Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

Process over results is an overarching theme in Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court. Another way to describe this idea might be “preparation over results,” or “journey over destination.” In other words, the preparation to play basketball games rather than the actual games was most important to the author—and most satisfying. In Part 2, Wooden refers to Cervantes, the 17th-century Spanish writer who, in Don Quixote, wrote that “the journey is better that the inn” (53); Wooden compares preparation (or practice and training) to the journey, while awards are analogous to the inn. In The next passage, “A Successful Journey is the Destination,” expounds further on this idea, saying that any achievement is just a by-product of the effort and thinking you did to get there, adding that “the preparation is where success is truly found” (53).

In two passages at the end of Part 2, Wooden reinforces this theme. He argues that “the ‘final score’ is not the final score. [His] final score is how prepared you were to execute near your own particular level of competence, both individually and as a team” (106); he is referring to his philosophy that one is not a “loser” if they gave maximum effort, just like one cannot be considered a winner if they did not give maximum effort.