“Having worked with young people all my life, I can tell you for a fact that today’s kids are crying out for discipline,” Wooden said. “Unfortunately, they aren’t getting the discipline they need at home or from most of their teachers. Until we give them the proper standards to live by, we will continue to be a nation whose young people will be in and out of trouble.”
“Sometimes I wonder if most people even know what real discipline is,” he continued. “The purpose of discipline isn’t to punish but to correct. It’s not there to be used to antagonize an individual, but to help and improve him. It’s not yelling at someone, because that kind of approach never gets you anywhere. You can only get the response you want by acting fairly and rationally.”
Of course the Wooden way would never make it today. The current world of big-time college basketball emphasizes winning to the absolute exclusion of anything else and doesn't even bother with the pretense of educating young athletes anymore, as the best prospects frequently leave for the NBA after one or two years. Wooden's famous Pyramid of Success emphasized self-control as a key building block to winning in life, which was seen as the more important goal, as well as in sports, which were but a part of life.
That young college athletes do not learn any of these lessons today is literally printed on their very skins. Does a player covered in tattoos such as that look like somebody who has an appreciation of the valuable building blocks of poise and self-control?
But our college coaches have so abandoned their roles as molders of young men that we have the shameful and ridiculous spectacle of our current national championship-winning head man actually joining in on the irresponsibility:
Louisville head coach Rick Pitino vowed that if his Cardinals won the National Championship that he would get a tattoo commemorating the win.
Well, just over two weeks after Pitino’s team cut down the nets in Atlanta, the 60-year-old coach has some fresh ink to show for it.
In a picture posted online, Pitino showed off the tattoo, located on the upper left portion of his back, which has a big red L, 2013 and “NCAA Champions 35-5” on it.
It's refreshing that Pitino would go so far as to actually brand himself as what he is: a 60-year-old jackass who has abdicated his duty to impress on the young men in his charge the enduring lessons they need to learn to win in the game of life in order to pursue the far lesser goal of winning at passing games of sport.
One fears that the mark of character he leaves on his players will be just as permanent as the ink etching he has embossed on his pasty, wrinkled back.
Wonderful commentary. It's too bad that more people don't think this way rather than reveling in the abandonment of proper role models. Can you imagine Wooden winning a championship and doing this?
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