Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Sports Medley: Two of the Worst Games in NBA Playoff History?

by Tony Medley

Sunday saw two of the worst games in NBA playoff history. It started with Chicago Bulls v. Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron James certainly didn’t look like the best basketball player in the world as he gave a Russell Westbrook-like performance, missing on 20 of his 30 shots for a 33% average. The entire Cleveland team was little better, with a 38.7% field goal percentage. Chicago was even worse from the field at 36.7%. Both teams went eternities without scoring, each at different times.

The game ended in farce. With both teams out of timeouts and Chicago leading by one, the ball went out of bounds with about a second left. In a normal world, Cleveland would have to inbound the ball immediately and hope for the best. But the refs decided to spend five minutes reviewing the play to see how much time was actually left, giving Cleveland time to come up with a play. It also gave Chicago time to figure out a defense.

This is where it really became ludicrous. If I’m Chicago I am going to double team LeBron James to keep him from getting the inbound pass to make sure he doesn’t beat me. The refs put 1.5 seconds on the clock. Chicago didn’t double team James and, giving one of the smallest head and shoulder fakes in the history of basketball (just a shrug, really) towards the basket before taking a couple of steps the other direction into the corner, he completely faked out the Bulls’ lone defender, easily got the inbound pass and was wide open for the winning three pointer from the corner. Chicago’s stupidity deserved the last second loss, especially when they had five minutes to come up with a defense. How long does it take to conceive, “Let’s double team LeBron”? Apparently for the Bulls, longer than five minutes.

But the NBA needs to put in a rule that if there are no timeouts left for the team with the ball, there is no review of a questionable call and the teams will just have to go with the call on the court. What happened was a travesty.

Worse, James revealed immediately after the game that he “trashed” his Coach David Blatt’s proposed play (which, unbelievably, had James inbounding the ball so he would have no chance to score himself; which is akin to putting in a pinch hitter for Babe Ruth). Worse for Coach Blatt, he had tried to call timeout, not realizing he didn’t have any, which would have been a technical foul and basically lost them the game right there, but the refs didn’t see his attempt. This coach is not ready for prime time, but James was out of line calling him out publicly on the ridiculous play call proposal.

As to the other game, Los Angeles Clippers v. Houston Rockets, it was an equal travesty with Houston constantly fouling Clippers’ center DeAndre Jordan whose inability to shoot free throws is a disgrace for a professional basketball player. Alas, this strategy not only ruined the quality of the game, it destroyed Houston’s pace and they were annihilated by the Clippers as the Clippers were able to set up their defense while Jordan was shooting free throws. The only bright spot in the game was the continued emergence of Clippers' reserve Austin Rivers (Coach Doc’s son) as an animated scoring machine. He sparkled off the bench for the second game in a row.

People are talking about changing rules to put an end to the “hack a Jordan,” but that should be nonsense. If a team has someone so inept he can’t shoot free throws, that’s their problem. Clippers’ Coach Doc Rivers kept Jordan in the game despite the constant fouling and missed free throws and won a big victory. Rules should not be changed simply because there are two or three players in the league who can’t shoot free throws. That’s like having a shortstop who can hit but not field. The manager has to make a decision what’s more important, fielding or hitting? The basketball coach has to make the same decision, which is more important, Jordan’s rebounding and defense, or free throws? Rivers chose the former and won big.

Don’t change the rules. I doubt if any Clippers’ fan came away disappointed from a 128-95 victory just because the entire first half seemed to be Jordan missing free throws (he took 28 in the first half alone, 34 for the game, missing 20).