Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their their stories in their own words. This is the book that UCLA Athletic Director J.D. Morgan tried to ban.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information.

Grown Ups (1/10)

by Tony Medley

Run time 1:38

Not for children.

Some people just aren’t very funny. Six of them, actors Adam Sandler, Kevin James, David Spade, and Rob Schneider, director Dennis Dugan (who makes a cameo appearance as a referee), and writer Fred Wolf (along with Sandler) display their lack of humor in this interminable debacle about a Catholic Grammar School basketball champion team that gets together 30 years later for their coach’s funeral.

Chris Rock has been in some horrible movies, but his innate humor eventually came through somewhat. In this, he only made me smile once. It takes a humongous dearth of talent on the part of Dugan, Sandler, and Wolf to make Rock unhumorous.

Dugan’s part in this is not surprising, since his previous credits include the horrific You Don’t Mess With the Zohan and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, both of which starred Sandler, and the latter included James. I liked Dugan as an actor when he appeared in a guest role on The Rockford Files, which was later spun off into his own series, Richie Brockelman, Private Eye. But my opinion hasn’t carried over since he started trying to direct comedic motion pictures.

This film is a complete and utter waste of time. It pictures five guys with no chemistry who try to act like they are lifelong friends. In fact, they haven’t seen one another for thirty years, and it shows, although that’s not intentional. The private jokes among them all fall flat. Except for the one smile Rock elicited, there is nothing funny in this movie. It is an exercise in ineptitude.

Let’s face it, none of these guys are actors; they are standup comedians. It takes talent to create onscreen chemistry, and that’s a level of talent that is beyond their ken.

The film wastes a couple of beautiful women, Salma Hayek and Maria Bello, as the wives of Sandler and James, respectively, but the guys can’t create any chemistry there, either.

There are lots of easy-to-anticipate tasteless jokes, most at the expense of Schneider’s elderly wife, Joyce Van Patten.

Enough! I’ve wasted enough time on this.