Roundtable: Coaching Greats Talk Basketball

With more than 2,700 coaching victories among them, John Thompson, Jim Phelan and Morgan Wootten are three of the foremost names in the basketball coaching profession. The three gathered earlier in the season at The Washington Post to share their thoughts on the game in a discussion moderated by regular Post contributor John Feinstein. What follows are some highlights of that conversation.

John Feinstein: The easiest opening question, just to get his rolling, would be: Other than money, which is obvious, what is the biggest change you've seen in the game since you guys coached and John, in your case played in the late '50s early '60s, in the last 45-50 years?

John Thompson: The one thing that I think is most obvious is the coverage, the exposure of the game. When we started out, it was really more regional. But everything is national now, because of the Internet, because of the extensive coverage that is given by so many different people. Then it lends itself to a national perspective, rather than a local perspective.

When Morgan was coaching and when I was coaching high school, most of the time you went away, you played in the tournament, that would be the national outlet. Now a high school can play in Washington and have an exceptional player, it goes across on the Internet, and it's a whole different perspective.

Feinstein: And you think, because of the exposure, the pressures begin on the kids much earlier?

Thompson: There's no question. It makes it more flavorful for other people to get involved. Morgan might have been working with his kids lonely in the night or in the morning, doing it because of the reasons he wanted to do it. But now these guys that get involved now don't care one bit. They know they can get national attention by getting involved with a star player. It creates an interest other than any form of educational interest in the kid because of the national perspective that's involved.

Jim Phelan: I think that a couple things go along with what John said. Parental involvement, and involvement of outsiders, with coaches has certainly increased in great numbers. They're there all the time. They want to know what you're doing. They want to sit in on the practices.

And as far as the players themselves are concerned, I'm looking at it going back to [Thompson's] days and even beating [Wootten] to the coaching ranks the size and speed of the players. The talent hasn't changed a great deal. They're more talented but they're bigger and faster, and I attribute that to diet and weight training and certainly much greater interest nationally.

Certainly the speed of the coverage. I remember, as a player, having to wait until Monday to get West Coast scores, and now you can watch the West Coast games. I remember I used to wonder, "Who is this guy, Bill Russell, out on the West Coast?" Now it's instantaneous. You know about Bill Russell. you know about every high school player that's out there. You know about everything that's going on.

Morgan Wootten: I remember when Bill Rinehart came back and they'd lost a Christmas tournament and GW was really good. And he said, "Wait till you see this guy Bill Russell."

I think John is right on the money. The game has become so international, and we know about it instantly. I think the bad elements have crept in that John was referring to: less control of the players, more people in there trying to use the kid to enhance their own ability, whatever that might be.

Feinstein: Where did those elements start to creep in?