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The unexpected advice John Wooden gave me about feet

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How much would you pay for advice from the greatest basketball coach of all time? What if you knew that advice would primarily be about socks?

Famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden died 16 years ago at the age of 99. Wooden, also know as the “Wizard of Westwood” helmed UCLA’s team for 27 years. During one 12-year stretch, he led the Bruins to an unprecedented 10 national championships. That’s a record that nobody has ever — or will ever — surpass. He retired in 1975.

A year later, when I was 14 years old, I began playing basketball myself for Mammoth HS, a small school in ski town nestled in California’s Eastern Sierra Mountains. I had never played before. So I was in the market for coaching — extreme coaching, the kind that the Wizard of Westwood could offer.

Turns out I was in luck. Wooden was holding a basketball camp for young athletes in Southern California, and I was intent on being there. The only problem was that it came with a hefty price tag: $500 a week. In 1976, that was a lot of money. But, I figured, no sum........

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