KNBR Conversation: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on UCLA’s John Wooden

KNBR Conversation:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on UCLA’s John Wooden

An edited transcript of an interview with Basketball Hall of Famer and NBA all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:

Q: Your book Coach Wooden and Me:

Can you tell us a little more of that anecdote with you being in the White House and Coach (John) Wooden coming to your mind?

[...] it made for a good relationship, because the whole sense of discovery was a wonderful process, and learning how and why I should open myself up to all these new thoughts and ideas was a great experience for me.

Coach Wooden, I would assume, had to be somewhat open-minded to learn how to communicate and work with you guys.

Yeah, because he was dealing with players now that had grown up in a totally different America and had different issues and different aspirations.

Were you inherently distrustful of old white men at that point in time?

No, but I think what it was is you had to be cautious.

When you hear criticism of him, how do you react?

Some people are envious.

People who would have liked to have won 10 NCAA championships, there might be a little bit of cynical motivation for their criticism.

Would those methods work today?

Two quick ones on the NBA right now, do the Warriors play a brand of basketball that is superior to everybody else, or do you think they’re vulnerable to getting taken down?

Look what happened last year.