Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court

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Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller
President Barack Obama’s Favorite Book of 2017
A Boston Globe and Huffington Post Best Book of 2017 Pick

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explores his 50-year friendship with Coach John Wooden, some of the enduring and meaningful relationships in sports history.
When future NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was once still an 18-year-old high school basketball prospect from New York City named Lew Alcindor, he accepted a scholarship from UCLA in large part on the strength of Coach John Wooden’s reputation as a winner. It turned out to be the right choice, as Alcindor and his teammates won an unprecedented three NCAA championship titles. But it also marked the beginning of some of the odd and enduring friendships in the history of sports. In COACH WOODEN AND ME, Abdul-Jabbar reveals the inspirational story of how his bond with John Wooden evolved from a history-making coach-player mentorship into a deep and genuine friendship that transcended sports, shaped the course of both men’s lives, and lasted for half a century.
COACH WOODEN AND ME is a stirring tribute to the subtle but profound influence that Wooden had on Kareem as a player, and then as a person, as they began to share their cultural, religious, and family values even as facing some of life’s biggest obstacles. From his first day of practice, when the players were taught the importance of putting on their athletic socks properly, to gradually absorbing the sublime wisdom of Coach Wooden’s now famous “Pyramid of Success”; to learning to deal with the ugly racism that confronted black athletes all over the turbulent Civil Rights era in addition to losing loved ones, Abdul-Jabbar fondly recalls how Coach Wooden’s fatherly guidance not only cleared the path for his unmatched professional success but also made conceivable a lifetime of personal fulfillment.
Full of intimate, never-before-published details and delivered with the warmth and erudition of a grateful student who has learned his lessons well, COACH WOODEN AND ME is at once a celebration of the unique philosophical outlook of college basketball’s most storied coach and a moving testament to the all-conquering power of friendship.

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