Remembering Bill Walton and His Mentor’s Wisdom

His College Coach’s Maxims Guided Walton’s Eventful Adult Life

6/3/24 – – Basketball super star and colorful broadcaster Bill Walton passed away last week at age 71. The 6-foot-11, red-haired, free-spirited Walton credited much of his success during and after his basketball career to the teachings of his legendary coach at UCLA, John Wooden. Known as “The Wizard of Westwood,” Wooden shared life lessons with his players through motivational sayings that Walton remembered for the rest of his life.

In memory of Bill Walton and his mentor (and to help us all face the challenges of today’s politics, pressures and predicaments) here are 10 Wooden “maxims” Walton often referred to in his public speaking appearances and announcing gigs:   

• When everybody thinks alike, nobody thinks.

• It’s okay to disagree. Don’t be disagreeable.

• Be quick, but don’t hurry.

• Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

• Happiness begins when selfishness ends.

• Never mistake activity for achievement.

• The worst things you can do for those you love are the things they could and should do on their own.

• Stubbornness we deprecate, firmness we condone. The former is my neighbor’s trait, the latter is my own.

• It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.

• Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

Under John Wooden’s leadership, UCLA won 10 national championships. Bill Walton’s 1972-1974 teams won two of them and 88 consecutive games. Coach Wooden, who died in 2010, had no “NIL” (Name, Image and Likeness) money to offer his players. But he gave them something much more valuable and enduring: a game plan for a successful, happy life.