Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

Perfection

Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts.

Our teams at UCLA had four perfect seasons, but we never played a perfect game, never played as well as we could. That’s perfection. We didn’t reach perfection, but we constantly strove toward it.

I believe there is nothing wrong with the other fellow being better than you are if you’ve prepared and are functioning in the way you’ve tried to prepare. That’s all you can do.

But there is something wrong if you’ve failed to measure up to your ability because you haven’t prepared.