Motivate Your Team! Cheer Up A Friend! Inspire Yourself!
Motivate Your Team! Cheer Up A Friend! Inspire Yourself!
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| Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13 | Issue 762 |
| Craig Impelman Speaking | Championship Coaches | Champion's Leadership Library Login | |
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BOB LOVE: "HE COULDN’T TALK – HE COULDN’T WALK – HE DIDN’T QUIT" (TONY FULLER) In John Wooden's Pyramid of Success there is a critical block (personal character trait) that he believed was necessary to achieve your full potential: 'Intentness" (being determined and persistent). Here is another amazing and inspirational story from our author Tony Fuller about all time NBA great Bob Love who demonstrates "Intentness" over and over again over the course of his lifetime:
"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." — Nelson Mandela
When I think back to meeting Bob Love in a Seattle food court, it warms my heart to realize I was witnessing the beginning of his life’s greatest victory.
I was an assistant coach at UCLA when I first encountered Bob Love in November of 1989.
Right before our shootaround in Seattle, Head Coach Jim Harrick, myself, and a few members of our staff took a walk downtown. We ended up in the food court at Nordstrom, where we noticed a very tall, well-groomed, middle-aged gentleman wearing plastic gloves, a white apron, and a white soda jerk cap. He was pulling a large trash can, emptying garbage, and wiping down tables.
Someone quietly said, "He looks like Bob Love." As he got closer, we realized it was Bob Love.
(My immediate thought was that Bob “ butterbean" Love probably owns/manages or is the CEO of this entire place, and some janitor is late, or called in sick, and Bob is cleaning this area because he's an executive that isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves to do what needs to be done.) We stood up, introduced ourselves, and told him how much we had admired and respected him during his playing days.One of us asked, "What are you up to these days, Bob? Do you miss playing?"
Expecting to hear something profound, happy, and positive…
We heard absolutely NOTHING! Zilch! Not a word!
For the next 30 to 40 seconds Bob tried to speak, but nothing came out of his mouth. He mumbled, he stuttered, he struggled, he grunted, but no words came through. He finally closed his eyes, took a deep breath, gathered himself, gave us a smile and a wave, and slowly walked away to resume working.
Nineteen years later, ESPN’s award-winning documentary Black Magic gave me the answer.
Bob Love had an extreme speech impediment and could not talk.
One of fourteen children, the son of a sharecropper, Bob grew up in the cotton fields of Louisiana. His first basketball hoop was made from a wire clothes hanger. His first basketball was a pair of socks.
In grammar school, Bob was terrified of being called on. He would sit behind another student, duck his head down and try to make himself invisible. The painful part was that he often knew the answers. But he never raised his hand because if he were called on, he might not be able to get the words out.
When he graduated from high school, the Air Force Academy gave the students an admissions test. Only three passed: the valedictorian, the salutatorian—and Robert Earl Love.
Bob went home excited and told his grandmother, who had raised him. She told him he couldn’t go to the Academy because he couldn’t talk. She was afraid that if he were flying an airplane and something went wrong, he wouldn’t be able to tell the other person what was happening—and somebody could die.
Basketball became his friend. He became so good that he earned a scholarship to college, got drafted into the NBA by the Cincinnati Royals, and graduated from Southern U, in 1965, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Food and Nutrition.
Bob experienced many incredible highs and depressing lows after leaving College.
He was cut in training camp as a rookie by the Royals but was named Rookie of the Year in the Eastern League. He played a reserve role for the Royals during his second and third seasons as a professional but was left unprotected and claimed by the Bucks in the expansion draft of 1968.
The Bucks wanted to cut him just 14 games into the 1968 - 69 season after he had led the team in scoring during that exhibition season.
Bob and the Bucks both knew he could play, but the Bucks told him, "You can’t help us if you can’t talk."
Bob pleaded for them to see if he could be traded instead of being cut and the Bucks were able to work out a trade with the Chicago Bulls. The Chicago Bulls got Bob Love, and he blossomed, becoming an NBA All – Star, whose number would be retired, while leading them in scoring seven straight years.
He would later muse to himself: "I wonder if the Bucks got anybody who could talk the ball into the basket?"
After games, reporters would ask him questions, but he could not talk. He would put his head down and try to avoid the questions. His teammate Norm Van Lier understood and would jump in: "I’ll take that question."
The media didn’t understand. They thought Bob was withdrawn, arrogant or had a bad attitude.
Then everything unraveled.
A serious back injury ended his career. He found himself out of the league, unable to walk because of his back and unable to gain employment because he could not speak.
He applied for job after job. Employers would be excited to meet the famous Bob Love. Then he would arrive for the interview and couldn’t talk. They said "Don’t call us. We’ll call you." Nobody called.
One day he entered his home and found everything gone, including his wife. All that remained was a note: "I can no longer be with a man that can’t walk or talk."
Down but not totally out, his back slowly recovered. John Nordstrom recognized him and gave him a chance.
So, Bob Love, the former NBA All-Star and one of the greatest players in Chicago Bulls history, went to work clearing tables at the Nordstrom food court, where I met him, for $4.45 an hour.
At forty-seven years of age, injuries had taken his career, poverty had taken his comfort, and stuttering had taken his confidence. Yet Bob pledged to be the best busboy and dishwasher they had ever seen. John Nordstrom noticed his work ethic and offered to pay for a speech program. Bob found help and learned to speak.
Nordstrom promoted him to corporate spokesperson. He became an executive and manager of health and sanitation for the company’s national restaurant chain. His new ability to speak and his Bachelor of Science degree in Food and Nutrition from Southern qualified him for the position.
In 1992, his beloved Chicago Bulls hired him as Director of Community Affairs. He maintained his status as a passionate community ambassador, goodwill representative, and motivational speaker for the franchise continuously for 32 years, until he passed away from cancer at age 81 on November 18, 2024.
The man who once hid behind other students because he was terrified of being called on, who couldn’t answer questions from the press, and who couldn’t get through a job interview
The man who had been unable to speak in school, spoke to and improved the lives of thousands of teenagers with his words and example.
Blessings,
Coach Fuller If you would like to learn more about Bob Love and his remarkable story, I highly recommend ESPN’s award-winning documentary series, Black Magic. The link below takes you to the complete 21-part series. Bob Love appears throughout the documentary, but the sections that focus most heavily on his story—and are the most informative and impactful—are Part 1, Episode 7, and Part 2, Episodes C, D, H, I and J. Get Inspired: Black Magic HBCU Basketball
Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman
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August 11, 1846 In another letter to the Illinois Gazette, President Lincoln, who was running for Congress at the time, answered an attack from a Democratic opponent. There is . . . one lesson in morals which he might, not without profit, learn of even me—and that is, never to add the weight of his character to a charge against his fellow man, without knowing it to be true. I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him. This maxim ought to be particularly held in view, when we contemplate an attack upon the reputation of our neighbor. Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
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