UCLA Dynasty, The

---

Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »

---

There is perhaps no greater continuous streak of success in college basketball than the UCLA Bruins under coach John Wooden. During his tenure at the University of California at Los Angeles, Wooden teams won an unparalleled 10 national championships, went undefeated four times and had a winning percentage of .811 (.806 if you include Wooden´s two seasons as coach at Indiana State). "The UCLA Dynasty" focuses on 1964-1975 when the bulk of these accomplishments took place.

One would think that amount of success would go to a person´s head, especially the architect of the team. Not so with Wooden in the recent interviews intermixed with archival footage. He is perhaps the most down the earth person who has ever met with wild success. There is no gloating, no chest thumping, no self congratulations over what each squad achieved. Sure, he displays a certain sense of pride in the accomplishments, though never approaches the grandstanding he has every right to.

The same can´t be said for a certain player of his. Very late in the hour long doc, when center Bill Walton reminisces on his college experience, he says is it full of embarrassment, regret and disappointment. Say what? Two national championships, two back-to-back undefeated seasons and an 88-game win streak. And that´s disappointing? It is entirely possible Walton is mugging for the camera, something he has done with annoying regularity during his current job as NBA analyst. With this sole exception, every single person interviewed here, from reporters to former players and opponents, speak in awe-struck terms.

Which is deserved, let´s be honest. No team in sports history has had as much success with a constantly rotating cast of players as UCLA. Not the Michael Jordan-led Bulls, not Tom Brady´s Patriots. Not a Wayne Gretzky team. Certainly no Yankee team. And to think of the era in which this all happened: the middle of the civil rights movement, the time of hippies and free love and mind expanding drugs. To be perfectly honest, if we´re going to celebrate the various squads and what they did on the court, what happened off the court must be mentioned as well.

And it is, albeit briefly. Walton was arrested during a demonstration. A former booster was accused of illegally helping players. But those events are given short screen time in favor of what turns out to be a love fest for the school. In essence, with a cut or a snip, this could be a recruiting video for potential ball players. Executive producers Rick Bernstein and Ross Greenburg, not to mention editor George Roy, try to make it a well balanced accounting of the basketball program between 1964 and 1975, yet gloss over Walton´s arrest and make short mention of the booster scandal. The rest is self congratulatory. If a documentary is supposed to be impartial and unbiased, every aspect needs to have the proper amount of time devoted to it. If that doesn´t happen, something like "The UCLA Dynasty" is produced.

Even more shocking are some of the people not interviewed. I was sure HBO Sports mainstays Bob Costas and Bryant Gumbel would appear at some point to speak about the teams. Nope. The biggest disappointment? The player formerly known as Lewis Alcindor (aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) is nowhere to be seen. Why? He´s one of the most recognizable faces from the UCLA glory days (outside of Walton) and I find it hard to believe he wasn´t willing to participate, even for a quick sit down interview. Other players chat about their experiences-some of which even mention Alcindor, though not the name everyone knows him by-but something is lost when a star isn´t included. Could a doc about the Chicago Bulls be complete without contributions from Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman? How about everyone but Tim Duncan being interviewed for a retrospective on the San Antonio Spurs? Unless Abdul-Jabbar declined to participate, there´s no good reason for him to be on the sidelines.

---

---