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.

The Dilemma (1/10)

by Tony Medley

Run time 112 minutes

Not for children.

This review contains spoilers. I deplored the morality and inconsistencies and sexism of it so much that I can’t write a review without going into what happens in more detail than I usually do. So if you want to go see this despicable film, you should probably not read this review.

This is no comedy. It deals with a serious issue of problems in a marriage, but it does so in such an ignorant, clumsy, sophomoric way with a sexist point of view that it loses any value, either morally or in terms of entertainment.

In this film, directed by Ron Howard and written by Alan Loeb, the main point is that it’s OK for a husband to withdraw sex and philander, but woe betide his wife who loves him but is driven into the arms of another man by his actions.

Ronny Valentine (Vince Vaughn) learns that Geneva (Winona Ryder), the wife of his best friend, Nick Brannen (Kevin James) is having a clandestine affair. In his mind, this presents him with the titular “dilemma,” to tell or not to tell. Ronny rants and raves and goes through impossible machinations (few of which are funny) to try to decide whether or not to tell his friend.

To make the film even worse, Geneva actually explains to Ronny that she loves Nick, but her infidelity with Zip (Channing Tatum) was caused by Nick’s withdrawal of sex from her and getting it with prostitutes, a certainly rational, if not moral, explanation for her actions. Maybe it doesn’t justify what she did, but it explains that the problem isn’t as simple as it appeared on the surface, and her explanation should have been enough to convince anybody dense enough to consider telling on her, to stay out of it. But he perseveres.

Even more of an anomaly is the way Ronny’s girlfriend, Beth (Jennifer Connolly), sticks with Ronny. Ronny lies to Beth every chance he gets.  He even ruins her parents’ 40^th wedding anniversary with a completely idiotic toast, implying that her parents cheated on each other.

It’s unlikely that Howard is so obtuse he doesn’t realize the dichotomy he’s created with Ronny as a man who hypocritically considers himself so honest he feels required to tell his friend of Geneva’s infidelity, but lies habitually to his girlfriend. So his creation of Beth’s unquestioned love for him despite this, and his painting Geneva as the sole person at fault in her relationship with Nick has to be intentional. This is nothing if not sexist.

The ending is disgraceful. Frankly, I’m surprised Howard could get any thinking actress to participate in a film with such a deplorable tone about women.