UCLA’s Marques Johnson recalls winning first Wooden Award

Nearly a half century later, Marques Johnson remembered becoming the first player to win the award named after his legendary coach.

The star UCLA forward arrived at the L.A. Athletic Club accompanied by that coach, John Wooden, as well as his mother and father.

“We were all doodied up in our tuxedos,” Johnson told The California Post of that day in 1977, “and my afro was like nice and shiny and not a hair out of place.”

On the 50th anniversary of the award, Johnson was back in the same spot, presenting the John R. Wooden Award and seeing the same wide-eyed amazement in the players following in his footsteps.

“Just a special memory of life at 21 years old, when there was so much life to be lived ahead of me and so many turns and twists and up and down and good and bad,” Johnson said before the ceremony Friday.

“But it’s just a special memory to be back here at the L.A. Athletic Club and to see these guys be in the same position — just the optimism of life, the exuberance of youth in their face right now.”

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This was the first time Johnson had appeared to give out the award since he did so when Kevin Durant won it in 2007. Now a Bucks broadcaster, Johnson called a game involving Durant a few weeks ago. The Rockets superstar came over to give him a big hug.

“He’s just like, ‘Legend,’ ” said Johnson, a former five-time NBA All-Star. “I said, ‘You remember, I gave your Wooden [Award]’ and he goes, ‘Come on, man, I know who you are.’ So we’ve got that kind of affinity and brotherhood, so that makes it even more special.”

Johnson, who was once featured on a poster inside Michael Jordan’s dorm room at North Carolina, isn’t done creating viral moments.

On his 70th birthday in February, he threw down a dunk that his son, Josiah, recorded and posted online.

“It’s never a given,” Johnson said of the birthday tradition. “I always tell [Josiah], from the time I was about 64, 65, like, ‘This is it, man, I’m not doing it next year.’ ”

After a handful of attempts, it appeared as if Johnson might really be done this time.

“After the first four or five times of getting hung, as we call it — jamming the ball on the rim and not being able to get it over,” Johnson said, “it’s like, ‘Man, I may be done.’ ”

With encouragement from his son, Johnson finally got the ball over the rim, another affirmation of his six-day-a-week workout routine keeping him in top shape.

A member of Wooden’s final championship team in 1975, Johnson celebrated another title last week when the UCLA women won it all by beating South Carolina in Phoenix.

Johnson was calling a game at the time, planning to watch the Bruins later, before receiving updates.

“Somebody told me, ‘You guys are up by 20 or 25 points in the fourth quarter’ and I was like, ‘Wow,’ ” Johnson said. “But to see Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez and that whole crew put it together the way they did against frickin’ Dawn Staley’s South Carolina, oh, man, it was outstanding.

“It was reminiscent of some of the Walton Gang blowouts back in the day, so it was fun to watch in that respect.”

Among the things that have stuck with Johnson so many years after winning the award named for his coach was the kindness that coach always bestowed upon him.

“I was a bit of a hell-raiser in college, a couple of things happened and whatnot,” Johnson said, “but he always made a point of talking about character and this and that and coming from a good family, that’s the key. You know, we’re all going to make mistakes, do things that we regret, but at the same time, the main thing is to learn from them, keep moving forward and not do them again.”