John Wooden

I am just steps out of John Wooden's condo when I realize he has, once again, transformed me into Jack Nicholson, gazing across the dinner table at Helen Hunt. Wooden has made me want to be a better man. My professional life is so much the antithesis of Wooden. It is basketball players with orange hair and boxers with an appetite for ear. In my world, Charles Barkley says he doesn't want to be a role model, and I thank the heavens. I am cynical, with both reason and pride.

The voice on the phone was familiar, if a bit weak. It's been a tough year, John Wooden said, reluctantly, because he doesn't like to make a fuss. He was in his Encino condominium, and had just been asked about the flu he'd fought off in January and the bone-breaking tumble he'd taken soon after. "It's been a bit hard, but I'm getting better," he assured. "Now, if Val's team performs to their abilities this week, that would put a smile on my face."

Don MacLean, who needs only 45 points to do so, will soon replace Lew Alcindor as UCLA's scoring leader. But Alcindor's legacy as perhaps the most dominant player in college basketball history will remain. Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, could have put his scoring records out of reach if he had been so inclined, former UCLA coach John Wooden said this week. He could have scored more points, Wooden said, than the all-time leader, Pete Maravich, who averaged 44.

Tyler Trapani couldn't have been more than 6 when his great-grandfather, John Wooden, decided to begin teaching him a thing or two about the game of basketball. The legendary coach was patient with his great-grandson, initially going over the fundamentals while being careful not to discourage the impressionable youngster. More than 11 years later, Trapani, a senior at Simi Valley High, doesn't remember much about those early lessons.

John Wooden is generally regarded as the nation's greatest basketball coach. His UCLA teams during the 1960s and 1970s won 10 NCAA men's basketball national championships and set records for consecutive victories. But since retiring in 1975, the 97-year-old coach has gained fame as a philosopher and motivator. His "Pyramid of Success" guide to life is revered by former players and business leaders for its insight on how to help individuals to grow and how to manage organizations.

Time was, this was Titletown. It was true for college basketball perhaps more than any other sport. And who needed an entire century, anyway? The last of John Wooden's 10 NCAA championships at UCLA came in 1975, ending that unrivaled era with a quarter-century to spare. In a remarkable 32-year span from 1964 to 1995, Los Angeles area basketball teams won an astounding 15 major college national titles--11 in men's basketball and four in the burgeoning women's game.

There are crises now, and there were crises 30 years ago--even at the height of the John Wooden run, even during the dynasty's finest hours. Wooden, though voicing empathy for Coach Steve Lavin's predicament, did not want to comment specifically on UCLA's indefinite suspension of starters Kris Johnson and Jelani McCoy for unspecified violations of athletic department policies and team rules.

This is about a tempest in a teapot, a condition found frequently in the silly bureaucracy of the NCAA. Just before the start of this college basketball season, UCLA received a letter of inquiry from the NCAA, seeking information about possible illegal contact between a recruit and a person representing the interests of the university. The recruit was Kevin Love, now the Bruins' star freshman center. The person representing the interests of the university was John Wooden.

The granddaughter has been talking lately to Sissy and Fada, her two imaginary friends. The other day she was playing hide-and-seek, and asked her father to hide with her until Sissy found them. I wouldn't be surprised to learn the Grocery Store Bagger is still hiding, any reason to avoid going to work. Tough to know, though, because the former daughter took the 7-Eleven Kid to Arizona a few months back because she thought the child's father was more important than the baby's grandparents.

Seventh-ranked UCLA will play Davidson after undefeated St. Mary's plays San Diego State today in the 14th annual John R. Wooden Classic at Anaheim's Honda Center, and it was the man in the middle of the dais, the sprightly 97-year-old whose "classic" this is, who was the star attraction Friday.

Looking back on it now, after all these years, John Wooden says he had it relatively easy at UCLA. Wooden recently told the Kansas City Star, "At Indiana State, I was director of athletics, head basketball coach, head baseball coach, taught the coaching course in basketball, taught the coaching course in baseball, I finished writing my thesis and I substituted in an English course. "Then I came to UCLA, I went on vacation for 27 years. All I had was basketball."

John Wooden is recovering from pneumonia, and the 98-year-old basketball coaching great is expected to be released from the hospital soon. UCLA, the school Wooden coached to 10 national titles, said Friday he was admitted to a Los Angeles-area hospital Feb. 13 and is completing his recovery. "My father is doing well," said Nan Muehlhausen, Wooden's daughter. "His lungs are clear and he has been eating well. We expect him to be released soon."

For the last few weeks, UCLA basketball players have been asking fans to remain patient, to give them more time to gel as a team. This argument apparently makes sense to at least one onlooker -- John Wooden. Speaking to reporters four days before the annual basketball doubleheader in Anaheim that bears his name, the respected former coach said he likes what he sees in the Bruins. "Good teams take time," he said. "They always do." This year's John R.

The granddaughter has been talking lately to Sissy and Fada, her two imaginary friends. The other day she was playing hide-and-seek, and asked her father to hide with her until Sissy found them. I wouldn't be surprised to learn the Grocery Store Bagger is still hiding, any reason to avoid going to work. Tough to know, though, because the former daughter took the 7-Eleven Kid to Arizona a few months back because she thought the child's father was more important than the baby's grandparents.

Twenty-four hours later, downtown was more upbeat. . . . Bringing ageless John Wooden and peerless Vin Scully together on stage for one memorable night at the Nokia Theatre to benefit local children's hospitals was more extraordinary than the Lakers coughing up an NBA Finals game -- and more of a treat for anyone who doesn't root for the Boston Celtics. . . . It was a wonderful, life-affirming event, Scully, 80, spinning yarns as only he can -- ice skating with Jackie Robinson!

John Wooden is generally regarded as the nation's greatest basketball coach. His UCLA teams during the 1960s and 1970s won 10 NCAA men's basketball national championships and set records for consecutive victories. But since retiring in 1975, the 97-year-old coach has gained fame as a philosopher and motivator. His "Pyramid of Success" guide to life is revered by former players and business leaders for its insight on how to help individuals to grow and how to manage organizations.

As luck has it, these people also live among you: ------ Robert Desmond: "I don't only feel that my father deserves to see 'Scully & Wooden,' but he needs to go. Dad is very much in need of a boost, as he is facing his first Father's Day without one of his children. Scott Desmond, my younger brother and a firefighter with the Contra Costa Fire District, died last July in the line of duty. He and his captain perished while attempting to rescue a couple from their burning home.

It was just an idea, "Scully & Wooden for the kids." Just imagine how much money the two legends, sitting side-by-side on stage, might raise for kids in the Los Angeles area contending with cancer. But then how many ideas do you get in a lifetime, never doing anything about it, later kicking yourself because you didn't follow through? Make it a really far-fetched idea, and well, forget it.

The voice on the phone was familiar, if a bit weak. It's been a tough year, John Wooden said, reluctantly, because he doesn't like to make a fuss. He was in his Encino condominium, and had just been asked about the flu he'd fought off in January and the bone-breaking tumble he'd taken soon after. "It's been a bit hard, but I'm getting better," he assured. "Now, if Val's team performs to their abilities this week, that would put a smile on my face."

It doesn't sound as if UCLA is faking it. The Bruins really want to add the Pacific 10 Conference tournament title to their regular-season championship. The third-ranked Bruins (28-3) have been picked by nearly every NCAA tournament bracket forecaster for a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament's West Region -- thus playing in Anaheim and, if the Bruins win there twice, in Phoenix.