John Wooden 'God' of BasketBall says Doc Rivers

John Wooden 'God' of BasketBall says Doc Rivers
Doc Rivers: John Wooden was a basketball ‘god’

The passing Friday of legendary UCLA coach John Wooden is being felt even more deeply in these parts, but this loss knows no geographical bounds.

Yesterday as the Celtics [team stats] and Lakers prepared for Game 2 of the NBA Finals, Doc Rivers was thinking about the picture of Wooden he has on his desk in Waltham.

“He was the best coach ever,” Rivers said. “Him and Red Auerbach are the two guys that we talk about, the gods - and there are two of them.

“So the fact that I got to meet him and he actually knew my name, to me blew me away on its own right.”

Rivers took advantage of the meeting.

“I don’t ask for a lot of autographs, and he was one that I wanted, and he was as gracious as we thought he would be,” the Celtics coach said.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson had similar feelings.

“You know, I guess of the 150,000 people that are reciting John’s legendary fame, I just stand in awe of the guy,” he said.

“I think as a young basketball player growing up and watching the ’62 Bruins [team stats], the ’63 Bruins, the era that I came out of high school. And watching this team, this pesky team of 6-5 guys - Keith Erickson and Walt Hazzard, Gail Goodrich - roll out a great record and play the incredible defense that they played with the speed that they played at, I think that that was my first awareness of John Wooden.

“So that’s a 40-year-ago, 50-year-ago vision in a man who eventually went on to win nine more championships in a number of years. He did it then with unbelievable talent. Talent started coming in his direction with obviously Lew Alcindor - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - and a myriad of other players that came in there. But that first initial group that won has always kind of a special place as to his activity, how he prepared his teams, their defensive mindset, and the things that he really believed in basketball as a coach.”

Rivers also praised the John Wooden he saw away from the court.cw-2

“(It’s a) tough, sad loss, really, for all of us,” he said. “But with Wooden, I think he’s one of the rare superstars that stood out more about him as a person than he did as a coach or anything. And that’s rare, when you say that about any star in any business.”