Explore the wonderful quotes under this tag
Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart.
Oct 1, 2025
We're shooting 100 percent - 60 percent from the field and 40 percent from the free-throw line.
Champions never complain, they are too busy getting better
College coaches measure success in championships. High School coaches measure success to titles. Youth coaches measure success in smiles.
My mom always tells me that... Nobody is going to remember you for the great basketball player you are but they will remember you for the character you have off the court and how many lives you're changed.
Great players never look in the mirror and think I'm a great basketball player. You ask yourself, Am I the best player I can be?
Michael Jordan didn’t become a great basketball player because he wanted to do product endorsements. Van Gogh didn’t become a great painter because he dreamed that one day his paintings would sell for $50 million.
I never thought a role model should be negative.
It doesn't matter who scores the points, it's who can get the ball to the scorer.
Great players and great teams want to be driven. They want to be pushed to the edge. They don't want to be cheated. Ordinary players and average teams want it to be easy
It's not how big you are, it's how big you play.
Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.
They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds.
Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.
Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you.
A person really doesn't become whole, until he becomes a part of something that's bigger than himself.
I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot... when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result.
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
You don't have to be best friends as basketball players but I do believe in chemistry. I think it makes everything different if a team is really together and they're all on that same page. They might not like each other, per se, but if you're on the same page and the chemistry is there, you can play great basketball. You can go back to teams like Detroit, the Bad Boys. Those guys had great chemistry, that's why they won.
There's a great quote by Julius Irving that went, 'Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them.'
I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing.
In all the research you do as a coach, studying other coaches and championship-type situations, you find that all those teams combined talent with great defense. You've got to stop other teams to win.
A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.
Basketball doesn't build character it reveals it.
The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy.
Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.
Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.
To do the right thing at the right season is a great art.
What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.
If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.
The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.
If you make every game a life and death proposition, you're going to have problems. For one thing, you'll be dead a lot.
When I was young, I never wanted to leave the court until I got things exactly correct. My dream was to become a pro.
It's going to be crazy. All eight teams here are good teams. Hopefully the atmosphere will be great because it's going to be great basketball.
What distinguishes a great player is his presence. When he goes on to the court, his presence dominates the atmosphere.
Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers.
The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.
It is foolish to expect a young man to follow your advice and to ignore your example.
Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.
Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.
To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don't isolate.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.
I have learned that peace is not the absence of trial, trouble, or torment but the presence of calm in the midst of them
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.