• Retired UCLA coach came to Norfolk in 1998
  • Said the dunk is bad for the game
  • Never made more than $40,000
John Wooden attended the 1998 McDonald's High School All-American Game n Norfolk and the day prior graciously granted me an interview. He was 87 years old, 23 years removed from his legendary run of 10 national basketball championships in 12 years at UCLA, and walking with an artificial knee and hip.

But the Wizard of Westwood that afternoon was as sharp as the backcuts he had taught his Bruins. I never erased the tape, and Sunday evening, two days after his death at age 99, I treated myself to his sage words.

Here is a transcript. Read, enjoy, learn.

Q: Can you talk about the changes you've seen in basketball since your retirement in 1975?

A: I think the athleticism of the players is just unbelievable, quite remarkable. But as the players have become so much better individually, I believe it has hurt team play. I don't believe we see quite as good team play.

Now I'm not saying that the game was better in my day. I'm just saying that I believe when the players are better individually, the tendency is you will go more one-on-one, turn loose more, and that to me has taken a little bit away from the team play.

I'm very impressed when I see teams that really use team play. Like Princeton, for example. I feel that Roy Williams' teams at Kansas employ team play a little more. That bothers me a little bit, the lack of team play.

Also, you see so much taunting that's popped up in recent years. I don't like that at all, and I hold coaches responsible. They could take care of that. They've got the greatest ally in the world and that's the bench. They (players) all want to play.

Then I have another concern, too, that is filtering down from the pros. Many are becoming a little too physical (in the low post). That's more like wrestling than basketball. Certainly it is in the pros, and they're letting them do much more of it at the collegiate level.

Another thing that bothers me is they're playing so many games. Most of the teams in the Final Four are playing 35, 36, 37 games. Television has them playing every day of the week, every hour of the day, even on Sundays, which I don't believe in. They're missing too much school, and I'm worried.

This is just my opinion now. What I say doesn't make it right. But it's my feeling that we're getting away from the student-athlete, reversing it and making it the athlete-student. And those things worry me a little bit.

Television has also brought about too much showmanship. Now that's all right for the pros because we know that's what they want, showmanship. But I don't believe it should be on the collegiate level. College coaches, their job is not to develop players for the pros. It's to try and have the best team they can have at that particular school.

At the same time, I think it's a beautiful game. I think it's the best spectator sport in the world, for obvious reasons. It's played with the largest object, the fans are closer to the action. It is a game of action, and all those things tend to make it a beautiful game for spectators.

Q: I know you are a faithful spectator still at Pauley Pavilion.

A: I go to all the home games and have since my retirement in '75.

Q: Do you watch many games on television?

A: No. The only games I'll watch on television are ones that I have a particular interest in, because of a coach or the school.

Q: Who might some of those coaches and schools be?