If imitation truly is the highest form of flattery, then Lakers Basketball Consultant Tex Winter certainly must be the subject of much blandiloquence. As the innovator of basketball's Triangle Offense, Winter has changed the way thousands of coaches see the game as they utilize his system for their own success.

"I'm pleased to see the Triangle have the impact it's had over the years," Winter explained to HOOPSWORLD. "Not only with clubs I've been associated with and coached, but also with other coaches that have picked it up through clinics and have been successful with it, college coaches particularly. You see an awful lot of pro teams mimicking part of the offense as well."

Among those who have implemented the system successfully are legends like Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summit and the Lakers' very own Phil Jackson, who has become an ardent supporter.

So if some of the game's greatest coaches have gotten their recognition and achieved so much by using something Winter developed, shouldn't he be considered a legend in his own right?

Although Winter believes his contribution to basketball has been important, he feels like he can't call himself a "legend" until he's enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame. "The Hall of Fame itself would be very meaningful to me and especially to my family," Winter said with no tone of bitterness or frustration. "You know – leave a legend and a legacy."

Defining what it takes to become dubbed a legend is impossible, as that term is one of those nebulous ones in the human lexicon with no how-to guide.

For Coach Winter, who remains in the game despite 62 years of experience, his record speaks for itself. "I think the Triangle has proven itself over time," he said proudly. "If nothing else, I think six championships with the Chicago Bulls and three with the Lakers speaks for itself; not that the offense was the reason, but it was certainly a factor."

Winter's Triangle Offense is a lifelong venture, as he admits that the scheme simply "evolved over the years." That journey began six decades ago, when Winter played under head coach Sam Berry at the University of Southern California during the 1940s. Winter picked up the offense Berry wanted to run quickly and began to use the spacing and movement concepts of Berry's system in his own work, eventually developing what he called the "Sideline Triangle."

But it was almost all for naught, as Winter nearly took a job as an assistant track coach at Ventura Junior College upon graduating from USC in 1947. His coach was not going to have any of that, as Winter also had a job offer as an assistant coach at Kansas State. "Sam Berry said, 'You have an opportunity here. You better take it because you have a special knack for basketball,'" Winter laughed. "So that's always been encouraging to me."

To say that Berry's assessment of Winter's basketball acumen was accurate is a tremendous understatement.

Winter devised a system in which players would "read and react" to what the defense was giving them, setting players up in correct angles that allow for a myriad of possibilities from an offensive standpoint. It all starts in the post, where a defender is forced to front on the block, opening up a potential lob and easy basket. If the defender isn't fronting, the ball will be moved around, with unexpected screens being set to free up moving shooters and calculated cuts being made to set up lay-ups.

"You have to play together as a team, as a unit, because basketball is a team game," the Coach lectured. "The Sideline Triangle teaches the team concepts."

The possibilities of plays within the Triangle are numerous but seem endless until players feel the offense the right way and the movements become natural. When that happens, it's nearly an indefensible system and the conventional thought is that it takes a few years to get to that point,

When asked if the Triangle is as difficult to teach as it is to learn, Winter explained that it wouldn't be so tough on either side if the fundamentals of team basketball were better instilled in today's players.

"It's actually not that difficult when they follow the principles of the sound offense that you outline," Winter said smiling, acknowledging his bias and that the offense is easier from his perspective because he put it together. "I think if it's taught right, if you spend time working on the skills necessary to make it function – the basic fundamental skills of basketball – you just build from there."

Winter said the Lakers' Summer League team in Las Vegas began to "fall into" the offense "pretty naturally" and they hadn't even had ten practice sessions with it. But the players are young and eager to learn, which is why Winter got into coaching.

Back in the 1950s and 60s, Winter was the head coach of the Kansas State men's basketball team, whom he turned into a machine with the crispness of his offense. He led the Wildcats to eight Big 8 Conference championships, the number 1 ranking in 1958, and two Final Fours before he was done.

He even beat Wilt Chamberlain's Kansas team.

"Basketball has been my whole life and it's really about the only thing I understand," Winter joked when asked why he loves the game so much. "I think I really do have a grasp for the game of basketball and I like to teach it. I like working with the youngsters and see them develop. I especially enjoyed my coaching career – I was a college coach for 39 years and I've been in pro ball now so long now that I think most people forget that."

Not to fault the Hall of Fame voters, many of whom may not have been alive when Winter started coaching 62 years ago, because it is easy to forget about his college coaching career before he came into the NBA. Winter thinks this is what's holding him back from the Hall, having already won the Hall's second-most coveted award for contribution to basketball, the John Bunn Award, in 1998.

"It would mean more to be inducted as a coach, if for no other reason I've coached longer than anyone in history," Winter said. "If longevity is any sign of success, I've been reasonably successful."

"Reasonably"?

Sorry, Coach, but you've clearly been tremendously successful.

Whether he'll accept it or not, Tex Winter is clearly a legend in the game of basketball, on the veritable Mount Rushmore of coaches next to John Wooden, Pete Newell, and Dean Smith. Although he needs an induction into the Hall of Fame to feel like he's left a legacy, the nine Larry O'Brien Trophies that have his fingerprints on them certainly should be enough to do so.

But if it isn't enough to have nine rings from teams he's been associated with in addition to the many, many titles out there that his offense has had a hand in, nothing ever will be enough for the 86-year old Hall of Fame hopefull.

That's fine, though – all the Chicago Bulls, Lakers, and .. well .. maybe even the Wildcats fans know how much this man has given to game of basketball.

It's just a unfortunate that the Hall has been a bit slow in giving back to Winter.

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