Winning Basketball Quotes

To win, you've got to put the ball in the macramé.

You can't win unless you learn how to lose.

Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.

I like criticism. It makes you strong.

If I weren't earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.

I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win.

I play to win, whether during practice or a real game.

I have two definitions of success - one on the basketball court and one in my personal life. In basketball, success means making my teammates better, winning basketball games and winning championships. In my personal life, success means being a good father to my sons and raising them to be strong men; taking care of my family and being a good friend; and using my influence to make a difference in the community.

This is a team game and one man doesn't win and one man doesn't lose. In the end, the best team usually wins.

We win because we play together as a team.

Your program must have an overriding purpose which is clearly visible and which teaches lessons beyond winning.

Sometimes you learn more from losing than winning. Losing forces you to reexamine.

The secret of winning is working more as a team, less as individuals.

Basketball is a team game. But that doesn't mean all five players should have the same amount of shots.

I was always making decisions and they were easier decisions because I had control of the game, I had control of the ball. As a coach you sort of put the ball in other player's hands and let them make decisions for you. But I still get a kick out of winning basketball games and that's what I'm in this for.

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.

Systems win! Believe in your system, and then sell it to your players.

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.

Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.

Coaching is easy. Winning is the hard part.

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

I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.

Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.

It's not whether you win or lose - but whether I win or lose.

Whoever said, 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts,' probably lost.

Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

You can't be afraid to fail. It's the only way you succeed - you're not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.

If you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.

There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time, those players aren't willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end, their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve. One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.

I probably would have no capability of absorbing a 60-defeat season as a coach. It would be a foreign experience. My whole career, even as a player, has been on winning basketball clubs and it just seems to have been a part of the make-up of what’s been given me. That’s what I’ve been given and that’s what I’ve had to deal with. Some people can make fun of it or some people can have a good time with it, or some people can resent it. It’s just what it is.

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.