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

Kareem’s Selflessness

I wanted each player to be intently interested in developing his own personal abilities as close to perfection as he could (while knowing that perfection is impossible).

Players like Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar may have more to give in some areas thanks to their God-given gifts. My job was to get them to focus those individual abilities on the welfare of the group as a whole. This was often a formidable challenge for me because the player might have to sacrifice personally for the group as a whole to do better.

I believe, for example, I could have made Kareem the greatest scorer in college history. I could have done that by developing the team around that ability of his. Would we have won three national championships ...