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950 Inspirational Basketball Quotes From Famous NBA Players

1. “Don’t mistake activity with achievement.”


2. “You discipline those under your supervision to correct, to help, and to improve. Not to punish” – John Wooden


3. “Chasing that farewell tour, they don’t love you like that, you thought you was Kobe?” -Draymond Green


4. “I am more than just a Serious basketball fan. I am a life-long Addict. I was addicted from birth, in fact, because I was born in Kentucky.”


5. “Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.”— Magic Johnson


6. “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.”


7. “Coaching is not what you know, but what you can get your players to do on the court” – Stan Van Gundy


8. “I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win.“ ― Michael Jordan


9. “Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.” ― Phil Jackson


10. “ha HA ha ha” - Kawhi


11. “My practices were not set up to be easy or enjoyed” – Bob Knight


12. “Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue, you will change.”


13. “You need to work as hard to be a great teammate as you do to be a great player” – Jon Gordon


14. “Be quick without hurrying” – John Wooden


15. “We communicate all the time, even when we don’t realize it. Be aware of body language” – Pat Summitt


16. “Shut up pussy” - Devin Booker


17. “We believe in people executing their role and caring about the team more than anything individually” – Gregg Popovich


18. “All series long we’ve been able to penetrate their bigs, get deep, and suck the D in.” – Jason Terry


19. “Defense doesn’t break down on the help, it breaks down on the recovery” – Chuck Daly


20. “I always wanted to be a basketball player. Nothing more, nothing less.”


21. “Those to whom defense is not important will have the best seat in the game” – RickSlide9 Majerus


22. “A team divided against itself can break down at any moment. The least bit of pressure or adversity will crack it apart” – Bill Parcells


23. “You cant win unless you learn how to lose.”


24. “To have long-term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way” – Pat Riley


25. “When you’re tired, sore, and can’t do more, that’s the time to do more” – Tim Grover


26. “Recognize and reward players who put the team first, not just the gifted ones.”


27. “Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.” ~ Mike Krzyzewski


28. “There has never been a great ‘silent’ defense” – Del Harris


29. “The highest level of achievement is attained by the teams with the best conditioned players.” – Dr. Jack Ramsay


30. “Guess he got his feelings hurt” -klay starting the 3-1 comeback for Lebron


31. “Championship teams are built on being prepared, playing unselfishly and being held accountable” – Jason Kidd


32. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan


33. “There is no 'i' in the team but there is in the win.”


34. “When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance” – Mike Krzyzewski


35. “You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar


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


37. “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team” – Kareem Abdul Jabbar


38. “All dreams are crazy. Until they come true.” – Dirk Nowitzki


39. “Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I’m doing.”


40. “Don’t confuse your path with your destination. Just because its stormy now doesn’t mean you aren’t headed for sunshine” – Mike Krzyzewski


41. “Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat.”


42. “Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar


43. “There is a direct correlation between the number of ball reversals and defensive breakdowns.” ― Kevin Eastman


44. “Shoot it you fucking midget” - michael jordan to muggsey bogues


45. “One of the biggest reasons I like coaching college ball is the kids. I feel I can impact players’ lives” – Rick Majerus


46. “I recruit hungry kids who love the game and want to get better and feel they have more questions than answers” – Bo Ryan


47. “Did that dude really just did this?” - John Starks


48. “Hard work is not punishment. Hard work is the price of admission for the opportunity to reach sustained excellence.” – Jay Bilas.


49. “Only praise behavior that you want to be repeated. Never use false praise” – Dean Smith


50. “Cleveland, this is for YOU!” - LeBron “Kid from Akron” James


51. “The”The guys who take shortcuts, who aren’t ready, they fail when their opportunity comes” ~ Tom Thibodeau


52. “Good thing in this business is that you just have to make one big shot and that’s enough to make you forget 9 other shots that you missed.”


53. “Joe be running like he running from the police.”


54. “There’s a disposition great defenders have — a genuine pride that scores are a problem, people that score on me is a problem” – Brett Brown


55. You are what you repeatedly do.” ― Shaquille O’Neal


56. “Do you think we’re gonna get in trouble for this?” – Metta


57. “I’ve never lost a game I just ran out of time.” ~ Michael Jordan


58. “So many people doubted me. They motivated me every single day to be who I am.” – Kevin Durant


59. “I've had to overcome a lot of diversity.”


60. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”


61. “Morale and attitude are the fundamentals to success.” – Bud Wilkinson


62. “A lot of people told me I couldn’t do it because of my size. I was determined to prove those people wrong.” – Ben Wallace


63. “People do not differ in their desire to win; they differ in the price they are willing to pay to win” – Alan Stein


64. “Failure does not come from losing, but from not trying” – Larry BrownLarry Brown Quotes


65. “Never give up. Failure and rejection are just the first steps to succeeding” – Jim Valvano


66. “I started playing basketball so late, it just means that anything is possible.” – Joel Embiid


67. “The basic premise of my system is to fatigue your opponents with constant pressure defensively and constant movement offensively” – Rick Pitino


68. “You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one” – John Wooden


69. “If you don’t feel you have something to prove every day, you’ll never improve” – Billy Donovan


70. “This is basketball, not figure skating. You don’t get extra points for degree of difficulty” – Bob Hurley


71. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”


72. “All the successful teams I’ve ever seen have 3 characteristics: They play unselfish, they play together, and they play hard” – Larry Brown


73. “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.”


74. “The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move.”


75. “If you’re not talking, you’re not playing defense” – Doc Rivers


76. “Not only is there more to life than basketball, there’s a lot more to basketball than basketball.” – Phil Jackson


77. “Don’t be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed.” – Lebron James


78. “Someone created the box score, and he should be shot.”


79. “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.”


80. “Nervous means you want to play. Scared means you don’t want to play.” – Sherman Alexie


81. “You have teenagers thinking they're going to make millions as NBA stars when that's not realistic for even 1 percent of them. Becoming a scientist or engineer is.”


82. “Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.” ~ Mike Krzyzewski


83. “The day I stopped worrying about stats is the day I started winning.”


84. “Mental Toughness is doing the right thing for the team when it’s not the best thing for you.” ~ Bill Belichick


85. “As a coach, I’m never going to do anything to embarrass you. As a player, you can never do anything to embarrass the program” – Tom Crean


86. “Y’all know how we have dogs and stuff right? So I think it was bigger people in the world before us, and the dinosaurs was they pets.” – Jordan Clarkson


87. “I have a plan of action, but the game is a game of adjustments” – Mike KrzyzewskiSlide4


88. “Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.”


89. “You can have discipline and be demanding without being demeaning” – Don Meyer


90. “They said playing basketball would kill me. Well, not playing basketball was killing me.” ― Magic Johnson


91. “The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play” – Bill Russell


92. “Work as hard as you can to become as good an individual player as you can to help your team win” – Doug Collins


93. “Once you are labeled the best you want to stay up there, and you can’t do it by loafing around. If I don’t keep changing, I’m history.” – Larry Bird


94. “Your best players have to unite and inspire the group… otherwise, they’ll divide the group” – Jeff Van Gundy


95. “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability” – John Wooden


96. “Once you are labeled ‘the best’ you want to stay up there, and you can’t do it by loafing around” – Larry Bird


97. “There is no substitution for hustle, and if you don’t hustle there will be substitution” – Tex Winter


98. “You have no choices about how you lose, but you do have a choice about how you come back and prepare to win again.” – Pat Riley


99. “Today’s society wants to skip the process. And I hate that” – Tom Izzo


100. “‘Play the right way’ means play unselfishly, respect each other’s achievements, play hard, fulfill your role” – Gregg Popovich


101. “Anything can happen with hard work and dedication.”


102. “I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand Slide5you. I don’t want to understand you.”-Kobe Bryant


103. “If you don’t feel you have something to prove every day, you’ll never improve.”


104. “You need your best players to play their best when their best is needed” – Jeff van Gundy


105. “Bill Russell helped make my dream a better dream because when you play with the best, you know you have to play your best.”


106. “In the end, what your own troops do is more important than who they are marching against” – Don Meyer


107. “They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds.”


108. “I don’t know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody – somewhere – was practicing more than me” – Larry Bird


109. “Young men need more models, not critics.”


110. “Love never fails. Character never Quits. And with patience and persistence, dreams do come true” – Pete Maravich


111. “We cannot accept in victory what we would not accept in defeat” – Dick Bennett


112. “Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God’s way of saying nobody’s perfect.”


113. “I’ve got a family to feed”- Latrell Sprewell


114. “Happiness begins where selfishness ends.” ~ John Wooden


115. “Scoring 100 points is a lot, but I maybe could have scored 140 if they had played straight-up basketball.” ― Wilt Chamberlain


116. “Whether I start or come off the bench makes no difference to me. My game has always been go as hard as I can as long as I can” – John Havlicek


117. “Anything’s possibleeee” - Kevin “Big Ticket” Garnett


118. “Never underestimate the heart of a champion” – Rudy Tomjanovich


119. “Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.”


120. “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” – Jerry West


121. “I made a 1,600 minus 800 minus 200 on the SAT, so I'm very intelligent when I speak.”


122. “Working hard is one thing, but working hard with purpose is what separates the good from the great” ~ Thad Matta


123. “Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.” – John Wooden


124. “I’m a firm believer in that you play the way you practice.”


125. “If you quit ONCE it becomes a habit. Never quit!”


126. “Great effort springs naturally from a great attitude” – Pat Riley


127. “Discipline is doing what has to be done, when it has to be done, as well as it can be done, and doing it that way all the time” – Bob Knight


128. “I don’t complain about playing time. My job is to play so well that my coach can’t sit me.”


129. “Success comes after you conquer your biggest obstacles and hurdles.”


130. “As a kid, my favorite subject was recess. Why? Because I could go play basketball.” — Donovan Mitchell


131. “Shooting percentage is just as much about decision making as it is about technique” – Jeff Van Gundy


132. “Everyting negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.”


133. “The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.” ~ Bill Russell


134. “Offense is spacing and spacing is offense” – Chuck Daly


135. “Winning takes precedence overall. There’s no gray area. No almost.”


136. “But that’s the thing about basketball: you don’t play games on paper.”


137. “The greatest sin a coach can commit is to allow kids to slide by. This goes for the classroom as well as the court” – Hubie Brown


138. “If you have ability in a certain area, why not capitalize on it and improve it and use it?”


139. “I don’t really talk that much. I just watch and observe.”


140. “If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful” – Charles Barkley


141. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”


142. “The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.”


143. “Shooting percentage is just as much about decision making as it is about technique.”


144. “I always laugh when people ask me about rebounding techniques. I’ve got a technique. It’s called just go get the damn ball.”


145. “Every time you compete, try harder to improve on your last performance. Give nothing short of your very best effort” – Elgin Baylor


146. “I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them not to let that be their only dream” – Kareem Abdul Jabbar


147. “In order to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them.”


148. “Everyone has the fire, but the champions know when to ignite the spark.” – Amit Ray


149. “I’m looking for players who make their teammates better. You do that with enthusiasm and passion” – Mike Krzyzewski


150. “We talkin bout practice” -AI


151. “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.” – Larry Bird.


152. “If the only reason I coached was to win basketball games, my life would be pretty shallow” – Mike Krzyzewski


153. “The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.”


154. “Basketball is a team game. But that doesn’t mean all five players should have the same amount of shots.” – Dean Smith


155. “Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and chase them.” – Carmelo Anthony


156. “You need to be more careful, or you could hurt yourself."


157. “Stop by stop by stop. Play aggressively. Sprint back on ‘D’ and pay attention to how we’re supposed to guard as a team” – Gregg Popovich


158. “When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare” – John Wooden


159. “Some times your best effort just isn’t good enough.”


160. “Perfection is impossibility but striving for perfection is not. Do the best you can. That is what counts.” ~ John Wooden


161. “If you love the game and you love playing, just have fun and enjoy it. Work hard and don’t get bogged down by it.” – Blake Griffin


162. “I have learned that peace is not the absence of trial, trouble, or torment but the presence of calm in the midst of them” – Coach Don Meyer


163. “The better conditioned team will probably win in the long run” – John Wooden


164. “I’m playing the guys who are going to fight. If you’re not into this, I’m going to someone else” – Coach Calipari


165. “If every basketball player worked as hard as I did, I’d be out of a job.”


166. “Shout praise and whisper criticism” – Don Meyer


167. “To win the big games you must get to the free throw line, and then you must make them” – Rick Majerus


168. “The mail man don’t deliver on Sunday,” Pippen to Karl Malone before he missed a crucial free throw in Game 1 of the NBA finals


169. “If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.”


170. “Make the practices like games and the games like practices” – Don Meyer


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


172. “The day I stopped worrying about stats is the day I started winning” – Shaquille O’Neal


173. “Confidence is what happens when you’ve done the hard work that entitles you to succeed” – Pat Summitt


174. “What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.”


175. “You don’t just be a team. You become a team. Through tough games you find that you need each other” – Mike Krzyzewski


176. “It’s not just about working hard, it’s about working together. You have to care more about the team than you do about yourself.” – John Calipari


177. “Get the kids to understand that they shouldn’t worry about who makes the shot, only whether or not the shot is made” – Pete Carril


178. “Being a superstar means you’ve reached your potential, and I don’t think I’ve reached my potential as a basketball player and as a leader yet.”


179. “Everybody needs to do cocaine” - Nicholas Young


180. “Success lies in a masterful consistency around the fundamentals.” – Robin Sharma


181. “Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference.”


182. “I’m hungrier than those other guys out there. Every rebound is a personal challenge.” ~ Dennis Rodman


183. “There are only two options regarding commitment… you’re either in or you’re out. There’s no such thing as life in-between” – Pat Riley


184. “In order to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them.” ― Bob Knight


185. “I found the bench to be the greatest ally when I had to make individuals comply with what was best for the team” – John Wooden


186. “1. Be on time.


187. “The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game” – Bob Knight


188. “You create shots for yourself by what you do without the ball more than what you do after you get it” – Steve Alford


189. “Mamba out!” - Kobe Bean Bryant


190. “Basketball doesn’t build character, it reveals it.” – James Naismith


191. “Players act like the floor is slanted; they run downhill on fast breaks and jog uphill when getting back on defense” – Tates Locke


192. “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory” – Bill Russell


193. “Your defense will save you on the nights that your offense isn’t working” – Adolph Rupp


194. “People love saying the name. I’m like Elvis. Swaggy Presley.”


195. “Use different basketball offensive alignments to cause confusion for the other team” – Hubie Brown


196. “Hello police, Chris Paul is tryna kick my ass” 😂😂😂


197. “I’m still waiting for perfection. In the meantime, I’ll settle for persistence” – Bo Ryan


198. “When it gets down to it, basketball is basketball.” – Larry Bird


199. “Remember that basketball is a game of habits. If you make the other guy deviate from his habits, you’ve got him” – Bill Russell


200. “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special” – Jim Valvano


201. “There is no “I”in team but there is in win.”


202. “You never realize the value of coaching until your children play for a coach” – Don Meyer


203. “I treated it like every day was my last day with a basketball.” – LeBron James


204. “You should always want your coach to be critical. It gives you an opportunity to learn and to overcome adversity” – Steve Nash


205. “Push yourself to keep improving or you’ll stay as close to the bottom as you are to the top” – John Wooden


206. “Nervous means you want to play. Scared means you don't want to play.”


207. “Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.”


208. “We old athletes carry the disfigurements and markings of contests remembered only by us and no one else. Nothing is more lost than a forgotten game.”


209. “I'm not comfortable being preachy, but more people need to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court.”


210. “There have been times when I have failed. But there have never been times when I thought I would fail” – Michael Jordan


211. “I've always been interested in jobs in the NBA. But I've been in this for 20 years and it might be time to do something else.”


212. “It’s better to have a good player with the basketball in late game situations than to have plays” – Rick Pitino


213. “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” – Wilt Chamberlain


214. “Confidence is everything in this game, if you don’t think you can, you won’t” – Jerry West


215. “Emphasize small goals when you have a team that isn’t going to win a lot of games” – Mike Dunlap


216. “Young people need models, not critics.” ~ John Wooden


217. “Violence is never the answer, but sometimes it is” – Matt Barnes


218. Never criticize a teammate.


219. “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan


220. “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment” – John Wooden


221. “I learned early that if I wanted to achieve anything in life, I’d have to do it myself. I learned that I had to be accountable” – Lenny Wilkens


222. “Practice shared suffering. If one guy messes up, everyone runs. If one guy does well, everyone benefits” – Don Meyer


223. “Players that learn the value of hard work, commitment, teamwork, and sacrifice are the ones that make their teams great” – Tom Crean


224. “One player’s selfish attitude can poison a locker room and make it hard, if not impossible, to establish team work” – Dean Smith


225. “Some say you have to use your five best players, but I found out you win with the five that fit together best as a team.”-Red Auerbach


226. “Interesting thing about the best leaders is that they immerse themselves in both teaching and learning. Growth comes by both” – Kevin Eastman


227. “Players must be able to carry out simple instructions from the bench to the court. If they can’t, then they can’t play” – Bob Knight


228. “I don’t complain about playing time. My job is to play so well that my coach can’t sit me.” – Shane Battier


229. “I’ve never lost a game I just ran out of time.”


230. “All really successful coaches have a system” – Jim Valvano


231. “Winning isn’t always championships.”


232. “Next question.” - Westbrook


233. “Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.”


234. “We’re building a culture of accountability, trust, and togetherness. Entitlement will not be tolerated” – Brad Stevens


235. “If your bigs rim run at full speed it not only increases the potential for a quick layup, but opens up court for guards” – Fred Hoiberg


236. “russell westbrook” -Russell Westbrook


237. “Effort is fully replenishable. There is no need to save any of it. Leave every bit you have on the playing field” – Mike Krzyzewski


238. “The best competition I have is against myself to become better” – John Wooden


239. “Violence is never the answer, but sometimes it is.” - Matt Barnes


240. “If what you have did yesterday still looks big to you… You haven’t done much today.”


241. “Teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one.”— Mike Krzyzewski


242. “It’s not about any one person. You’ve got to get over yourself and realize that it takes a group to get this thing done” ~ Gregg Popovich


243. ”I'm watching the History channel in the club and I'm wondering how do these people kno what's goin on on the sun..ain't nobody ever been” - also KD


244. “Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I’m doing” – Phil Jackson


245. “There is a direct correlation between the number of ball reversals and defensive breakdowns” – Kevin Eastman


246. “Believe that the loose ball that you are chasing has your name wirtten on it” – Mike Krzyzewski


247. “If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”


248. “Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.”


249. “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.” ~ Dean Smith


250. “You understand, you do not invent stuff on this team. Guys that invent stuff will not play for me. Make the easy play” – John Calipari


251. “How good can we expect to be if our best player is not our best teammate” – Brad Stevens


252. “I play basketball to win a championship. That championship is everything to me. And that’s what gets people to buy in to your brand – being a winner.” — Chris Paul


253. “Our job is to teach young people how to do things that make them successful on the court, in the classroom, and after graduation” – David Shaw


254. “Confidence comes from being prepared” — John Wooden


255. “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”


256. “Practice?”- AI


257. “My players on defense must have a hand-up on every shot. If not, they run sprints” – Rick Majerus


258. “Anything can happen with hard work and dedication” – Jerry West


259. “I’m playing; I’m here. I’m going to fight until they tell me they don’t want me anymore.”


260. “Someday I might have to put down a basketball and have a regular 9-to-5 like everybody else.” ― Shaquille O’Neal


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


262. “Leadership is diving for a loose ball. It’s about being able to take it as well as dish it out. That’s the only way your going to get respect from other players”


263. “My swag was phenomenal.”


264. “Coaches can talk and talk and talk about something, but if you get it on tape and show it to them, it is so much more effective” – Larry Bird


265. “Basketball isn’t just a sport. It is an art, one that must be mastered to succeed.” – Steph Curry


266. “Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you” – John Wooden


267. “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”


268. “Teamwork doesn’t come naturally. It must be taught” – Pat Summitt


269. “The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.”


270. “When you think you have done enough, do a little more, because someone out there is working harder than you.” – Larry Bird


271. “If you want to thank me, go do something for somebody else” – Don Meyer


272. “To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.”


273. “People just don’t understand how obsessed I am with winning.”


274. “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.'”


275. “I’m chasing perfection.”


276. “There’s only one thing we can control, and that is how hard we play.”


277. “It’s discouraging to make a mistake, but it’s humiliating when you find out you’re so unimportant that nobody noticed it” – Chuck Daly


278. “The secret of winning is working more as a team, less as individuals” – Knute Rockne


279. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” ~ Michael Jordan


280. “You can easily separate ‘team guys’ from ‘me guys’ by how they accept coaching. The guys that accept it are about winning” – Bill Parcells


281. “It’s better to have a good player with the basketball in late game situations than to have plays.” ― Rick Pitino


282. “First master the fundamentals.” – Larry Bird


283. “The greatness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive. The weakness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive” – Phil Jackson


284. “Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.”


285. “There is a lot of basketball beyond our control, but a player should never let anyone try harder than he does.” – Dean Smith


286. “Bad shooters are always open” – Pete Carril


287. “As a parent, I have a job as a role model to my children, and by extension, to other young people” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar


288. “Board man gets paid” - Kawhi


289. “Do your best when no one is looking. If you do that, then you can be successful in anything that you put your mind to” – Bob Cousy


290. “A key basketball skill is imagery. The best players “see” situations before they happen so they can be prepared.” ― Dr. Jack Ramsay


291. “Be led by your dreams. Not by your problems” – Roy Williams


292. “The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.”


293. “Mental toughness is believing, without a doubt, that whatever happens, you got this” – Tim Grover


294. “To go from where you are to where you want to be: you have to have a dream, a goal, and you have to be willing to work for it” – Jim Valvano


295. “It’s the one thing you can control. You are responsible for how people remember you—or don’t. So don’t take it lightly.”


296. “We’re not in trouble, but if we think we’re not in trouble, we’re in trouble.”


297. “A coach must never forget that he is a leader and not merely a person with authority” – John Wooden


298. “It’s not about the number of hours you practice, it’s about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice” – Kobe Bryant


299. “Simplify the game as much as possible. When you add, you must subtract” – Don Meyer


300. “All the successful teams I’ve ever seen have three characteristics: They play unselfish, they play together, and they play hard.“-Larry Brown


301. “In all my years one thing has never changed; You win with serious, tough-minded players. That never changes” – Tom Thibodeau


302. “If you don’t fall how are you going to know what getting up is like?”


303. “The greatest compliment to any player is he is a great teammate. We can’t all be great players, but we can all be great teammates” – Jay Bilas


304. “A guy who gives you less than what he has to give is, one, telling you what he thinks of you, and two, telling you what he thinks of himself” – Pete Carril


305. “Don’t be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed.”


306. “I always mean what I say, but I don’t always say what I’m thinking” – Dean Smith


307. “The key to success is failure”


308. “Players draw confidence from a poised, alert coach who anticipates changing in game conditions” – Dr. Jack Ramsay


309. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”


310. “I can dunk! I can dunk, and not just in NBA Live.”


311. “If you look at the box score, we won this game.” – Paul George after losing to Miami


312. “Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.” – Mike Singletary


313. “When I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it’s time for me to move away from the game.” – Michael Jordan


314. “Goals should be realistic, attainable, and shared among all members of the team” – Mike Krzyzewski


315. “It’s not what you tell them, it’s what they hear” – Red Auerbach


316. “There’s no reason to hold yourself back and say you can’t do something in life unless you go for it and try to do it.” – Russell Westbrook


317. “If I was a Caesar salad, the croutons would be my friends, the lettuce would be my family and the dressing would be my mom.” – Kevin Garnett


318. “Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.“-Magic Johnson


319. “Love never fails. The character never quits. And with patience and persistence, dreams do come true.”


320. “In order to achieve to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them” ~ Bobby Knight


321. “You can run a lot of plays when your X is twice as big as the other guys’ O. It makes your X’s and O’s pretty good” – Paul Westphal


322. “Everything negative — pressure, challenges — are all an opportunity for me to rise.“-Kobe Bryant


323. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them” – Michael Jordan


324. “We don’t quit, we don’t cower, we don’t run. We endure and conquer.”


325. “​​I’d rather have more heart than talent any day.” – Allen Iverson


326. “Not talking on the floor is the least recognized form of selfishness but maybe the most dangerous to your team having success” – Tom Crean


327. “Good players want to be coached… Great players want to be told the truth.”


328. “I seek to leave the world a litter better place than I found it” – James Naismith


329. “Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.” ~ Michael Jordan


330. “Nothing is given. Everything is earned.” – LeBron James


331. “Do you think we’re gonna get in trouble for this?” – Metta Sandiford-Artest to Stephen Jackson immediately after the Malice at the Palace


332. “I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.”


333. “You have to earn your right to win the game with effort and togetherness” – Brad Stevens


334. “Not only is there more to life than basketball, there’s a lot more to basketball than basketball” – Phil Jackson


335. “You need to be tough enough to make the hustle plays, run down loose balls, run down long boards and communicate on defense” – John Thompson


336. “Pressure works, not by stealing the ball, but by changing momentum” – Donnie Jones


337. “If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!” – Charles Barkley


338. “It’s not up to anyone else to make me give my best” – Hakeem Olajuwon


339. “If you’re a basketball player, you’ve got to shoot.” ― Oscar Robertson


340. “I do not judge success based on championships; rather, I judge it on how close we came to realizing our potential.


341. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen.”


342. “I got kids to feed,” Sprewell


343. “If you give shooters the right to shoot, you must give them the right to miss” – Kevin Eastman


344. “The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game.” ~ Bobby Knight


345. “I’m a fun guy” - Kawhi


346. “I couldn’t have come close without my teammates’ help because the Knicks didn’t want me to make 100.”


347. “I play every game like it’s my last game. All that matters is that you go out there and play every game as if it was your last.” ~ Allen Iverson


348. “Live the moment for the moment.” ~ Michael Jordan


349. “Be the best version of yourself in anything you do. You don’t have to live anybody else’s story.”


350. “Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We” – Phil Jackson


351. “Who’s coming in second?” - Larry “Legend” Bird


352. “Encourage ‘random’ picks on the ball because they cannot be scouted” – Doc Rivers


353. “I’m Kevin Durant. Y’all know who I am” - Kevin of Durant


354. “Maturity begins to grow when you can sense your concern for others out-weighing your concern for yourself” – Phil Jackson


355. “The pass is a very powerful team builder; whereas the dribble can destroy the spirit of teams and crack the foundation of team play” – Kevin Eastman


356. “We have the mentality of the hunter. We want to be the most enthusiastic team in the country. That’s what we can control” – Shaka Smart


357. “Over coaching is the worst thing you can do to a player” – Dean Smith


358. “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.”


359. “I’ve been playing basketball since I was five.” – C.J. McCollum


360. “The coach should be the absolute boss, but he still should maintain an open mind” – Red Auerbach


361. “Most important ingredient to winning: no personal agendas. The commitment has to be ‘us’ driven not ‘me’ driven” – Kevin Eastman


362. “.. and I took that personally” - Michael Jeffrey Jordan


363. “When your teammate looks you in the eye and holds you accountable, that’s the greatest kind of leadership there is” – Doug Collins


364. “Help your players to control their emotions – do this through example” – Norm Sloan


365. “Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute.”– Bill Russell


366. “I don’t need too much. Glamour and all that stuff don’t excite me. I am just glad I have the game of basketball in my life.” ― LeBron James


367. “I didn’t get into teaching and coaching for the number of wins or the money. It was a passion for trying to help young people” – Bo Ryan


368. “Teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one” – Mike Slide8Krzyzewski


369. “Switch if you have to! It’s not the mismatch that beats you, it’s the open shot!” – Rick Majerus


370. “The key to coaching is not what you do, but the way you do it. The intangibles, the motivational parts of the game are the most important facets of it” – Rick Pitino


371. “Don’t worry about being cool. Worry about being the best” – Jeff Van Gundy


372. “The fundamentals of the game are the same wherever you go: pass, dribble, shoot, defend, rebound, screen, play hard and together” – Terry Stotts


373. “Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.” – John Wooden


374. “I’m not out there sweating for 3 hrs just to find out what it’s like to sweat” – Michael Jordan


375. “You must have your player’s heads and hearts before they will do anything for you” – Lawrence Frank


376. “Defense is all about helping. No one can guard a good dribbler, You have to walk kids through how to help and then how to help the helper” – Bob Knight


377. “Talent sets the floor, character sets the ceiling” ~ Bill Belichick


378. “Freshman want to play. Sophomores want to start. Juniors want to score. Seniors want to win” – John Beilein


379. “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” –Ann Landers


380. “Developing better people should be the number one goal for any coach when dealing with kids” – Bobby Orr


381. “I hate casual shooting. Every shot is preceded by working to get open and catch and shoot under game like conditions” – Bob Knight


382. “The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.” ― Kobe Bryant


383. “Coaches shouldn’t have to push you to work hard, you should push yourself to work hard because you want to be a great player.”


384. “Scarlet Johansson, I will drink your bath water” - KD


385. “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” – Kevin Durant


386. “Losing is part of the game. If you never lose, you are never truly tested, and never forced to grow.” – David Sirlin


387. “It’s not about the number of hours you practice, it’s about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice” ~ Kobe Bryant


388. “The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother” – John Wooden


389. “Any guy who can maintain a positive attitude without much playing time earns my respect” – Magic Johnson


390. “Goals should be realistic, attainable, and shared among all members of the team.”


391. “I’m like a tax. You’re going to pay one way or the other.”


392. “I can’t make every decision for you. I don’t have 14 timeouts. You guys got to get together and talk” – Gregg Popovich


393. “Discover your gift, develop your gift, and then give it away every day.” – Don Meyer


394. “Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success.” – Kobe Bryant


395. “Champions behave like champions before they are champions” – Bill Walsh


396. “If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!“-Charles Barkley


397. “You don’t need great skill to be a tough rebounder; being a rebounder is all about effort, determination, and physicality.”


398. “If it turns out that my best wasn’t good enough, at least I wont look back and say that I was afraid to try” – Michael Jordan


399. “Desire outweighs footwork when it comes to crashing the glass” – Bill Self


400. “You can’t force your will on people. If you want them to act differently, you need to inspire them to change themselves”


401. “I would rather have a player who has mastered two or three moves than to try to teach him six or seven” – Norm Sloan


402. “You don’t need great skill to be a tough rebounder; being a rebounder is all about effort, determination, and physicality” – Mike Malone


403. “If all I’m remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I’ve done a bad job with the rest of my life.” –Isiah Thomas


404. “The true warrior understands and seizes that moment by giving an effort so intense and so intuitive that it could only be called one from the heart” – Pat Riley


405. “Positioning, anticipation and technique create quickness. Therefore, you can always get quicker” – Don Meyer


406. “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” – Dean Smith


407. “Passing is your best weapon against man to man. Dribble penetration is your best weapon against zone.” – Bob Knight


408. “I thrive on challenges, and there is no more imposing challenge for someone in my profession than winning an NBA title” – Phil Jackson


409. “Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.”


410. “The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game.”


411. “Heart is what separates the good from the great” – Michael Jordan


412. “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”


413. “Plays are not as important as players, and players are not as important as teammates” – Don Meyer


414. “You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you still have to know the fundamentals.” – Michael Jordan


415. “The same way you slow me down: … You can’t.” ~ LeBron James


416. “Every time I rise up, I have confidence that I’m going to make it.”


417. “Never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.” – Tim Duncan


418. “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson


419. “Praise behaviour that you want repeated” – Dean Smith


420. “Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates” – Magic Johnson


421. “Keep it simple. I’m not interested in trying to prove to my players that I’m a genius” – John Thompson


422. “I wanted to compete at the highest level again - and that's the NBA.”


423. “If you are trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I have had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you.”


424. “The two ingredients for success in basketball are playing hard and playing intelligently” – Pete Carril


425. “I love seeing my teammates succeed. That’s what I get more excited about than anything.”


426. “The key to any game is to use your strengths and hide your weaknesses” – Paul Westphal


427. “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better” – Pat Riley


428. “Left hand, right hand, it doesn’t matter; I’m amphibious.” – Charles Shackleford


429. “Put great thought to what and how you practice. Once practice is done you can never get that time back. Did you simulate the game?”


430. “Yes, victory is sweet, but it doesn’t necessarily make life any easier the next season or even the next day.”


431. “If you’re going to have to beg them to play, it’s not going to work.”-Chuck Daly


432. “Winning is more related to good defense than good offense” – Dr. Jack Ramsay


433. “Everyone wants to do what the great ones do; but very few are willing to do what they did to become great” – Jon Gordon


434. “The more things we can get kids to do correctly off the court, the more they will do correctly on the court” – Mike Jarvis


435. “Bottom line, you’re either a risk taker, or your not, and if you don’t take risks, you’ll never win big.”-Geno Auriemma


436. “If I walk in a home and a kid disrespects a woman, his mother or grandmother, then I am out… I wont recruit them” – John Calipari


437. “We are unselfish and we trust each other” – Tim Duncan


438. “Be a dreamer. If you don’t know how to dream, you’re dead” – Jim Valvano


439. “I don’t need my players to like me. I need them to play for me” – Jerry Sloan


440. “Ball don’t lie” - Rasheed “Sheed” Wallace


441. “If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.” ~ Michael Jordan , NBA quotes about life


442. “Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart” – Phil Jackson


443. “Your best player has to set a tone of intolerance for anything that gets in the way of winning” – Jeff Van Gundy


444. “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”


445. “If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it” – Michael Jordan


446. “I look at my jersey and see the NBA logo, I’m like, ‘I didn’t think I’d be here.’„


447. “The key is not the ‘will to win’… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”


448. “I’ve never been afraid of big moments. I get butterflies…I get nervous and anxious, but I think those are all good signs that I’m ready for the moment.”


449. “You can’t always be the most talented person in the room. But you can be the most competitive” ~ Pat Summitt


450. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” ~ Michael Jordan


451. “You’d like to see your team reasonably happy, but that’s not your job. Gain their respect and get them to accept their roles” – John Wooden


452. “Practice gotta be harder than the games and it never is unless you want it to be as a player. The coach can’t drive that” – John Calipari


453. “When a gifted team dedicates itself to unselfish trust and combines instinct with boldness and effort–it is ready to climb“-Pat Riley


454. “I believe the only muscles you need in basketball are the ones in your brain.” – Nikola Jokic


455. “I play to win, whether during practice or a real game.” ~ Michael Jordan


456. “My goal is to win the next game one possession at a time. That’s it. I don’t have any other goals” – Brad Stevens


457. “Your program must have an overriding purpose which is clearly visible and which teaches lessons beyond winning” – Don Meyer


458. “My most memorable moment came in 1985 as we beat the Boston Celtics.”


459. “The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome. The ride is a lot more fun that way.”


460. “You can’t always be the most talented or gifted person in the room, but you can be the most competitive.“-Pat Summit


461. “Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the ME for the WE.” – Phil Jackson


462. “I don’t complain about playing time. My job is to play so well the coach can’t sit me.” ~ Shane Battier


463. “Once you’ve done the mental work, there comes a point where you have to throw yourself into the action and put your heart on the line.”


464. “A team is a group of players who support one another on court and who think of the group before they think of themselves” – KC Jones


465. “If you quit once it becomes a habit. Never quit!” – Michael Jordan


466. “Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing” – Mike Krzyzewski


467. “Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We”


468. “What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110% all the time” – Don Zimmer


469. “Everybody on a championship team doesn’t get publicity, but everyone can say they are a champion” – Magic Johnson


470. “It’s not to hurt anyone, but basketball can be rough.” ― Sue Wicks


471. “They signed Lamar Odom, WHO IS ON CRACK” - SAS


472. “The best teams have chemistry. They communicate with each other and they sacrifice personal glory for the common goal.” — Dave DeBusschere


473. “Don’t let what other people think to decide who you are.”


474. “Maturity begins to grow when you can sense your concern for others outweighing your concern for yourself.”


475. “I can’t stand a ballplayer who plays in fear. Any fellow who has a good shot has got to take it and keep taking it. So he misses – so what?” – Red Auerbach


476. “Failure is acceptable. but not trying is a whole different ball park.” – Michael Jordan


477. “My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.”


478. “If all I’m remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I’ve done a bad job with the rest of my life.”


479. “What distinguishes a great player is his presence. When he goes on to the court, his presence dominates the atmosphere.” – Bill Russell


480. “Discipline yourself, and others won’t need to” – John Wooden


481. “A quick way for any player to make himself better is to think about what he himself doesn’t like to play against” – Bob Knight


482. “If a team cannot perform with excellence at a moment’s notice, they probably will fail in the long run” – Mike Krzyzewski


483. “Character is huge for me. Does he care about winning or does he care about playing?” – Otis Smith


484. “I don’t hire good coaches, I hire good people. If they turn out to be good coaches, too, that’s a plus” – Geno Auriemma


485. “If you do not believe in yourself no one will do it for you.”


486. “I think the reason why I’m the person who I am today is because I went through those tough times when I was younger.”


487. “Inferior guards play on the sidelines and great guards play in the middle. Isiah, Magic, Chris Paul, all get to the middle” – Rick Pitino


488. “Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar


489. “Players who are late are saying that their time is more important than the team” – Don Meyer


490. “What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player” – John Wooden


491. “Accept a loss as a learning experience, and never point fingers at your teammates” – Michael Jordan


492. “If you’re going to have to beg them to play, it’s not going to work.” ― Chuck Daly


493. “Most of my learning and philosophy regarding coaching basketball was developed after great frustration” – Dick Bennett


494. “Violence is never the answer, but sometimes it is” - Matt Barnes


495. “Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat” – Dean Smith


496. “The quality of the pass leads directly to the quality of the shot” – Pete Carril


497. “We win because we play together as a team” – John Havlicek


498. “Bottom line – if you want success of any kind; you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable” – Tim Grover


499. “Discipline is doing what has to be done, when it has to be done, as well as it can be done, and doing it that way all the time.”


500. “Champions play as they practice. Create a consistency of excellence in all your habits” – Mike Krzyzewski


501. “Our ceiling is through the roof.” – Josh Smith


502. “I can get better. I haven’t reached my ceiling yet on how well I can shoot the basketball.”


503. “Basketball is a team game. But that doesn’t mean all five players should take the same amount of shots” – Dean Smith


504. “There is no ‘i’ in team but there is in win.” — Michael Jordan


505. “There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don’t believe there is only one greatest player either.”


506. “Offense is not equal opportunity” – Bob Knight


507. “Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God’s way to say nobody’s perfect.”


508. “Don’t let winning make you soft. Don’t let losing make you quit. Don’t let your teammates down in any situation.” – Larry Bird


509. “In 19 years Stockton never once lost a suicide drill in practice. Well, there was one day. He was sick. But he still ran it” – Jerry Sloan


510. “I don’t think that once you get to one level, you can relax. You’ve got to keep pushing.”


511. “Basketball is a game with winners and losers, but if you play this game with your heart, you’re always a winner.” – C.M.


512. “If it turns out that my best wasn’t good enough, at least I wont look back and say that I was afraid to try.” ― Michael Jordan


513. “Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night” – Michael Jordan


514. “If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.” – Kobe Bryant


515. “Ah ha ha ha ha” - Kawhi Leonard


516. “I’ll let you go watch the J. Cole concert if you all get your ass back on transition.”


517. “Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.― John Wooden


518. “Some say you have to use your five best players, but I found out you win with the five that fit together best as a team” – Red Auerbach


519. “The pick and roll is more about bodies and eyes then speed and being fast” – Steve Nash


520. “Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise” ~ Michael Jordan


521. “I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.” – Kareem Abdul- Jabbar


522. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” ~ Michael Jordan


523. “Keep practicing. Never let someone tell you you’re too small or too slow.” – Chris Paul


524. “Hard work is not punishment. Hard work is the price of admission for the opportunity to reach sustained excellence” – Jay Bilas


525. “I don’t know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody – somewhere – was practicing more than me.” ― Larry Bird


526. “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.”


527. “Good basketball always starts with good defense!” – Bob Knight


528. “What distinguishes a great player is his presence. When he goes on to the court, his presence dominates the atmosphere” – Bill Russell


529. “Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like doing them” – Julius Erving


530. “The fundamentals of the game are the same wherever you go: pass, dribble, shoot, defend, rebound, screen, play hard and together.” – Terry Stotts


531. “At the end of the day, no matter how well you score, you’ve got to be able to stop people” – Eric Musselman


532. “Kids today don’t know the difference between instruction and criticism” – Larry Brown


533. “We make too much of winning. The mere fact of winning doesn’t make you great.”


534. “You don’t go through life, you grow through life” – Kevin Ollie


535. “June 2010, after winning his fifth title: “I just got one more than Shaq. So you can take that to the bank.”


536. “Practice hard, train hard, work hard and play harder.” – Alcurtis Turner


537. “Always acknowledge hustle plays in practice” – Lou Campanelli


538. “Some parents would rather have their son get all-state than his team win the state championship” – Don Meyer


539. “When an elevator brings you upstairs, you better send it back down to bring others up.” – Dikembe Mutombo


540. “You need to possess more than a little nastiness to play basketball at the highest level.” — Jerry West


541. “Basketball is a lifelong game. You continue to learn from the game day in and day out, and all along the way, you get better.” – Scottie Pippen


542. “Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you” – Anonymous


543. “Basketball isn’t just a sport. It is an art, one that must be mastered to succeed.” ― Steph Curry


544. “Don’t let talent get in way of team performance. Great players do what’s outstanding for team, not what makes them stand out” – Jerry West


545. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” ~ Michael Jordan


546. “Which one of you is coming in second?” Larry Bird at the 3pt shootout


547. “To be a great teacher of the game you must study the game; know your craft & be proud of your knowledge; but never satisfied with your knowledge” – Kevin Eastman


548. “Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference.” ~ John Wooden


549. “I don’t complain about playing time. My job is to play so well the coach can’t sit me” – Shane Battier


550. “The highest level of achievement is attained by the teams with the best conditioned players” – Dr. Jack Ramsay


551. “Discipline is the only sure way I know to convince people to believe in themselves” – Pat Summitt


552. “Ball.” - Hedo Turkoglu


553. “If you are not willing to work hard and establish discipline in your life, then all your dreams are merely pipe dreams” – Rick Pitino


554. “When the legs go, the heart soon follows.”


555. “When you go out there and do the things you’re supposed to do, people view you as selfish.”


556. “All the successful teams I’ve ever seen have three characteristics: They play unselfish, they play together, and they play hard.” – Larry Brown


557. “If every basketball player worked as hard as I did, I’d be out of a job” – Steve Nash


558. “There are 5 fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring, and pride” – Mike Krzyzewski


559. “You’re always going to face criticism, you’re always going to face challenges, but those things are there to make you stronger and more committed” – David Robinson


560. “It’s important to keep trying to do what you think is right no matter how hard it is or how often you fail. Never stop trying.”


561. “Players have to buy into your system and be willing to accept the role, you, as the coach, have assigned to them” – Chuck Daly


562. “Success is not an accident, success is actually a choice.”


563. “Just concentrate on what you’re supposed to do” – Jeff Van Gundy


564. “Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you”


565. “I gave everything I had to basketball. The passion is still there, but the desire to play is not. It was a great ride.”


566. “Come on LB!”


567. “Systems win! Believe in your system, and then sell it to your players” – Billy Donovan


568. “He who expects not to achieve will never do so.” – Caron Butler


569. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” – Michael Jordan


570. “I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot… when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result.” ~ Michael Jordan


571. “A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That’s how I want you to play.” ~ Mike Krzyzewski


572. “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” ~ Michael Jordan


573. “Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds” – Larry Bird


574. “A lot of leaders fail because they don’t have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord.”


575. “For me, when I get knocked down, I really try to get back up and go at it again. I don’t like to give up.” – Jeremy Lin


576. We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.


577. “Obviously I love the game of basketball…” - Kawhi Leonard


578. “The worst has happened. The best is next.” – Paul George


579. “Never make excuses. Your friends don’t need them and your foes won’t believe them.”


580. “It takes three things to be a ‘special’ player: talent, character, and competitive fire.”


581. “Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need” – Mike Krzyzewski


582. “Do you want to choose winning over standing out? It’s a choice every player on every championship team has to do” – Doc Rivers


583. “The next 5 years are mine.”


584. “Making the big shot wouldn’t feel so good if missing it didn’t feel so awful.” – Paul Pierce


585. “Plays are not as important as players, and players are not as important as teammates.” – Don Meyer


586. “You don’t play against opponents; you play against the game of basketball” – Bob Knight


587. “I really don’t do much. I play basketball.” — Brandon Ingram


588. “Everything is habit forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing.”


589. “Failure makes me work even harder.” ~ Michael Jordan


590. “The greatest compliment to any player is he is a great teammate. We can’t all be great players, but we can all be great teammates” ~ Jay Bilas


591. “Nothing is given; nothing is handed to you. You have to take what you deserve.” – Marcus Keene