"What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player."

This  quotes means that it doesn't matter if  you're a good basketball player what matters is the way you are as a person. So if you think that being a good player is better than being a great person you're wrong.  John Wooden is known as a legend in basketball and this quote comes from him so this tells us that he was a C.T.R person. Being a C.T.R person is way better than being a great basketball player because what matters are you're characteristics not your skills.