That's what Steve Alford gets for going to a school that had a coach to which all others will be compared -- and fall short of.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar went on XM Sirius Radio and expressed his frustration with the UCLA basketball program, of which Abdul-Jabbar is an alum, CBS Sports reported.
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This, despite the fact that Alford, UCLA's third-year coach, led the Bruins to back-to-back Sweet Sixteen appearances in his first two seasons for the first time since 2007-09, when the team went to three straight Final Fours.
"It was real ugly, man," Abdul-Jabbar said. "You know, I have to say that. I watched them in the playoffs. You know, they don't even know how to run the fast break. I'm not trying to sit on the sidelines and throw stones at coach Alford. He has a tough job. But people used to learn how to play the game at UCLA, and I don't think that's happening now. I think that's a real disappointment to those of us who are a part of the tradition."
Welcome to Westwood, Calif., where legendary coach John Wooden -- mentor to the former Lew Alcindor -- won 10 championships in 12 years from 1964-75.
"Alford has taken UCLA to back-to-back Sweet 16s in his first two seasons and has four Rivals top 50 recruits committed in the next two classes, yet an influential former player publicly declares him 'a real disappointment?'" Yahoo Sports asks. "That's the sort of thing that surely would give an Archie Miller (Dayton) or Tony Bennett (Virginia) reason to hesitate should the UCLA job someday come open again."
A question arose as to why Abdul-Jabbar would air his frustrations on the eve of a new season.
"Why bring this up now when the program you purport to love actually has momentum in a way that it hasn't for a while?" CBS Sports asks. "Is it sour grapes because he wasn't considered for the job in 2013 when he said publicly he was interested? Because, like it or not, Abdul-Jabbar's words carry an awful lot of weight within the UCLA community. And being the extremely intelligent individual that he is, he knows that. Why risk fracturing a fanbase when it could be coming together based on the fact that you played for arguably the best coach in the history of college basketball?"
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