| John Wooden
Coaching Legend • What makes a good official? |
| “Most of the serious problems seem to be the result of the administration of the rules by the officials and the lack of proper teaching of the rules by coaches.” |
| Referee: You’ve been retired from coaching for more than 20 years yet people still are very interested in what you have to say. How do you feel about that? Wooden: I’m a little surprised, but let me put it this way: Had my teams not won 10 national championships, I don’t believe that the interest would be there. There might be some. I’d like to feel that the interest is there because of who I am as a person and not what I did as a teacher and a coach. Referee: What makes a good official? Wooden: Having a good relationship with the coaches. I’m assuming that you know the rules or you wouldn’t be officiating. You recognize what the coach’s job is and he recognizes what your job is, and you have no animosity toward him in any way personally or otherwise. The officials that I might not like as well as others are those who are very officious in their bearing. Referee: How has officiating in basketball changed? Wooden: As I watch the game today, I don’t feel the officials are calling the game according to rules. I don’t think it’s the rules that need to be changed so much as the way they’re being called. They don’t call traveling and moving screens aren’t called regularly. They should just call the game, and I don’t mean to be so technical that if you’re inbounding a ball when there’s no pressure and your foot happens to touch the line, I don’t think officials should even see that. Technically it is an infraction, but where it has absolutely no bearing on the game, it shouldn’t be called. Referee: Were officials calling more traveling when you were coaching? Wooden: I think so, yes. Officials are too loose on calling traveling. I think it’s just been a gradual thing. It’s all changed. I talked to an NBA official a couple years ago about traveling, and he said, “We like our jobs.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Would you want us to call Michael Jordan for traveling when he goes in for a dunk? The fans don’t want it; the people in the organization don’t want it. Even the fools who complain against it, they don’t want that.” I said, “Well, why do you call it on the rookies then?” Referee: Do you think that the game would be better if it was called exactly as it’s written in the rulebook? Wooden: You have to make some allowances. Like I said, it can become too technical. If you step on the line and there’s no pressure, but let’s say that you’re inbounding the ball and I got some pressure on you and you step on the line, yeah, I deserve that. I made you do it. Referee: What about the coaching box today? Wooden: I think it’s absolutely terrible. I think coaches should stay on the bench as long as the ball is in play. I have become more convinced than ever that our main problems are neither the rules nor the interpretation of the rules. Most of the serious problems seem to be the result of the administration of the rules by the officials and the lack of proper teaching of the rules by coaches. Too many of us do not teach our players to abide by the rules but look for ways to beat or get around the rules. In other words, we teach evasion of the rules and look for the technicalities that permit us to beat a rule rather than attempting to teach and live up to the spirit of the rule. Referee: How do you feel about intentional fouls? Wooden: You can’t tell me that it’s not intentional fouling at the end of a tight ballgame when one team is fouling all the time. I’ve had officials say, “I can’t read their minds.” But they know darn well what’s happening. Referee: What if the player makes it look good? Wooden: That shouldn’t have anything to do with it. There are many, many intentional fouls. I saw it then; I see it now. It’s kind of like the death penalty. We’d rather free 100 guilty ones than send one not guilty to the chamber. I think we’d have a better game if it were the other way around. Referee: You were a basketball coach for 40 years and only had two technical fouls. How did you manage that? Wooden: Because I never called officials names and you never heard me use a word of profanity. I never got personal. I’d say the worst thing I ever said to an official, and I wouldn’t like somebody to say it to me if I were officiating, was, “Call them the same on both ends.” Or I might say, “Don’t be a homer.” To be quite honest with you, although two were called on me, one really wasn’t called on me. The official thought that I said something that somebody behind me said. But I kept it. I didn’t have any confrontation with him at all in any way. Referee: Did the referees factor into your thinking when you prepared for games? Wooden: During my career we played every school in the Big 10. We couldn’t get many of them to come out west so we had to go there. And when we played in the Big 10, for example, I’d tell my players, “Now, they call them different in the Big 10.” You may disagree with that, but I firmly believe it. I think that when it comes to charging in the Big 10, the offense is going to get the advantage most of the time. That doesn’t mean they’re favoring the home team. Referee: It doesn’t matter to officials which team is the home team. Wooden: You think the home crowd doesn’t affect the officials? I think they do. Not in every case. I won’t name names, but there were officials that I didn’t like when we played on the road, but I didn’t mind them at home. Referee: So from where you sat, there were referees who could be swayed? Wooden: Absolutely, just like there are weak coaches and weak teachers and weakness in every profession. I think the boisterous home fans and certain conditions where the arena has them right on top of you have an effect. I’ll name one, McArthur Court at the University of Oregon. You’re throwing the ball inbounds from inbounds. They’ve got a line three feet inside the sideline because you can’t stand out of bounds. Now there’s no question in my mind that was a very difficult place to officiate primarily because the crowd was right on top of you and they’re roaring. It makes a very difficult situation. There is no doubt in my mind that there are some officials who that would affect. I’m not saying all. Referee: Is there a rule you would want changed in basketball? Wooden: Abolish the dunk. It leads to too much showmanship. It hurts team play. A defensive player can’t have his hand over the basket and block it, so why should we let them throw it down there? If I couldn’t have that, I’d like to see them raise the basket six inches. It would eliminate some of that dunking. I’d also like to see them try widening the lane using the international rules. I don’t know whether I’d want it or not but I’d like to try. |
| BIO:
AGE, HOMETOWN, FAMILY: Born Oct. 10, 1910, in Centerville, Ind. Currently resides in Encino, Calif. Married Nell in 1932 (died in 1985); two children: James and Nancy; seven grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren. |