Someone sent in a question about how college coaches fare in the NBA. In his response, FOXSports' Charley  "I flunked the class on libel and slander, and that's why I'm fun to read" Rosen let loose with this:

In truth, during Wooden's tenure the UCLA basketball program was never on the up-and-up. According to the personal testimony of one Bruin All-American who went on to have a long NBA career, Wooden's players were given oodles of money and free cars, and, if they so desired, a pass that excused them from attending all of their classes. All they had to do was approach Sam Gilbert, the program's bag man. And like Pontius Pilate, Wooden's hands were ostensibly clean. Also, Wooden was too inflexible in his basketball strategies to succeed in the NBA. Plus, he was never very popular among his peers — according to Tex Winter, this was because Wooden refused to dispense any favors that couldn't be returned twofold. And what about Wooden's not-so-secret habit of viciously cursing opposing players during the course of ball games? So forget about his pious public persona, seasoned NBA players would easily have seen through and disrespected him. The result would have been ugly.

Coach K is another mean-spirited, over-the-top authoritarian and intolerant type of guy, who's been canonized in the media. Sure, he'll do fine with Team USA, but over a long, grueling NBA season, his players would quickly turn against him.

That leaves Dean Smith, whose basketball expertise, humility, resourcefulness, and ability to communicate honestly with his players would have made him a superb NBA coach.

Before we all get crazy saying "how dare he make such accusations about the Wizard of Westwood," I'll just say that I have no idea if it's true or not, but I wish I knew just one story about a top college program where this kind of stuff never happened.

Thanks to Scotty for the heads up.

UPDATE: Juicy bit of gossip: I just heard a rumor that apparently a book has been written all about Sam Gilbert and his doings at UCLA, but there is an agreement that it will not be published until John Wooden dies. Time will tell if that proves to be true (although it could be a lot of time..that Coach Wooden clearly knows a thing or two about aging, and no matter what the truth is here, I like to see those feisty guys hang on for as long as they want).