it
could help our team.
In 1966, after UCLA won two consecutive national cham-
pionships, many picked the Bruins to win a third. We didn’t,
mainly because of injuries. Through it all, Coach Wooden