LOS ANGELES — Former UCLA basketball coach and Hall of Famer John Wooden is in “grave” condition at the UCLA Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday night.
Former UCLA star Bill Walton confirmed the report and said he had visited the 99-year- old Wooden at the hospital two days ago.
Walton, speaking at the NBA Finals, declined to comment on Wooden’s condition.
“He’s the greatest,” Walton said, his voice catching. “We love him.”
The Times cited an anonymous school source who said Wooden’s health has been an issue in recent weeks and that he was briefly hospitalized about a month ago.
UCLA spokesman Marc Dellins said he spoke to a Wooden family member Thursday evening and that the family asked that no other information about Wooden be released.
UCLA Medical Center spokeswoman Roxanne Moster said she couldn’t confirm whether Wooden was there or not because it would be a “violation of medical privacy laws.”
Wooden led the Bruins to 10 NCAA championships — at one time winning seven in a row — during a 27-year run that ended with his team cutting down the nets one last time in 1975.
The Bruins won 88 consecutive games from 1971-74 and 38 consecutive NCAA Tournament games from 1964-74, both records.
NBA commissioner David Stern was asked about Wooden’s contributions to the sport of basketball before Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics on Thursday night.
“We decided that we would not declare his obituary now, other than to say that he’s the winningest coach in our history, four 30-0 seasons, and the ultimate aficionado of our game,” Stern said. “We hope he’s in peace right now, and we’ll wait on events.”
