I've long admired Wooden, have posted on him and writing about him a number of times, and enjoyed quite a bit the stories from Abdul-Jabbar about Wooden. These included how with basketball he was about preparation and practice, controlling what you can control, and with people he always tried to see the best in them, despite any evidence to the contrary. One anecdote in the book I particularly liked had Wooden talking to Abdul-Jabbar about his love of westerns because of the clear good guy and bad guy, with the good guy always doing the right thing. Kareem noted how that's not realistic, to which Wooden agreed that it's not, but could be.I also was struck by Abdul-Jabbar's story about the photo on the back cover of the book, with Abdul-Jabbar helping Wooden walk across the court at Pauley Pavilion in 2007 and feeling proud to be there for him.
The book is a nice read about both men and includes quotes from Wooden at the beginning of each chapter:
"A coach' primary function should not be to make better players, but to make better people."
"A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment."
"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
"You can do more good by being good than any other way."
"Things work out best for people who make the best of the way things work out."
"Friendship is two-sided. It isn't a friend a friend just because someone's doing nice things for you. That's a nice person. There's friendship when you do for each other. It's like marriage, it's two-sided."
"Players with fight never lose a game, they just run out of time."
