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Elements of Friendship

  • Edwin Castaneda
  • Aug 23, 2024
  • 2 min read

The late John Wooden of famed UCLA basketball was a practitioner of building the character of his players as human beings, rather than producing just robotic athletes that just exists to winning. Here is a quote that surmises his philosophy:


“The two qualities of friendship so important for a leader to possess and instill in team members are respect and camaraderie.”


It is interesting that John Wooden culled down his definition of friendship to these two elements of respect and camaraderie.


Definition of respect is acknowledging any differences between each other and not forcing your views or your truths upon each other. Allowing the opportunity to dialog and learn from each other and discover the truth and or realize goals together.


Camaraderie can be describes as the shared experience of working together in discovering truths or achieving goals. It creates a bond of friendship, respect and points to build up a relationship that might span the years.


The collision of people and their differences can happen in sports at an early age of our lives. We come together under the guise of competition to achieve a common goal. Our differences are put to the side for the overall focus of winning. However, through all the sessions of training, practicing, building and competing together the fruits become those two elements of respect and camaraderie.


Oh yeah, don’t get it twisted in thinking that Wooden’s ideals were empty in the context of winning. He lead his teams in winning 620 games in 27 seasons and 10 NCCA titles. But what stands out in my mind about Wooden was the players that had relationships with Coach Wooden decades past their times as student athletes at UCLA. They considered him more than a coach, rather a friend.


As the 2024 Olympics becomes a memory, I wonder if the fruits of competition produced both respect and camaraderie, which would eventually produce friendship with the athletes of the countries that would span distances, differences and culture? Only time will tell.



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