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 stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Air (8/10)

by Tony Medley

112 minutes.

R.

A story about Michael Jordan without Michael Jordan. No, this is the story of how Nike was all in to get Michael Jordan as their shoe man before he played a professional game.

In 1984 when Michael was drafted, Nike was an also ran in the shoe business that was dominated by Adidas and Converse. Nike was “who are they?” They needed something to get them in the game.

According to this film, Nike’s basketball expert, Sonny Vacccaro (Matt Damon) was obsessed with getting Jordan to sign on with Nike, and he gambled everything on this one roll of the dice on a college player who had not played a game in the NBA.

But Nike was like Silky Sullivan, the race horse that always started 69 lengths behind in six furlong races. Like Silky, this is a film about how they came from 69 lengths back and won the race.

Dubious was Nike CEO and Founder, Phil Knight (director Ben Affleck, in a surprising interpretation I wouldn’t think that Knight would appreciate). They were competing against Adidas and Converse and had to sell Jordan’s mother Deloris (Viola Davis).

In addition to the competing sneaker companies, Sonny also had to deal with Jordan’s agent David Falk (Chris Messina). The scenes between Sonny and Falk are the weakest part of the film with dialogue (Alex Convery) that sounds so spurious it made me squirm. Maybe competitors in the business side of show business really do speak like this with all these oh-so-clever put downs, but this sounds ultra-unprofessional.

Still, the tension is good. Affleck ran things by Jordan and the two things that Jordan insisted upon was that his mother got credit for all she did and be played by someone who would do her well, and that former coach George Raveling got credit for what he did. Affleck came through. Viola Davis portrays Deloris as a strong woman who could face up to anyone, and Raveling gets his credit.

It’s got a fine cast. But this is an homage to Vaccaro who was a man for all seasons as he saw the future and fought for it. Damon gives an award-quality performance.