Great Basketball Quotes:

Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Powerful, Marketing And Sales, Inspirational Achievement

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.

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

topic: Life, Motivational, Success, Winning Basketball, Winning Losing

You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one.

- John Wooden

topic: Inspirational, Basketball, Motivational Sports, Sports Coach, Motivational Basketball

Winning is about having the whole team on the same page.

- Bill Walton

topic: Sports, Team, Winning, Inspirational Coaching, Sports Coach

What distinguishes a great player is his presence. When he goes on to the court, his presence dominates the atmosphere.

- Bill Russell

topic: Basketball, Player, Atmosphere, Great Basketball

Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.

- John Wooden

topic: Life, Motivational, Positive, Sports Training, Basketball Leadership

If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.

- John Wooden

source: "The Wizard's wisdom: 'Woodenisms'", www.espn.com. June 4, 2010.

topic: Life, Positive, Basketball, Sports Coach, Sports Coaching

When I was young, I never wanted to leave the court until I got things exactly correct. My dream was to become a pro.

- Larry Bird

topic: Inspirational, Dream, Court, Motivational Basketball, Funny Basketball

If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it.

- Michael Jordan

source: Michael Jordan (1994). “I can't accept not trying: Michael Jordan on the pursuit of excellence”

topic: Running, Wall, Giving Up, Favorite Sports, Inspirational Football

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

- Phil Jackson

topic: Teamwork, Surrender, Enough, Inspirational Coach, Basketball Coaching

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

- John Wooden

topic: Life, Basketball, Motivational Sports, Good Sportsmanship, Motivational Basketball

It's not how big you are, it's how big you play

- John Wooden

topic: Play, Bigs, Sports Competition, Famous Basketball, Playing Basketball

Basketball is a game that gives you every chance to be great, and puts every pressure on you to prove that you haven't got what it takes. It never takes away the chance, and it never eases up on the pressure.

- Bob Sundvold

topic: Basketball, Games, Giving, Great Basketball, Youth Sports

What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.

- Dean Smith

topic: Inspiring, Basketball, Sports, Inspirational Coach, Inspirational Coaching

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

topic: Basketball, Team, Play, Famous Basketball, Playing Together

It doesn't matter who scores the points, it's who can get the ball to the scorer.

- Larry Bird

topic: Basketball, Winning, Balls, Encouraging Basketball, Basketball Player

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

- Winston Churchill

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Basketball, Famous Basketball, Motivational Basketball

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

- John Wooden

source: "This Speech Was Given Before The #4Women4AllWomen Run" by Powdered Feet, womensrunning.competitor.com. January 25, 2017.

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Favorite Sports, Inspiration And Motivation

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

- John Wooden

source: "The Wizard's wisdom: 'Woodenisms'", www.espn.com. June 4, 2010.

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Positive, Best Coaches, Inspirational Attitude

Any American boy can be a basketball star if he grows up, up, up.

- Bill Vaughan

topic: Funny, Basketball, Stars, Motivational Basketball, Funny Basketball

The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy.

- Jerry Tarkanian

topic: Basketball, Cheer, Crazy, Famous Basketball, Team Player

Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer.

- Rick Pitino

source: Rick Pitino (1997). “Success is a Choice: Ten Steps to Overachieving in Business and Life”, Broadway

topic: Sports, Excellence, Quality, Sports Coach, Famous Basketball

One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

source: Twitter post from Mar 27, 2013

topic: Teamwork, Sports, Athlete, Drills, Inspirational Athlete

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.

- John Wooden

source: John Wooden, Jack Tobin, Bill Walton (2004). “They Call Me Coach”, McGraw Hill Professional

topic: Inspirational, Success, Integrity, Good Character, Best Coaches

Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

- Michael Jordan

topic: Motivational, Sports, Figures, Favorite Sports, Inspirational Football

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

topic: Basketball, Running, Play, Famous Basketball, Playing Basketball

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

- John Wooden

topic: Motivational, Inspiring, Graduation, Inspirational Learning, Sports Coaching

It is foolish to expect a young man to follow your advice and to ignore your example.

- Don Meyer

topic: Basketball, Men, Advice, Motivational Coaching, Coaches And Players

To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don't isolate.

- Michael Jordan

topic: Motivational, Success, Basketball, Being Selfish, Famous Basketball

Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.

- Wilt Chamberlain

topic: Famous Inspirational, Roots, Goliath, Funny Basketball, Encouraging Basketball

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

- Will Durant

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Daily Work, Top Management

Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.

- Michael Jordan

topic: Motivational, Positive, Basketball, When Things Go Wrong, Negative And Positive

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

- John Wooden

topic: Life, Basketball, Teamwork, Inspirational Coach, Basketball Coaching

Never mistake activity for achievement.

- John Wooden

topic: Inspirational, Basketball, Motivational Sports, Inspirational Achievement, Basketball Coaching

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.

- Vince Lombardi

source: Vince Lombardi, Balance Design (1998). “Motivation Lombardi Style”

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Inspirational Commitment, Sports Leadership

Fans never fall asleep at our games, because they're afraid they might get hit by a pass.

- George Raveling

topic: Inspirational, Basketball, Fall, Motivational Basketball, Funny Basketball

If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had them

- Michael Jordan

topic: Basketball, Trying, Achieve, Hurdling Obstacles, Inspirational Adversity

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

- Dean Smith

source: Dean Smith, Gerald D. Bell, John Kilgo (2004). “The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching”, p.142, Penguin

topic: Basketball, Beautiful, Player, Playing Basketball, Basketball Player

In all the research you do as a coach, studying other coaches and championship-type situations, you find that all those teams combined talent with great defense. You've got to stop other teams to win.

- Pat Riley

topic: Basketball, Team, Winning, Motivational Basketball, Winning Basketball

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

topic: Inspirational, Positive, Basketball, Sports Mental Toughness, Basketball Player

Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

topic: Motivational, Basketball, Giving Up, Personal Achievement, Basketball Player

Left hand, right hand, it doesn't matter. I'm amphibious.

- Charles Shackleford

topic: Sports, Hands, Dumb, Funniest Sports, Famous Basketball

To do the right thing at the right season is a great art.

- Helio Gracie

topic: Art, Mma, Great Art, Famous Basketball, Winning Losing

We're shooting 100 percent - 60 percent from the field and 40 percent from the free-throw line.

- Norm Stewart

topic: Basketball, Fields, Shooting, Free Throw, Funny Basketball

Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers.

- Pat Riley

source: Pat Riley (1993). “Winner Within Success”, Putnam Publishing Group

topic: Teamwork, Careers, Way, Inspirational Coach, Sports Coach

Commitment separates those who live their dreams from those who live their lives regretting the opportunities they have squandered.

- Bill Russell

topic: Basketball, Dream, Regret, Great Basketball

Every season is a journey. Every journey is a lifetime.

- Mike Krzyzewski

topic: Sports, Motivational Sports, Journey, Sports Coach, Coaches And Players

A player who makes a team great is better than a great player.

- John Wooden

topic: Sports, Motivational Sports, Team, Team Player, Motivational Basketball

If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball.

- Phil Jackson

topic: Basketball, Sports, Balls, Funny Basketball, Basketball Team