Go Joe Bruin
Fansided

When UCLA Basketball Went Away – An Oral History of 2008

By Nathan Eberhardt

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The Legacy

GUERRERO: There were alternatively two paths we could have taken instead of the one we did. We could have decided as a program to compromise and take the necessary shortcuts to compete in the game as it currently exists, which would have involved completely rejecting the character imbued in this program by Coach Wooden. And if that were who we wanted to be as a program, we could have just held onto Jim Harrick in 1996.

Jan 13, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of statue of former UCLA Bruins coach John Wooden before an NCAA basketball game against the Southern California Trojans at Pauley Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 13, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of statue of former UCLA Bruins coach John Wooden before an NCAA basketball game against the Southern California Trojans at Pauley Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

JIM HARRICK (UCLA Head Coach, 1988-1996): Psst! Hey, yeah, you. Want to hear an exciting business opportunity? I’ve got a guy – just a guy I know – who’s got influence in the Canadian college basketball scene. He’s agreed, if I front him 20 grand, to arrange for some players to shave a few points here and there, in places that might benefit some informed gamblers. See, I can only rustle up 10 grand at the moment, and that’s where you come in — wait!

GUERRERO: Or we could have continued to do the hard, program-building work without cutting corners, only to diminish the program Coach Wooden built into a middling team year after year, hoping for the occasional Sweet Sixteen berth.

STEVE LAVIN (UCLA Head Coach, 1996-2003): Oh, great, this again. Enough with the Sweet Sixteen thing. You guys are hung up on the Sweet Sixteen thing. To this day, the phrase, ‘We don’t hang Sweet Sixteen banners in Pauley Pavillion,’ haunts me in my sleep. Give it up already.

GUERRERO: I’d go so far as to argue that UCLA Basketball, and the legacy of John Wooden, have more presence in the game today than if we were still scuffling by as a mediocre team.

WALTON: [Guttural, atonal, Mongolian throat-singing.]

KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR (UCLA Bruin, 1966-1969): A towering legacy can be both a gift and a curse to those who inherit it, a pedestal which raises you above the fray, and a millstone around your neck, weighing you down. It is a priceless heirloom that risks losing its value due to the lengths you must go to keep it safe. In the end, a legacy is not an entitlement but a call to action – one which not everyone is equipped to meet.

Next: USC Demolishes UCLA Again

Go Bruins.