Wooden On Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization

A dunk, or slam dunk, is a type of shot in basketball in which a player forces the ball through the rim with their hands. Wooden refers to the dunk in Chapter 15 when discussing former legendary player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He explains that the dunk was an incredible weapon for Abdul-Jabbar because of his height but that the NCAA banned the shot during his first varsity season in 1967. Although the dunk was allowed again after only a few seasons, the ban forced Abdul-Jabbar to develop his famous “sky hook” shot, which Wooden describes as “possibly the greatest offensive weapon in the NBA” (226).

A fast break is an offensive style of play in basketball in which a team uses passes to push the ball to the other end of the court as quickly as it can after a defensive rebound. This up-tempo style of play requires stamina and great conditioning and typically leads to high-scoring games. Wooden’s teams at UCLA were famous for this style of play.

Indiana State University was known as Indiana State Teachers’ College during the period of 1929-1961. Wooden became the head basketball coach and athletic director there while also teaching and completing his master’s degree in education. In his two seasons there, he compiled an overall record of 44-15 before accepting the head coaching position at UCLA in 1948. Wooden refers to his time at Indiana State several times throughout his work, but most prominently in Chapter 15 when he discusses being pursued by larger universities after his success there.

The NCAA Tournament is a season-ending, single-elimination tournament that has been played every year since 1939 for men’s teams and every year since 1982 for women’s teams. The size of the field has expanded a number of times over the years, from eight teams in the tournament’s early years to its current size of 68 teams. Invitations to play in the tournament are determined automatically by conference championships, and many more are determined by at-large invitations for teams who have had successful seasons but did not win their conference title. Wooden is unquestionably the most successful NCAA Tournament coach of all time, having won the title 10 times in a span of 12 years, including seven consecutively over 1967-1973.

Pauley Pavilion is the sports arena located on the UCLA campus that has served as the home court for the Bruins men’s and women’s basketball teams since it opened in 1965. Wooden acknowledges that when he accepted the head coaching position at UCLA in 1948, he had been led to believe that the team would soon have a new arena, but that did not take place until 17 years later. Wooden refers to Pauley Pavilion a few times in his work, but most prominently in his “Lessons From My Notebook” section, in which he describes how the upgrade from previously using UCLA’s older Men’s Gym improved efficiency and made the team better.

The press, or full-court press, is a style of defensive play in which a team begins to play defense immediately after it has scored a basket, as opposed to immediately going back to the other half of the court to set up defensively. Teams who use this style of play tend to play at a much more up-tempo pace. Wooden refers specifically to the press in Chapter 13, “Seek Significant Change.” He points out that his longtime assistant coach, Jerry Norman, persuaded him to adopt this style of play following UCLA’s elimination from the 1962 Final Four.

The pyramid of success is an iconic triangular diagram created by Wooden in 1948 that identifies 15 common traits or behaviors that lead to his own definition of success, which sits atop the pyramid. In Part 1 of the book, Wooden begins laying out and describing each building block of the pyramid, beginning with tier one and culminating in the apex block of competitive greatness. In addition to the 15 building blocks, comprising five total tiers, he diagonally has the word “faith” listed on one side and the word “patience” listed on the other, suggesting that they represent the mortar holding the blocks in place.