Award Ceremony Rings Hollow Without Wooden

I went to the John R. Wooden Award ceremony at the Los Angeles Athletic Club on Saturday to see what it’d be like without John R. Wooden, who announced earlier he would be boycotting the event.

The LAAC had irritated the Wooden family when it hassled another organization that had the coach’s permission to use his name, and instead of telling the 95-year-old icon, “Whatever you want, Big Guy,” LAAC officials continued to haggle -- forcing Wooden to pull his support for the award named in his honor.

And some people think the Dodgers have a monopoly on bonehead moves.

When I arrived Saturday at the LAAC, I was told to go to the sixth floor and found a large empty room -- just what I’d expect to find once everyone learned Wooden wouldn’t be in attendance.

Matt Kovacs, a PR guy, said the TV ceremony to present the award was taking place on the third floor, which didn’t explain why I was sent to the sixth floor, although I would have understood had this been a Dodger event.

Kovacs said the TV show, which was going to be shown to everyone in the nation, was off limits. I guess they were afraid I was going to hold up a sign for the cameras: “Where’s Coach?” or “I’d rather be a member of the Jonathan Club.”

He said the TV ceremony was just for club members and sponsors, and here I thought they were having the ceremony just for college’s best basketball players.

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I WENT to the third floor, of course, and the show had started and I noticed they had put up ropes to keep the TV audience from leaving once they learned Wooden wanted no part of the ceremony.

The ceremony had a mortuary feel to it, CBS’ Gus Johnson talking reverentially to somber club members like a minister in front of a closed casket. The closest thing I can compare it to is going to a USC basketball game.

After a commercial break, Johnson told a national TV audience that Wooden had been released from the hospital, and then looked into the camera and said, “Coach, hope you’re feeling better as you watch today’s show.”

That’s when I left, and called Coach -- even at the risk of interrupting him as he watched the show. I got his answering machine, the sound from the TV obviously too loud for him to hear the ringing telephone.

At some point a coach from Syracuse handed the Wooden Award to a young man from Duke, everyone applauded, and the LAAC had made it through the TV show seemingly unscathed.

Coaches and players were made available to the media, and most of them said the right things: “It’s too bad there’s a problem, I hope it gets worked out,” with only Gonzaga Coach Mark Few having no idea about Wooden’s boycott or how UCLA beat his team.

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I ASKED Steven Hathaway, president of the LAAC, what possessed him to mess with Wooden, and he said, “My mother just loves your column. She’s been following Nathaniel from the beginning.”

“That’s great,” I said, “but what the hell are you talking about?”

“The cello,” he said, and I thought the snob was trying to make fun of the way I said, “the hell ... “ until I realized he was talking about a cello and had mistaken me for one of our much older, but better-paid, columnists, Steve Lopez.

“I’m sure your mother hates what I do, or will,” I said, and frankly I can’t imagine her liking her son much after going out of his way to irritate Wooden.

The family, through an agent, has asked to take control of the Wooden Award, so why not give it to them and avoid the nasty publicity?

“We’ve been working for 30 years, putting in a lot of blood, sweat and money to nurture this and make it into the event it is today,” Hathaway said, an event that no longer has the attention of the man it honors.

He said there’s no financial motivation to keep the event because the LAAC breaks even on it, but the club’s recruiting brochure includes a full-page picture of Wooden and the telling headline: “At our prestigious club you belong.” For next year’s membership drive, maybe they can ask Jack Haley to pose for that page.

Hathaway mentioned something about a trademark, and protecting that trademark, and he lost me. For the last few days, I’ve talked to agents, lawyers and PR guys from both sides, and each one offered a persuasive argument about how they’ve done nothing wrong.

But when Saturday arrived, there was no sign of Wooden or the suggestion the dispute had been resolved, thereby making them all wrong.

The LAAC initiated the problem -- that much is clear -- paving the way for the agents, who now represent the Wooden family, to take advantage of the negative publicity and possibly gain control of the event.

The LAAC had quibbled with another organization that wanted to honor athletes for their citizenship using Wooden’s name. For some reason Wooden thought he should control how his name is used.

That’s why Wooden told The Times in August, “I have decided to end my association with the Los Angeles Athletic Club....I must withdraw my support for this award and will no longer have any personal involvement with it because of disagreements with the club over the use of my name.”

At our prestigious club, the LAAC can now boast, you will never see Coach Wooden.

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I PAID $170 to attend the John R. Wooden Award banquet at the Omni Hotel later in the day so I could see what the banquet would be like without John R. Wooden. I asked Kovacs, the PR guy, what time the banquet started and he said I should get there by 7.

“I thought there was something scheduled earlier,” I said.

“You don’t need to be there until 7,” he repeated. “It starts at 7.”

Just before I left the LAAC on Saturday afternoon, I learned from someone else the banquet would be ending at 7.

You’ve got to give the folks at the LAAC credit for at least trying.