The date was November 11, 2002. The place, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Marina Del Rey, CA.
Then Atlanta Hawks GM Pete Babcock arranged a meeting for the team with Coach John Wooden.
The entire traveling party made its way to a small banquet room, and in came Coach Wooden. He sat with us for over an hour. He knew our coach, Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkins very well. (How incredible to have two men in the same room who were selected as Hall of Famers as both players AND coaches.) But for many of us, we were stangers.
That did not matter to Coach Wooden. He spoke to us like we were an extension of his UCLA teams, reviewing his Pyramid of Success. He stressed conditioning (physical, mental, moral), skill (do it quickly), and team spirit (be considerate of others on and off the court).
Coach spoke of how winning was a by product of all of those characteristics. He stressed how the game was OFF the ball, both offensively and defensively. I was taking notes as fast as I could write.
We were all mesmorized. At the end, coach Wooden took the time to autograph each person’s copy of his book, "Wooden. A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court".
“For Bob. Best wishes John Wooden.”
An unforgettable moment in time that I will take with me forever.
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