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