Inspirational basketball quotes for every day of the year. Our basketball quotes are categorized in calendar format for the daily grind of in-season practice, summer workouts, fall conditioning, or dealing with post-season disappointment. Just pick the date for the perfect basketball quote for your current need!
And, if the 366 basketball quotes from the daily calendar aren’t enough for you, scroll below the daily calendar for 472 more basketball quotes to draw on whenever you need one!
Jan 1 “Nobody is going to outwork us, but nobody will have more fun either.”
Jan 2 “The season is a marathon not a sprint. What matters is that our team gets better with each practice and each game.”
Jan 3 “If you are not doing it the right way, why are you doing it? Learn how to do it the right way and practice it the right way.”
Jan 4 “Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan
Jan 5 “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” John Powell
Jan 6 “Toughness is a skill and can be practiced and improved like all other skills.”
Jan 7 “Don’t let anyone know it when you are frustrated.”
Jan 8 “Great players… are defensive stoppers – they stop their man as well as help teammates. They do the things offensive players HATE!” Alan Stein
Jan 9 “You should always want your coach to be critical. It gives you an opportunity to learn and to overcome adversity.” Steve Nash
Jan 10 “The more things you can do, the harder you are to keep out of the lineup.”
Jan 11 “What you put into anything is what you will get out.”
Jan 12 “Winning isn’t like a light bulb. You can’t just switch it on when you need it.”
Jan 13 “You don’t improve during the playoffs. You improve at practice.”
Jan 14 “Within our dreams and aspirations we find our opportunities.” Sugar Ray Leonard
Jan 15 “You are a (insert your team’s mascot) when you would rather encourage a teammate to success than benefit personally from his or her mistakes.
Jan 16 “Fix the small problems and the big problems correct themselves.”
Jan 17 “Don’t leave the court on a miss. Always finish with the result you want.”
Jan 18 “Life is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy every day of the journey.”
Jan 19 “You either get better or we get worse. You don’t stay the same, so we have to use every practice and workout to get better.”
Jan 20 “Hesitate and you’re beat.”
Jan 21 “Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” Napoleon Hill
Jan 22 “Go hard on every play because it could be the play that makes the difference in the game.”
Jan 23 “An excuse is the easiest thing in the world to make.”
Jan 24 “Coaches don’t want excuses, they want results.”
Jan 25 “It’s not about how many times you get the ball each game that matters, it’s what you do when you do get the ball that is important.”
Jan 26 “If you have to rest, rest on offense. Use all of your energy on defense.”
Jan 27 “In every crisis lies opportunity.”
Jan 28 “The game doesn’t teach character, it reveals it.”
Jan 29 “Games typically come down to five plays. You either make those plays or you don’t.”
Jan 30 “In basketball, the mental is to the physical as 4 is to 1.” Bob Knight
Jan 31 “Just get better every day.”
Feb 1 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you use your mistakes to improve instead of using them as excuses.”
Feb 2 “Concentrate on effort and execution; the results will take care of themselves.”
Feb 3 “The best pass is the one that is caught.”
Feb 4 “Make the easy play—better safe than sorry.”
Feb 5 “The best revenge is massive success.” Frank Sinatra
Feb 6 “Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.” John F. Kennedy
Feb 7 “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison
Feb 8 “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” Henry Ford
Feb 9 “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. 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
Feb 10 “Proper form and a strong work ethic plus preparation and repetition is the formula that makes a great shooter.”
Feb 11 “It’s what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.” John Wooden
Feb 12 “No excuses, no explanations.”
Feb 13 “Winning is a by-product of working hard, working together, and doing things the right way.”
Feb 14 “Buy in or buy a ticket.”
Feb 15 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when your ability to make your teammates better increases each time you play.”
Feb 16 “Good teams and players give second efforts, great teams give 3rd, 4th, and 5th efforts.”
Feb 17 “Fake a pass to make a pass, fake a cut to make a cut.”
Feb 18 ”Meet every pass.”
Feb 19 “The best and most believable shot fake is just stopping your shot. Most players fake too fast and the fake does not sell the defense.”
Feb 20 “The only way for an individual to improve is to work at an uncomfortable pace in practice and during the improvement season (April-September) If you aren’t uncomfortable, chances are you aren’t improving.”
Feb 21 “Never try to dribble a loose ball. Grab it with two hands and chin it.”
Feb 22 “Contact from the defense is never an excuse to lose the ball.”
Feb 23 “There is do and do not, there is no try.” Yoda in Star Wars
Feb 24 “The game honors toughness.” Brad Stevens
Feb 25 “Expect to get hit hard when you take the ball to the basket. Don’t get upset. The best revenge is making the free throws.”
Feb 26 “Fouling negates hustle.”
Feb 27 “Great players… contest all shots. They don’t go for ball fakes or shot fakes. They deflect passes, bump cutters, and take charges.” Alan Stein
Feb 28 “All great things are only a number of small things that have carefully been collected together.”
Feb 29 “Anyone who doesn’t make mistakes isn’t working hard enough.” Wes Roberts
Mar 1 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you do the little things right, even when nobody is watching.”
Mar 2 “Everyone has an opinion, but the reality is your results.”
Mar 3 “There is no one giant step that does it. It’s a lot of little steps.”
Mar 4 “If you hang around with dirt, you will get dirty” Ronald Powell
Mar 5 “Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don’t quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don’t quit until you reach it. Never quit.” Bear Bryant
Mar 6 “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing that you will make one.” Elbert Hubbard
Mar 7 “There are two pains in life, the pain of discipline, and the pain of regret. Take your choice.”
Mar 8 “United we stand—divided we fall.”
Mar 9 The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.” Vince Lombardi
Mar 10 “Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose, for you will become like them.” W. Clement Stone
Mar 11 “We control our actions, but the consequences that flow from those actions are controlled by principles.”
Mar 12 “You have to go out and find the best competition to play against out of season to make yourself better.”
Mar 13 “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” John Wooden
Mar 14 “Two keys to being effective with the ball are the shot fake and the pass fake.” Bob Knight
Mar 15 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you serve your teammates with unselfish motives.”
Mar 16 “Great players… don’t gamble on offense or defense. They aim to make the RIGHT play; not the HIGHLIGHT play.” Alan Stein
Mar 17 “Beat the ball down the floor in transition and conversion.”
Mar 18 “Rebound position every time the ball is shot. Waiting to rebound when it misses is too late.”
Mar 19 “Great defensive teams have five players who play in a defensive stance at all times.”
Mar 20 “Your energy level is controlled by your thoughts.”
Mar 21 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you don’t care if you are the one who sets the screen or the one who hits the winning three, because fulfilling your role, whatever that role is, is most important.
Mar 22 “Let them have the excuses for losing. Let us offer the reasons for winning.”
Mar 23 “You never have a rebuilding year, you rebuild within yourselves.”
Mar 24 “If you truly love basketball, there is no “off-season” The season that starts the day after your team’s season is the “improvement season”.”
Mar 25 “We rate ability in people by what they finish, not what they start.”
Mar 26 “Forget regret or life is yours to miss.” Jonathan Larson
Mar 27 “Be tough-minded, but tender—hearted.”
Mar 28 “Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires and how smart and hard they are willing to work to reach their potential.”
Mar 29 “When you make a mistake, 1) recognize it 2) admit it 3) Learn from it 4) Forget it.”
Mar 30 “Tradition never graduates.”
Mar 31 “Got to go by your Defender…not around him—straight line drives.”
Apr 1 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot)) when you have a desire to excel for the benefit of those relying on you.”
Apr 2 “A player’s goal every practice and every improvement season skill workout should be to improve yourself for the benefit of the team.”
Apr 3 “Champions have no offseason.”
Apr 4 “Do you look at the ball or do you see the game?”
Apr 5 “Every day in shooting work on getting the ball straight, getting it up over the front of the rim, with backspin rotation.”
Apr 6 “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” Marcus Aurelius
Apr 7 “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” John Wooden
Apr 8 “The will to win is meaningless without the will to prepare!” Joe Gibbs
Apr 9 “Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.” Horace Mann
Apr 10 “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao Tzu
Apr 11 “In the end, what we regret most are the chances we never took.” Frasier Kane
Apr 12 “Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.”
Apr 13 “You were not born a winner and you were not born a loser. You are what you make yourself to be.” Lou Holtz
Apr 14 “Things don’t go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.” Charlie Jones
Apr 15 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you understand your role and strive to perform it better.”
Apr 16 “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” Thomas Jefferson
Apr 17 “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” Jackie Robinson
Apr 18 “Great players… are strong with the ball. They rip through hard on offense, ‘chin’ all rebounds, and don’t expose the ball when dribbling.” Alan Stein
Apr 19 “I do it because I can; I can because I want to; I want to because you said I couldn’t.” Uknown
Apr 20 “If you argue for your limitations, sure enough, they’re yours.” Richard Bach
Apr 21 “One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.” Napoleon Hill
Apr 22 “Believe in possibilities. Believe in human potential. Believe in yourself, and you’ll have the power to change your fate.” Kevin Ngo
Apr 23 “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.”
Apr 24 “It’s not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life, it is how you handle what happens to you.” Zig Ziglar
Apr 25 “Rebounding is on skill you can never do too much.”
Apr 26 “Skill development is a process-the player & coach have to be committed to-both need focus & enthusiasm the entire way-development takes time.”
Apr 27 “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” Eddie Robinson
Apr 28 “Believe Big. The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief. Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success. Big ideas and plans are often easier—certainly no more difficult—than small ideas and small plans.” David J. Schwartz
Apr 29 “There are two kinds of people in the world; those who make excuses and those who get results. An excuse person will find any excuse for why a job was not done, and a results person will find any reason why it can be done. Be a creator, not a reactor.” Alan Cohen
Apr 30 “Think success and it will happen… Think failure and it will happen…” Thomas D. Willhite
May 1 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when You have an unquenchable need to exceed your past limitations.”
May 2 “Keep steadily before you the fact that all true success depends at last upon yourself.” Theodore T. Hunger
May 3 “If you make today the most happy, successful day of your life, I am sure that you will have an extraordinary life. A successful life is nothing more than a series of successful days.” Unknown
May 4 “Winners are losers who got up and gave it one more effort.” Dennis DeYoung
May 5 “The easiest way to become a better offensive player is to become a better shooter.”
May 6 “A wise person will make more opportunities than they find.” Sir Francis Bacon
May 7 “3 things you never want to lose: attention, hope & sweat.”
May 8 “You’re on the road to success when you realize that failure is only a detour.”
May 9 “Practice makes habit. Perfect practice makes perfect!”
May 10 “The best learning technique is a mistake-Mistakes are your education.”
May 11 “Two dribbles coming off a pick and roll. First dribble is the read, second dribble is attack.”
May 12 “If you don’t have accountability, you will not improve.”
May 13 “I have no individual goals. We play for one reason and that’s to win the title. Practice is more important than the games, and I will practice when I’m hurt, when 95 percent of the players in this league would sit out. I expect all of you to do the same thing. You will follow my lead.” Michael Jordan to the Chicago Bulls
May 14 “Most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit.” Michelangelo
May 15 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you play with pain without creating a scene.”
May 16 “Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together”. Hard means with effort, determination and courage; Smart means with proper execution and poise, Together means unselfishly, trusting your teammates and doing everything possible not to let them down.”
May 17 “It is Amazing what can be Accomplished when NO ONE CARES who gets the credit…”
May 18 “Defense is mostly HUSTLE, EFFORT, AND DESIRE.”
May 19 “Great players… allow themselves to be coached. They make eye contact, listen, and welcome coaching. They crave getting better.” Alan Stein
May 20 “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.” Vince Lombardi
May 21 “The best offensive players have ball in their hand as long as they need to…not as long as they want to.”
May 22 “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” Albert Einstein
May 23 “Great players… practice just as hard as they play in games. They don’t have an ‘on and off switch’ – they are ALWAYS on!”
May 24 “The truth is you can acquire any quality you want by acting as though you already have it.” Joseph Murphy
May 25 “It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.” William James
May 26 “We all need a daily check up from the neck up to avoid stinkin thinkin which ultimately leads to hardening of the attitudes.” Zig Ziglar
May 27 “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.” Epectetus
May 28 “You don’t have to be bad to change. All too often, people resist change because they assume it means they were not OK to begin with.”
May 29 “Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd. ‘a little bit more.’ They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more.” A. Lou Vickery
May 30 “It takes 21 days of conscious repetition before anything becomes a habit.”
May 31 “To become a great champion, you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.” Muhammad Ali
June 1 “The player who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.” Lou Holtz
June 2 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when You play without the option of defeat.”
June 3 “Never say anything about yourself that you do not want to come true.” Brian Tracy
June 4 “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer
June 5 “Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” Malcolm Forbes
June 6 “You will never know what you can do until you try. However, most people never try anything until they know they can do it.”
June 7 “Your chances for success in any undertaking can always be measure by your belief in yourself.”
June 8 “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” Confucius
June 9 “Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.” Les Brown
June 10 “We act consistently with our view of who we truly are, whether that view is accurate or not.” Anthony Robbins
June 11 “One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.” Henry Ford
June 12 “The only important shot you take is the next one. Because no matter how hard you try, that is the only one you can still have an effect on!”
June 13 “Great players… are great teammates. They are supportive, high energy, and make their enthusiasm contagious.” Alan Stein
June 14 “Be quick without hurrying.” — John Wooden
Jun 15 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you give more than what is asked and take less than what is deserved.”
Jun 16 “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone is omnipotent.” Calvin Coolidge
Jun 17 “False Hustle = cheap fouls, lunging, reaching, etc.” Billy Donovan
Jun 18 “A good offensive player scores with two or less dribbles in the half court.”
Jun 19 “Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.” Dale Carnegie
Jun 20 “You play defense for 50% of the time you are on the floor , you have 5 players when you are on offense, so simple math says that 90% of the game does not involve shooting.”
Jun 21 “Play and practice like you are trying to make the team.” Mike Krzyzewski
Jun 22 “You can’t be a winner and be afraid to lose.”
Jun 23 “Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you.” – John Wooden
Jun 24 “People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most people succeed because they are determined to.” George Allen
Jun 25 “If you think small things don’t matter, think of the last game you lost by one point.”
Jun 26 ”I am always thinking how can I get myself better.” Steve Nash
Jun 27 “Good enough is neither.”
Jun 28 “Teamwork: The fuel that produces uncommon results in common people.”
Jun 29 “If you are the best player on the playground, then you need to find a new playground.” Alan Stein
Jun 30 “A person really doesn’t become whole, until he becomes a part of something that’s bigger than himself.” Jim Valvano
Jul 1 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when You play and know, without a doubt, that you competed like a champion.”
Jul 2 “Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.” Jose Ortega y Gassett
Jul 3 “A good offensive player creates his own shot, or a shot for a teammate, when defended 1v1.”
Jul 4 “Your toughest competition in life is anyone who is willing to work harder than you.”
Jul 5 “It takes no talent to hustle.”
Jul 6 “It’s easy to have faith in yourself and discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re Number 1. What you’ve got to have is faith and discipline when you are not yet a winner.” Vince Lombardi
Jul 7 “The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get from it, but what they become by it.” John Ruskin
Jul 8 “What you do reflects your attitude, not what you say or even how you say it.”
Jul 9 “Lack of confidence is born from a lack of preparation.”
Jul 10 “The best way to improve your shooting percentage is to take better shots.”
Jul 11 “Life is like a bucket of water. We are a part of the whole. But how big is the hole that is left when we take away a large cup of water? The hole suddenly fills up and…so life goes. The nature of life is that there is always someone who can and will take your place, when you think you are irreplaceable.”
Jul 12 “It’s not the hours you put in, it’s what you put in the hours.”
Jul 13 “Good is not enough if better is possible.”
Jul 14 “Champions don’t complain, they are too busy getting better.”
Jul 15 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when your effort is constant and your play is consistent regardless of the situation.”
Jul 16 “Attitudes are contagious…Is yours worth catching?”
Jul 17 “Discipline builds winners, Winners stay disciplined!” Ed McAllister
Jul 18 “Don’t tell me how good you are, show me!” – Jack Michels Sr.
Jul 19 “You must give respect to get it.”
Jul 20 “Victory or defeat is not determined at the moment of crisis, but rather in the long and unspectacular period of preparation.”
Jul 21 “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” -John Wooden
Jul 22 “The only way to improve your skills is to push yourself to work hard enough to make a mistake. Then, you know where your limit is and you go to work to exceed your current abilities.”
Jul 23 “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stand in times of challenge and controversy.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jul 24 “The more you complain, the more you find things to complain about. The more you give thanks, the more you find things to be thankful for.” Bob Hoffman:
Jul 25 “Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember, the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.” Zig Ziglar
Jul 26 “Our reach must exceed our grasp.” Steve Hewitt
Jul 27 “Use your scoring ability to be a better passer, and your passing skills to become a better scorer.” Steve Nash
Jul 28 “Great players… ‘Play Present.’ They focus on the process, not the outcome. They focus on what they can control. They don’t get distracted.” Alan Stein
Jul 29 “There is a direct connection between attention to detail and improvement. “ Bill Walsh
Jul 30 “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” Michael Jordan
Jul 31 “What you do reflects your attitude, not what you say or even how you say it.”
Aug 1 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you understand your commitment to your teammates.”
Aug 2 “It Can Take an entire season to build a “team” and one incident to destroy the chemistry that was built.”
Aug 3 “An individual performance can change an outcome of a game but a team’s performance can change the outcome of a season.” Coach Greg Dolan
Aug 4 “In both practices and out of season individual skill workouts, this should be your Mindset: If you don’t experience some frustration, then it hasn’t been a good workout. No frustration means not working past your current limitations–which means not getting better. Be tough enough to handle frustration and let that make you better.”
Aug 5 “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” Vince Lombardi
Aug 6 “Players play, but tough players win.” Tom Izzo
Aug 7 “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” Lou Holtz
Aug 8 “Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired. It is a habit you can break.”
Aug 9 “There are only three reasons to dribble: 1. To go somewhere; 2. To eliminate a five second violation; 3. To create a better passing lane.”
Aug 10 “Your role is not your value.” Bill Self
Aug 11 “Good players can take coaching; great players can take coaching and learn.” John Wooden
Aug 12 “Don’t tell me how tough the situation is, show me how tough you are at handling it.”
Aug 13 “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” Jacob August Riis
Aug 14 “Make the easy play, make the easy pass.”
Aug 15 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you think you can, and you do.”
Aug 16 “Hearing ‘no’ is part of life. Reacting to ‘no’ is how life moves forward for you. Don’t let no paralyze you. Make it motivate you!” Kevin Eastman
Aug 17 “When it comes to player performance, I don’t need spectacular, I need solid.” Ray Finley
Aug 18 “If you are prepared, then you are able to feel confident.” Robert J. Ringer
Aug 19 “I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot .. .and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why… I succeed.” Michael Jordan
Aug 20 “You don’t have time to GET ready when your opportunity presents itself. You have to BE ready before it arrives.”
Aug 21 “Spending today complaining about yesterday won’t make tomorrow any better.”
Aug 22 “You shape your habits, then your habits shape you.”
Aug 23 “The past is over, learn from it. The future is coming, prepare for it. The present is here, live it.” Alan Stein
Aug 24 “Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” Bruce Lee
Aug 25 “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.”
Aug 26 “If you want to be the best player, then you have to be the hardest worker.”
Aug 27 “It doesn’t cost you anything to set ambitious goals. It will cost you everything if you don’t.”
Aug 28 “Be Who you is Because if you be what you ain’t Then you ain’t who you is
So be who you is.” Don Meyer
Aug 29 “Great players… can pivot both ways off of either foot and can dribble, pass, and finish around the basket with either hand. They don’t have a ‘weak’ hand.” Alan Stein
Aug 30 “The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.”
Aug 31 “Bring your game, not your name ” Ronald Powell
Sep 1 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when You understand your commitment to your teammates.”
Sep 2 “Excuses are rampant in all walks of life except these: over achiever and successful people. They simply have no time and no need for excuses!” Kevin Eastman
Sep 3 “Champions are made from something deep inside—a desire, a dream, a vison.” Muhammad Ali
Sep 4 “Nothing splendid is ever achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance.” Bruce Barton
Sep 5 “It is as big a mistake to turn down a good shot as it is to take a bad one.” Ed Murphy
Sep 6 “We learn to walk by stumbling.” Bulgarian Proverb
Sep 7 “Great players… run the floor as fast as possible on fast breaks AND defensive transition.” Alan Stein
Sep 8 “If what you did yesterday still looks big to you. You haven’t done much today.” Mike Krzyzewski
Sep 9 “Our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways.”
Sep 10 “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
Sep 11 “You can’t buy heart.”
Sep 12 “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’ “ Mary Anne Radmacher
Sep 13 “Ball Screener – Goal is to Arrive at the screen without your Defender.”
Sep 14 “You maximize your potential by being humble develop a work ethic, strive to be a good person, and to be the best teammate you can be.” Steve Nash
Sep 15 “Self discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something, and you don’t talk back.” WK Hope
Sep 16 “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” Mahatma Gandhi.
Sep 17 “Great shooters receive the pass at the depth of their shot and do not dip the ball.”
Sep 18 “Players do not decide their future; they decide their habits and their habits decide their future!”
Sep 19 “You are most open when you first receive the ball—be ready to do something with it.”
Sep 20 “Champions do not become champions on the court. They become recognized on the court. They become champions because of their daily routine and commitment to excellence.”
Sep 21 “To be successful, you don’t have to do extraordinary things. Just do ordinary things extraordinarily well.” – John Rohn
Sep 22 “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins—not through strength, but by perseverance.” H. Jackson Brown
Sep 23 “I will prepare myself and maybe my chance will come.” Abraham Lincoln
Sep 24 “To be called a great teammate is the greatest compliment you can receive as a player.”
Sep 25 “What are you trying to accomplish? What little thing can you do today that will make you more effective?”
Sep 26 “There is no challenge more challenging than the challenge to improve yourself.” Michael F. Staley
Sep 27 “Do not let the other people or other events determine your demeanor.”
Sep 28 “You will experience many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated.” Maya Angelou
Sep 29 “Practice without improvement is meaningless—evaluate yourself every day on how you did today and what you need to do tomorrow to improve.”
Sep 30 “Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.” Vince Lombardi
Oct 1 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you understand that basketball is a team sport.”
Oct 2 “Demonstrate and prize loyalty.”
Oct 3 “The longer you keep your dreams as “just dreams” the more apt you are to get frustrated that you will never reach them. Create steps to get there!”
Oct 4 “Self confidence is good & it’s important for your success; it’s also important to show confidence in others to make sure the team has success!”
Oct 5 “You don’t demand respect, you must earn it.”
Oct 6 “Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.” Robert Schuller
Oct 7 “The better a person is, the more mistakes they will make for the more things they will try.” Peter Drucker
Oct 8 “It’s not the push from behind, or the pull from up front, but rather the drive from within” -Steve Bankston
Oct 9 “A Spelling Lesson: “Unity begins with yoU””
Oct 10 “It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes.” Louis Kossuth
Oct 11 “Never be satisfied with what you achieve, because it all pales in comparison with what you are capable of doing in the future.” Nochem Kaplan
Oct 12 “Never mistake activity for achievement.” John Wooden
Oct 13 “With confidence, you can reach truly amazing heights; without confidence, even the simplest accomplishments are beyond your grasp.” Jim Loehr
Oct 14 “Real happiness comes from inside. No one can give it to you.”
Oct 15 “Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do.” Brian Tracy
Oct 16 “Amazing how ‘truly’ tough people never seem to have to let anyone know they are tough. They just are and that’s enough!” Kevin Eastman
Oct 17 “No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back.” Turkish Proverb
Oct 18 “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” John Quincy Adams
Oct 19 “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison
Oct 20 “Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” George W. Carver
Oct 21 “If you pay attention to the grandstands…it won’t be long before you join them.”
Oct 22 “What you do today can change the course of your life far into the future. Today is critical. Today really counts.” Ralph S. Marston, Jr.
Oct 23 “Great players… are unselfish passers. They hit open teammates. They know the goal is to get THE best shot; not THEIR best shot.” Alan Stein
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Oct 24 “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” Confucius
Oct 25 “Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have.” Norman Vincent Peale
Oct 26 “Don’t whine, don’t complain, don’t make excuses.”
Oct 27 “Success is a process; a winning season is a process; winning teams and players do not get bored with the process; it’s long & requires disciplined focus.”
Oct 28 “Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.”
Oct 29 “An excessive need for approval….this is the single most destructive need an athlete or anybody else can have…..”
Oct 30 “When you play hard, you don’t foul because you move your feed and get in position.”
Oct 31 “Body language says a lot about a person. What does yours say about you?”
Nov 1 ““I AM…” Two of the most powerful words; for what you put after them shapes your reality.”
Nov 2 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you finish playing and only your body leaves the floor your heart and soul are captured within the game.”
Nov 3 “Large opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.” Sally Koch
Nov 4 “Great players… take advantage of every opportunity to get better. Every workout, every practice, and every game is a chance to improve!” Alan Stein
Nov 5 “Make sure your worst enemy is not living between your own two ears.”
Nov 6 “Strength and courage aren’t always measured in medals and victories. They are measured in the struggles they overcome. The strongest people aren’t always the people who win, they are the people who don’t give up when they lose.”
Nov 7 “Screening Rule– Don’t Screen Air screen the defender.”
Nov 8 “The successful person has the habit of doing things failures don’t like to do. They don’t like doing them either necessarily, but their disliking is subordinated by their sense of purpose.” EM Gray
Nov 9 “This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody
wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.”
Nov 10 “You have to play so hard that it hurts!” Kyle Johnson
Nov 11 “Diving past the passing lane for a steal is false hustle it hurts your team because now you are playing with only four defenders.”
Nov 12 “It’s not who starts the game, it’s who finishes the game—be a finisher.”
Nov 13 “Success doesn’t come from potential, success comes from production.”
Nov 14 “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” Bernice Johnson Reagon
Nov 15 “Achieving goals is never a simple, straightforward process. We will try things, discover that they don’t work and try something else. Our actions will vary continually.” Steven Covey
Nov 16 “Losers say I wish and winners say I will—and then do.”
Nov 17 “Learn to have fun when competing.”
Nov 18 “Best Shooters have Ten Toes to the Rim!”
Nov 19 “Your thoughts and self talk should be positive. Negative thoughts lead to bad play.”
Nov 20 “Don’t mistake routine for commitment.” Tommy Amaker.
Nov 21 “Never let your emotions work against you.”
Nov 22 “Adversity, stress, and struggle are challenges through which learning and growing occur and by which mental toughness develops.”
Nov 23 “It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.” Moliere
Nov 24 “Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the judgment that what you want is more important than the fear.”
Nov 25 “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” Jim Rohn
Nov 26 “Consistency is what counts; you have to be able to do things over and over again.”
Nov 27 “Hard head leads to sore rear end” (from sitting on the bench)
Nov 28 “There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going.”
Nov 29 “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Nov 30 “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” Warren Buffett
Dec 1 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you will exchange your blood, sweat, and tears for the benefit of the team.”
Dec 2 I can check the level of your honesty and commitment by the quality of your effort on the court. You cannot separate sports from your life, no matter how hard you try. Your personality shows up on the court: greed, indifference, whatever, it all shows up. You cannot hide it. Pete Carril
Dec 3 “There’s not substitute for guts.” Paul “Bear” Bryant
Dec 4 “The race is not always to the swift… but to those who keep on running.”
Dec 5 “I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.” Marie Curie
Dec 6 “I never think about missing a free throw. All that goes through my mind when I’m at the line is seeing the ball go through the bottom of the net.” Brad Daugherty
Dec 7 “Trust is the glue that holds everything together.”
Dec 8 “A champion is one who gets up even when he can’t.” Jack Dempsey
Dec 9 “You will not improve unless you look to a standard or example higher and better than yourself.”
Dec 10 “If you want it you must obtain it by great labor.” TS Eliot
Dec 11 “People are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves. That is why they do not improve.”
Dec 12 “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” Muhammad Ali
Dec 13 “You are a (insert your school’s mascot) when you understand the irrelevance of individual awards.”
Dec 14 “Great players… make plays, not excuses. They don’t care if the refs suck, if the floor is slippery, or if they have a cold. They get it done.” Alan Stein
Dec 15 “Discipline is the refining fire which enables talent to become ability.”
Dec 16 “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” Jim Rohn
Dec 17 “R.E.P.S.- Repetition Elevates Personal Skills.”
Dec 18 “Discipline is the habit of taking consistent action until one can perform with unconscious competence. Discipline weighs ounces but regret weighs tons.” Jhoon Rhee
Dec 19 “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”
Dec 20 “Don’t ever allow the pressure of competition to be greater than the pleasure of competition.”
Dec 21 “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”
Dec 22 “I will waste not even a precious second today in anger or hate or jealousy or selfishness. I know that the seeds I sow I will harvest, because every action, good or bad, is always followed by an equal reaction. I will plant only good seeds this day.” Og Mandino
Dec 23 “Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.” Paul J. Meyer
Dec 24 “If you are honest with yourself and can look into a mirror and believe that you have given 100 percent, you should feel proud. If you cannot, then there is more work to be done.” John Havlicek.
Dec 25 “To be a team leader, you have to do all the dirty jobs—like being the first one on the floor after a loose ball.”
Dec 26 “Life is about relationships.”
Dec 27 “Effort is good, but intelligent effort is what we want.”
Dec 28 “Do your job and half of somebody else’s.”
Dec 29 “Hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but a lack of hard work guarantees failure.”
Dec 30 “Our team is a bundle of sticks. If you are one stick alone, it’s easy to break, but if it’s 12 sticks all together it’s hard to break.”
Dec 31 “Emotion comes and goes; passion is forever.”
Basketball Quotes A
Aaron, Hank “Consistency is what counts; you have to be able to do things over and over again.”
Aaron, Hank “In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to sieze the moment and having the courage to take your best swing.”
Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem “As a parent, I have a job as a role model to my children, and by extension, to other young people.”
Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem “Michael Jordan, Magic, and myself all learned how to play the game in college in programs that emphasized the team.”
Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.”
Adams, John Quincy “Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.”
Ali, Muhammad “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”
Allen, George “People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.”
Allen, James “People are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves. They therefore remain bound.”
Allen, Sam “Direction and discipline, not intention determines one’s destiny and success.”
Angelou, Maya “We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat, so that we can know who we are.”
Aristotle “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Aristotle “Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.”
Ashcroft, Jan “There is no such thing as can’t, only won’t. If you’re qualified, all it takes is a burning desire to accomplish, to make a change. Go forward, go backward. Whatever it takes! But you can’t blame other people or society in general. It all comes from your mind.”
Ashe, Arthur “You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.”
Ashe, Arthur “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
Auerbach, Red “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.”
Auriemma, Geno “Bottom line, you’re either a risk taker, or your not, and if you don’t take risks, you’ll never win big.”
Auriemma, Geno “I don’t hire good coaches, I hire good people. If they turn out to be good coaches, too, that’s a plus.”
Austin, James H. “Chance favors those in motion.”
Basketball Quotes B
Bagehot, Walter “The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
Bailey, Dan “Champions have no off-season.”
Bannister, Roger “The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.”
Barry, Rick “I was taught to play the game from a total team concept–to be able to do everything reasonably well and some things extraordinarily well. If I’m not shooting well, I’ll try to be an asset in other ways-like defense, passing, rebounding, and hustle.”
Barton, Bruce “Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside themselves was superior to circumstance.”
Bee, Claire “Play to win, observe the rules, and act like a gentleman.”
Bennett, Dick “I concluded some time ago that a major part of success of a team, or of an individual, has a great deal to do with the intangible qualities possessed. The real key is how a person sees himself [humility], how he feels about what he does [passion], how he works with others [unity], how he makes others betters [servanthood], and how he deals with frustration and success, truly learning from each situation [thankfulness], I believe those concepts are the essence of a good player, team, coach, or individual in any capacity in life.”
Bennett, Dick “We cannot accept in victory what we would not accept in defeat.”
Bennett, Dick “When you attempt to stop everything, you end up stopping nothing.”
Bexton, Charles “Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul.”
Bird, Larry “Leadership is diving for a loose ball…It’s abut being able to take it as well as dish it out. That’s the only way your going to get respect from other players.”
Bird, Larry “Don’t let winning make you soft. Don’t let losing make you quit. Don’t let your teammates down in any situation.”
Bird, Sue “Never let the fear of failing discourage you from trying.”
Blair, Gary Ryan “Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile.”
Blanchard, Kenneth “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
Bojaxhiu, Agnese Gonxhe (Mother Teresa) “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
Bonaparte, Napoleon “A leader is a dealer in hope.”
Boselli, Tony “You can’t be a good leader without good character.”
Boyd, Ty “Success comes from taking the hand you were dealt and using it to the very best of your ability.”
Brinkley, David “The successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at them.”
Brock, Lou “Show me a person who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you someone you can beat every time.”
Bryant, Paul “Bear” “If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then they did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games.”
Bryant, Paul “Bear” “There’s not substitute for guts.”
Bryant, Paul “Bear” “You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some up, calm others down, until finally, they’ve to one heartbeat. Then, you’ve got yourself a team.”
Brett, George “I don’t think I can play any other way but all out . . . I enjoy the game so much because I’m putting so much into it.”
Brown, Larry “Failure does not come from losing, but from not trying.”
Brown, Paul “A winner never whines.”
Buchanan, Pat “It’s in the struggle itself that you define yourself.”
Buffett, Warren “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Burke, Edmund “He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill.”
Burns, Laing Jr. “Possession of the ball is the key to winning in football, basketball, and the game of life.”
Bush, Barbara “If human beings are perceived as potentials rather than problems, as possessing strengths instead of weaknesses, as unlimited rather that dull and unresponsive, then they thrive and grow to their capabilities.
Basketball Quotes C
Calipari, John“The players that make the game winners are the players that are not afraid to miss them.”
Carnegie, Andrew “As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do.”
Carnegie, Andrew “No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.”
Carnegie, Andrew “Do not think a man has done his full duty when he has performed the work assigned him. A man will never rise if he does only this. Promotion comes from exceptional work.”
Carnegie, Dale “All life is a chance. The person who goes farthest is the one who is willing to do and dare.”
Carril, Pete “Winning takes character. Workers get the most out of themselves. When a body has limited talent, it must muster all its resources of character to overcome adversity.”
Click here for more basketball quotes and basketball philosophy from Coach Pete Carril
Carew, Rod “When you’ve learned to believe in yourself, there’s no telling how good a player you can be. That’s because you have the mental edge.”
Cash, Pat“All great achievements have one thing in common–people with a passion to succeed.”
Chamberlain, Wilt “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.”
Chinese proverb “The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
Chinese proverb “Dig the well before you are thirsty.”
Chinese proverb “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”
Chopra, Deepak “Our thoughts influence the key activity of the brain, which then influences everything; perception, cognition, thoughts and feelings, personal relationships; they’re all a projection of you.”
Churchill, Winston “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.”
Churchill, Winston “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
Churchill, Winston “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
Churchill, Winston “Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.”
Churchill, Winston “The nose of the bulldog is slanted backwards so he can continue to breathe without letting go.”
Clancy, Tom “Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change.”
Collier, Robert “Success is the sum of small efforts – repeated day in and day out.”
Coolidge, Calvin “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Cooper, David “The pro is the person who has all the hassles, obstacles, and disappointing frustrations that everyone else has. yet continues to persist, does the job, and makes it look easy.”
Cousy, Bob “I dribbled by the hour with my left hand when I was young. I didn’t have full control, but I got so I could move the ball back and forth from one hand to the other without breaking the cadence of my dribble. I wasn’t dribbling behind my back or setting up any trick stuff, but I was laying the groundwork for it.”
Covey, Stephen “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
Covey, Stephen “Effective leadership is the only competitive advantage that will endure. That’s because leadership has two sides- what a person is (character) and what a person does- (competence) .”
Crawford, Roger “When you want to encourage a greater sense of responsibility in others (and yourself) emphasize the anticipation of accomplishment, not the penalties for failure.”
Curie, Marie “I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.”
Curneen, Gary “When coaches learn, they should learn in great detail. But, when they teach, they should teach with simplicity.”
Basketball Quotes D
Daly, Chuck “If you’re going to have to beg them to play, it’s not going to work.”
Dana, Charles A. “Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole truth or the only truth.”
Daugherty, Brad “I never think about missing a free throw. All that goes through my mind when I’m at the line is seeing the ball go through the bottom of the net.”
da Vinci, Leonardo “Obstacles cannot bend me. Every obstacle yields to effort.”
Dempsey, Jack “A champion is one who gets up even when he can’t.”
DePree, Max “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”
DePree, Max “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.”
DeVos, Richard M. “The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible.”
Dewey, John “Failure is instructive. The perosn who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.”
DeYoung Dennis “Winners are losers who got up and gave it one more try.”
Dierdorf, Dan “I don’t pay attention to what others are doing. I feel strongly that if I have correct goals and the determination to keep pursuing them the best way I know how, everything else falls into line.”
Disney, Walt “The difference in winning and losing is most often… not quitting.”
Disney, Walt “You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”
Ditka, Mike “I don’t think anything is unreasonable if you believe you can do it.”
Dixon, Jack “If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results”
Dobbs, Dr. Cory“It’s not enough to know how to lead; you need to know how to build leaders too.”
Dreyfack, Raymond “A good leader inspires other people with confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves.”
Drucker, Peter “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.”
Drucker, Peter “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly or it vanishes.”
Drucker, Peter “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.”
Dungy, Tony “I’ve always tried to coach people the way I would like to be coached; positively and encouragingly rather than with criticism and fear … I’ve tried to be as fair as possible.”
Basketball Quotes E
Edison, Thomas “Many of life’s failures are people who do not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Edwards, Tyron “People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher and better than themselves.”
Einstein, Albert “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.”
Einstein, Albert “Don’t look to become a person of success, look to become a person of value.”
Eisenhower, Dwight D. “There are no victories at bargain prices.”
Eisenhower, Dwight D. “We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.”
Eisenhower, Dwight D. “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionable integrity. Without it, no real success is possible.”
Eliot, T.S. “If you want it you must obtain it by great labor.”
Elliot, Ellen “Leadership is helping yourself and other people achieve goals. The ability to direct your life to get the results you want is leadership.”
Elway, John “When things go bad, it’s easy to point fingers. People who attempt to switch the blame are afraid to fail. We’ve all been afraid to fail before a game, but it shouldn’t stop us from continuing, and from doing what we have to do to get the job done.”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo “Skill to do comes of doing.”
Elliott, Walter “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.”
Basketball Quotes F
Faulkner, William “Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
Federman, Irwin“Your job give you authority, but your behavior earns you respect.”
Feller, Bob “Every day is a new opportunity; you can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is. With a new game every day.”
Fitzsimmons, Cotton “I have a basic philosophy that I’ve tried to follow during my coaching career. Whether you’re winning or losing, it is important to always be yourself. You can’t change because of the circumstances around you.”
Forbes, BC “Diamonds are only lumps of coal that stuck to their jobs.”
Forbes,BC “It is when things go hardest, when life becomes most trying, that there is greatest need for having a fixed goal.”
Ford, Henry “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
Foster, Bill “Negative thoughts are contagious and they get passed around like a disease. I inoculate myself against the fear of failure.”
Franklin, Benjamin “Well done is better than well said.”
Basketball Quotes G
Galiher, Sean “The mind does not know the difference between a real and an imagined experience.”
Garland, Judy “Always be a first—rate version of yourself, instead of a second—rate version of somebody else.”
Gibbs, Joe “People who enjoy what they do, invariably do it well.”
Gibran, Kahlil “The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.”
Gibson, Althea “No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.”
Gladwell, Malcolm “The people at the top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.”
Gordon, Jon “Culture consists of the share purpose, attitudes, values, goals, practices, behaviors, and habits that define a team or organization.”
Graf, Steffi “You can’t measure success if you have never failed. My father has taught me that if you really do want to reach your goals, you can’t spend any time worrying about whether you’re going to win or lose. Focus only on getting better.”
Greenleaf, Robert “Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much.”
Basketball Quotes H
Haley, Jim “Championships & 20 win seasons are won on the road”
Hamilton, Brutus “It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life that those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest.”
Harrell, Keith “Whether you realize it or not, you are a role model for the people in your life. Your every action is being watched. Someone is looking to you for inspiration, support and leadership.”
Havlicek, John “We win because we play together as a team.”
Havlicek, John “If you are honest with yourself and can look into a mirror and believe that you have given 100 percent, you should feel proud. If you cannot, then there is more work to be done.”
Hayes, Wood “The only thing even in this world is the number of hours in a day. The difference in winning or losing is what you do with those hours.”
Hill, Napolean “The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those, which fail.”
Hinckley, Gordon B. “You will come to know that what today appears to be a sacrifice will prove instead to be the greatest investment you will ever make.”
Hogan, Ben “If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.”
Holt, Victoria “Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.”
Holtz, Lou “The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.”
Holtz, Lou “You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose.”
Holtz, Lou “Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.”
Hopper, Grace ” “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for.”
Hopper, Grace “You manage things, you lead people.”
Huff, Sam “Discipline is the whole key to being successful. We all get 24 hours each day. That’s the only fair thing; it’s the only thing that’s equal. What we do with those 24 hours is up to us.”
Hurley, Bob “A bad day coaching basketball is better than a good day doing almost anything else.”
Huxley, Aldous “Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.”
Basketball Quotes J
Jackson, Bo “I’ll never worry about not being successful. I’ll just take it one day at a time, one season at a time. And play as hard as I can.”
Jackson, D.N. “The size of a leader is determined by the depth of his convictions, the height of his ambitions, the breadth of his vision, and the reach of his love.”
Jackson, Phil “Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.”
Jackson, Phil “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.”
Jackson, Phil “You must contribute your whole self to the team, not just your athletic self.”
Jackson, Phil “It’s no accident that things are more likely to go your way when you stop worrying about whether you’re going to win or lose, and focus all your full attention on what’s happening right at this moment.”
James, Lebron “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.”
James, William “The great use of life is to spend it doing something that will outlast it.”
Jenner, Bruce “I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you’re a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you’ll win. If you don’t you won’t.”
Johnson, Earvin “Magic” “I never think that there’s something I can’t do, whether it’s beating my opponent one on one or practicing another hour because something about my game is just not right.”
Johnson, Earvin “Magic” “Magic “My father is my idol, so I always did everything like him.”
Johnson, Earvin “Magic” “Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.”
Johnson, Jimmy “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little ‘extra’.”
Johnson, Kyle “You have to play so hard that it hurts!”
Johnson, Lyndon “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
Jones, Charles “Tremendous” You are the same today that you are going to be in five years from now except for two things: the people with whom you associate and the books you read.”
Josephson, Michael S. “A good coach improves your game. A great coach improves your life.”
Joyner-Kersee, Jackie “Achieving success and personal glory in athletics has less to do with wins and losses than it does with learning how to prepare yourself so that at the end of the day, whether on the track or in the office, you know that there was nothing more you could have done to reach your ultimate goal.”
Jordan, Michael “There have been times that I have failed. But, there have never been times that I thought I would fail.”
Jordan, Michael “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.”
Jordan, Michael “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life, and that is why…I succeed.”
That quote is from a Nike commercial. I have posted a link to it from YouTube on the site along with another one with Michael discussing how it was his fire and not his flash that was another key to his success: Michael Jordan Videos
Basketball Quotes K
Keller, Helen “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
Kennedy, John F. “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.”
Kettering, Charles “You can’t have a better tomorrow if you’re thinking about yesterday.”
King, Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question–What are you doing for others?”
King, Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. “If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can,t walk, crawl. But, by all means, keep moving.”
King, Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the staircase.”
King, Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Kiser, Henry J. “Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.”
Knight, Bob “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.”
Knight, Bob “In basketball, the mental is to the physical as four is to one.”
Knight, Bob “I just love the game of basketball so much. The game! I don’t need the 18,000 people screaming and all the peripheral things. To me, the most enjoyable part is the practice and preparation.”
Knight, Bob “The biggest difficulty in getting to the top of the ladder is getting through the crowd at the bottom.”
Korda, Michael “If your position is everywhere, your momentum is zero.”
Kroc, Ray “Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.”
Krzyzewski, Mike “A common mistake among those who work in sport is spending a disproportional amount of time on”x’s and o’s” as compared to time spent learning about people.”
Krzyzewski, Mike “Every season is a journey. Every Journey is a lifetime.”
Krzyzewski, Mike “Play and practice like you are trying to make the team.”
Krzyzewski, Mike “People want to be on a team. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be in a situation where they feel that they are doing something for the greater good.”
Click here for several more quotes on leadership from Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Basketball Quotes L
Lambert, Jack “I was determined to play. I knew all along deep down inside that I could do it, that I was good even though hardly anyone seemed to agree with me. My determination more than made up for any lack of speed, height, or weight.”
Landry, Tom “Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan. The key is discipline. Without it, there is no morale.”
Lao Tzu “Failure is the foundation of success, and the means by which it is achieved.”
Larson, Jonathan “Forget regret, or life is yours to miss…”
LaRussa, Tony “Being involved in competition is a privilege and an opportunity. Seek to make the most of that opportunity by pushing yourself to the limit of your abilities. When it is over, you will have earned the respect of your opponents, your coaches, and yourself.”
Lasorda, Tommmy “The difference between the possible and the impossible lies in the man’s determination.”
Lasorda, Tommmy “Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.”
Lewis, C. S. “The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”
Lincoln, Abraham “The occasion is piled high with difficulty. We must rise to the occasion.”
Lincoln, Abraham “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”
Lincoln, Abraham “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
Lincoln, Abraham “I will prepare, and someday my chance will come.”
Loehr, Jim “The ability to summon positive emotions during periods of intense stress lies at the heart of effective leadership.”
Lombardi, Vince “There is only one way to succeed at anything, and that is to give everything.”
Lombardi, Vince “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”
Lombardi, Vince “Individual commitment to a group effort. That’s what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
Lombardi, Vince “Confidence is contagious.”
Lombardi, Vince “There is no substitute for work.”
Lombardi, Vince “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
Lombardi, Vince “A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little thins in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.”
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth “He that respects himself is safe from others; he wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.”
Lucas, George “If America is the pursuit of happiness, the best way to pursue happiness is to help other people.”
Lynch, Dr. Jerry “When you believe and think ‘I can,’ you activate your motivation, commitment, confidence, concentration, and excitement–all of which relate directly to achievement.”
Basketball Quotes M
Mackay, Harvey “Leadership does not mean getting people to do their job. It means getting people to do their best.”
Mandela, Nelson “There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
Mandino, Og “I will waste not even a precious second today in anger or hate or jealousy or selfishness. I know that the seeds I sow I will harvest, because every action, good or bad, is always followed by an equal reaction. I will plant only good seeds this day.”
Mansfield, Katherine “Make it a rule of life to never regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it, it’s only good for wallowing in.”
Maris, Roger “You hit home runs not by chance, but by preparation.”
Maugham, W. Somerset “It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you often get it.”
Maxwell, John C. “Leadership is influence. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
Maxwell, John C. “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”
Maxwell, John C. “People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.”
Maxwell, John C. “A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit.”
Maxwell, John C. “Leaders will not experience long-term success unless a lot of people want them to.”
Maxwell, John C. “If a person doesn’t govern his temper, his temper will govern him.”
Maxwell, John C. “When problems confront successful leaders, they get excited about the opportunity.”
Maxwell, John C. ” A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
Maxwell, John C. “Learn to say ‘no’ to the good, so you can say ‘yes’ to the best.”
Maxwell, John C. “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.”
McEvoy, JP “When you talk, you are only repeating what you know, but when you listen you have a chance to learn something new.”
McGannon, Donald “Leadership is action, not position.”
McKay, John “You shouldn’t worry about the fans or the press or trying to satisfy the expectations of everyone else. All that matters is whether you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there that you’ve done your best..”
Mellor, David (Director of Grounds, Fenway Park) “Whatever it takes, that’s what I do.”
Meyer, Don “In practice, don’t just run basketball drills, teach the players how to play basketball.”
Meyer, Don “It is foolish to expect a young man to follow your advice and to ignore your example.”
Meyer, Don “Proper prior planning prevents pitiful poor performance.”
Meyer, Don “Be what ya is, ’cause if ya be what you ain’t, ya ain’t what ya is.”
Meyer, Don “You can have discipline and be demanding without being demeaning.”
Meyer, Paul J. “Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.”
Meyer,Ray “Practice does not make the athlete. It is the quality and intensity of practice that makes the athlete, not just repeated practicing.”
Michener, James “Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.”
Millman, Dan “I learned that we can do anything, but we can’t do everything.. at least not at the same time. So think of your priorities not in terms of what activities you do, but when you do them. Timing is everything.”
Basketball Quotes N
Naismith, James “I seek to leave the world a litter better place than I found it.”
Nicklaus, Jack “It’s great to win, but it’s also great fun just to be in the thick of any truly well-and hard-fought contest against opponents you respect, whatever the outcome.”
Nightingale, Earl “Successful people form the habit of doing what failures don’t like to do. They like the results they get by doing what they don’t necessarily enjoy.”
Nightingale, Florence “I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.
Nightingale, Earl “Successful people form the habit of doing what failures don’t like to do. They like the results they get by doing what they don’t necessarily enjoy.”
Nightingale, Florence “I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.”
Nightingale, Earl “It’s our attitude in life that determines life’s attitude toward us.”
Noble, Charles C. “You must have long-term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.”
Noll, Chuck “If you want to win, do the ordinary things better than anyone else does them day in and day out.”
Norman, Greg “Setting goals for your game is an art. The trick is in setting them at the right level — neither too low nor too high. A good goal should be lofty enough to inspire hard work, yet realistic enough to provide solid hope of attainment.”
Norris, Kathleen “Before you begin a thing remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead. You can only see one thing clearly, and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that and cling to it through thick and thin.”
Nyad, Diana “I am willing to put myself through anything; temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will take me to a new level. I am interested in the unknown, and the only path to the unknown is through breaking barriers, an often painful process.”
Basketball Quotes O
Olsen, Merlin “We need to know where we are going and how we plan to get there. Our dreams and aspirations must be translated into real and tangible goals with priorities and time frames.”
Ortega y Gasset, José “Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.”
Owen, Ray “Trying times are not the times to stop trying.”
Owens, Jesse “Friendships born on the field of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust.”
Basketball Quotes P
Palmer, Arnold “I’ve always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.”
Parcells, Bill “When you don’t know that you don’t know, it’s a lot different than when you do know that you don’t know.”
Parsons, Bob “Anything that is measured and watched improves.”
Pasteur, Louis “Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal; my strength lies solely in my tenacity.”
Pasteur, Louis “Chance favors only the prepared mind.”
Patton, George “Accept the challenge so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.”
Pele “Enthusiasm is everything. It must be as taut and vibrating as a guitar string.”
Penney, J.C. “I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties.”
Penney, J.C. “Long-range goals keep you from being frustrated by short term failures.”
Phillips, Bum “I’d rather have preparation than motivation. Everyone likes to play, but no one likes to practice.”
Pierce, Ricky “Legends are not born~they are created.”
Pitino, Rick ” Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer.”
Powell, Colin “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”
Powell, Colin “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
Price, Mark “Due to my size limitation, when I came into the NBA other players tried to test me right away. But once they saw I wasn’t going to be tentative or intimidated, most of that stuff stopped. Now it’s fun to go out there against the league’s best, knowing that you have earned their respect through hard work and dedication.”
Basketball Quotes R
Reeve, Christopher “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”
Rhee, Jhoon “Discipline is the habit of taking consistent action until one can perform with unconscious competence. Discipline weighs ounces but regret weighs tons.
Rice, Condoleezza “Education is of no value and talent is worthless – unless you have an unwavering aim. Never find yourself without a compass.”
Rice, Jerry “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”
Riis, Jacob “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it – but all that had gone before.”
Riley, Pat There are only two options regarding commitment; you’re either in or you’re out. There’s no such thing as life in-between.”
Riley, Pat “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. ”
Riley, Pat “Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers.”
Riley, Pat “Excellence is the gradual result of always wanting to do better.”
Riley, Pat “Courage is not the absence of fear, but simply moving on with dignity despite that fear.”
Riley, Pat “Great efforts springs naturally from great attitude.”
Rivers, Glenn “Doc” “Mental toughness, mental toughness, mental toughness!”
Robbins, Tony “Where focus goes, energy flows.”
Robert, Cavett “Any person who selects a goal in life which can be fully achieved, has already defined his own limitations.”
Robinson, David “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.”
Robinson, Frank “Whether you’re trying to excel in athletics or in any other field, always practice. Look, listen, learn — and practice, practice, practice. There is no substitute for work, no shortcut to the top.”
Robinson, Jackie “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
Rodgers, Jimmy “Don’t ever allow the pressure of competition to be greater than the pleasure of competition.”
Rohn, Jim “Leaders must learn to discipline their disappointments. It’s not what happens to us, it is what we choose to do about what happens that makes the difference in how our lives turn out. ”
Rohn, Jim “Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
Rohn, Jim “You become like the 5 people that you spend the most time with, choose wisely.”
Rohn, Jim “Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.”
Rohn, Jim “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of didcipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline ways ounces while regret ways tons.”
Rooney, Art Class is an intangible thing. Different people show it in different ways, but it does not take long to surface and it is easily recognizable.
Roosevelt, Theodore “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Roosevelt, Theodore “We cannot do great deeds unless we’re willing to do the small things that make up the sum of greatness.”
Roosevelt, Theodore “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Royal, Darrell “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Russell, Bill “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.”
Russell-McCloud, Patricia “Life is an escalator. You can move forward or backward, you cannot remain still.”
Ruth, Babe “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but i f they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”
Ruth, Babe “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”
Ryan, Bo “You measure a person by what it takes to discourage them.”
Ryan, Paul “Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together.”
Basketball Quotes S
Schilling, Ed “It’s not what’s taught, it’s what’s caught that matters.”
SchullerRobert “A great drive, a powerful determination and a consuming desire will easily compensate for a little or limited talent.”
Schulz, Charles “Life is like a 10-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use.”
Schultz, Howard “Life is a series of near misses. But a lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It’s seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future.”
Schwarzenegger , Arnold “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
Schweitzer, Albert “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”
Schweitzer, Albert “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”
Schweitzer, Albert “Let your life be your argument.”
Shah, Vaibhav “Whenever you see a successful person, you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.”
Shaw, George Bernard “A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
Sheets, Jeromy “Coaching is about development and relationships.”
Shula, Don “Some clubs want to win so much they’ll do anything to get it. Our approach has been just the opposite. We’ve tried to do things the right way. And the right way is [abiding by] the rules and regulations … I may not like all of them, but once they are [official], we play by them.”
Singleton, Ken “If you want to hit .300, set your sights on .325. If you want to drive in 100 runs, go for 125. Then, if you fall a little short and hit .304 and drive in 100 runs, you won’t be disappointed.”
Smart, Shaka“We want to be the most enthusiastic and energetic team in the country. That’s what we can control.”
Smith, Dean “A team with five individuals thinking ‘team ‘ will defeat a group of superior individuals thinking of themselves.”
Smith, Dean “Basketball is a team game. But that doesn’t mean all five players should have the same amount of shots.”
Smith, Dean “I always mean what I say, but I don’t always say what I’m thinking.”
Smith, Fred “You are the way you are because that’s the way you want to be. If you really wanted to be any different, you would be in the process of changing right now.”
Smuts, Jan Christiaan “A person is not defeated by their opponents but by themselves.”
Sondheim, Stephen “Everything depends on execution. Just having a vision is no solution.”
Sorrell, Mike “You are always getting better, or getting worse. You never stay the same.”
Spanish Proverb “Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.”
Staubach, Roger “Nothing good comes in life or athletics unless a lot of hard work has preceded the effort. Only temporary success is achieved by taking shortcuts.”
Stargell, Willie “Be honest and work hard to get what you want. Don’t take shortcuts; you only cheat yourself in the long run. Success is not measured by money or fame, but by how you feel about your own goals and accomplishments and the time and effort you put into them.”
Stevens, Brad“TGHT: “The game honors toughness.”
Stevens, Brad “How good can we expect to be if our best player is not our best teammate?”
Stevens, Brad “My goal is to win the next game one possession at a time. That’s it. I don’t have any other goals.”
Stevenson, Robert Louis “Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.”
Summitt, Pat “The ultimate goal of discipline is to teach self discipline.”
Summitt, Pat “Teamwork doesn’t come naturally. It must be taught.”
Summitt, Pat “Individual success is a myth. No one succeeds all by herself.”
Summitt, Pat “I want to continue to do is to help these young women be successful. .. You don’t just say goodbye at the end of their playing careers and end it there.”
Click here for more basketball quotes and basketball philosophy from Coach Pat Summit
Syrus, Publilius “Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.”
Basketball Quotes T
Thatcher, Margaret “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
Thatcher, Margaret “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.”
Theophrastus “Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.”
Thomas, Kurt “I feel that the most important step in any major accomplishment is setting a specific goal. This enables you to keep your mind focused on your goal and off the many obstacles that will arise while you’re striving to do your best.”
Tomjanovich, Rudy “Never underestimate the heart of a champion.”
Tomlinson, H. M. “We see things not as they are, but as we are.”
Tracy, Brian “There’s only one direction you can coast–downhill..”
Tracy, Brian “Become the kind of person that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.”
Truman, Harry “I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.”
Basketball Quotes U
Unitas, Johnny “Specialists can never practice their specialties too much. The danger is in not practicing enough. Make that mistake, and soon you may not be in the specialty business anymore.”
United States Navy Seals “I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity… If knocked down, I will get back up, every time.”
Unseld, Wes “I didn’t do anything very pretty. My contributions were in the intangibles. But, they were the type of things that help lead a team..”
Basketball Quotes V
Valvano, Jim “We should do three things every day of our life. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is to think, we should spend some time in thought. And, number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears.”
Van Arsdale, Dick “I’m a firm believer in quiet confidence. By that I mean knowing inwardly that you are good, and not exhibiting a boastful attitude outwardly. If an athlete doesn’t believe in himself, no one else will.”
Vermeil, Dick “If you don’t invest very much, then defeat doesn’t hurt you very much and winning is not very exciting.”
Basketball Quotes W
Waitley, Dennis “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”
Walton, Bill “At 49, I can say something I never would have said when I was a player. I am a better person because of my failures and disgraces.”
Walton, Sam “High expectations are the key to everything.”
Ward, William Arthur “Adversity cause some men to break; others to break records.”
Ward, William Arthur “Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character.
Ward, William Arthur “It is wise to direct your anger towards problems – not people; to focus your energies on answers – not excuses.”
Ward, William Arthur “The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment.”Washington, Booker T. “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
Washington, Booker T. “The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what thte man or woman is able to do that counts.”
Wayne, John “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes in to us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands, and hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.”
Wayne, John “True grit is making a decision and standing by it, doing what must be done.”
Weihenmayer, Erik “You don’t just deal with adversity. You use it to propel you forward.”
Welsh, Joan “If you’re coasting, you’re either losing momentum or else you’re headed downhill.”
West, Jerry “When time is running out and the score is close, most players are thinking, I don’t want to be the one to lose the game, but I’m thinking, What do I have to do to win?”
West, Jerry “You don’t get much done if you only work on the days when you feel like it.”
Westphal, Paul “Have fun doing whatever it is that you desire to accomplish. Learn it one step at a time, emphasizing the fundamentals, and do it because you love it, not because it’s work.”
Whittier, John Greenleaf “For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been’ ”
Wilkinson, Bud “Remember, ‘Rome was not built in a day.’ Instant success is never possible. Competence results only from sustained, consistent, self-disciplined effort over an extended period of time.”
Williams, Serena “I always believe I can beat the best, achieve the best. I always see myself in the top position.”
Williams, Venus “So what if you fail? At least you’ll know what not to do when you try again.”
Winfield, Dave “A winner is one who is not afraid of the challenge, who rebounds from his setbacks, and who is flexible enough to make adjustments in order to succeed the next time.”
Wooden, John “Success is a peace of mind which is a direct result of knowing that you did your best to become what you are capable of becoming.”
Wooden, John “A player who makes a team great is better than a great player.”
Wooden, John “Confidence comes from being prepared.”
Wooden, John “Our titles would not have been possible without the unselfishness displayed by all our teams, the team wins, not the individuals”
Wooden, John “You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.”
Wooden, John “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
Wooden, John “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.”
Wooden, John “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
Wooden, John “When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.”
Wooden, John “The choices you make in life, make you.”
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Wooden, John “Be quick, but don’t hurry.”
Wooden, John “Talent is God-given – be humble. Fame is man-given – be thankful. Conceit is self-given – be careful.”
Wooden, John “Never mistake activity for achievement.”
Wooden, John “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
Basketball Quotes Y
Yoda: “There is do and do not, there is no try.”
Basketball Quotes Z
Ziglar, Zig “Evidence is conclusive that your self-talk has a direct bearing on your performance.”
Ziglar, Zig “Most people who fail in their dreams fail not from lack of ability but from lack of commitment.”
Basketball Quotes Unknown Source
“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass…it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”
“It takes no talent to hustle.”
“Hard head leads to sore rear end” (from sitting on the bench)
“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that final victory comes.”
“When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.”
Inspirational Basketball Quotes Unknown Source
“You’ve got to believe deep inside yourself that you’re destined to do great things.”
“There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going.”
“Leadership is a privilege and with privilege comes responsibility.”
“Leadership is the art of mobilizing and energizing the intellectual and creative resources of all people at all levels of the organization.”
“Present choices determine future consequences.”
Basketball Sayings Unknown Source
“The first and perhaps final test of leadership is your ability to attract and keep followers.”
“The highest compliment leaders can receive is the one that is given by the people who work for them.”
“The race is not always to the swift… but to those who keep on running.”
“You can have results or you can have excuses, but you can’t have both.”
“Trust is the glue that holds everything together.”
“We teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are.”
Inspirational Basketball Quotes Unknown Source
“You can’t be persuasive and abrasive at the same time.”
“The leader who sells principles for popularity will soon be bankrupt.”
You reap what you sow.
“You have to choose the voice you are going to trust. You can’t listen to everyone.”
“Pride is the sheet anchor of morality. The doer of noble deeds. When love flies and hope fails, Pride still lingers.The savage rear guard of the human soul.”
Basketball Quotes Unknown Source
“Discipline is the refining fire which enables talent to become ability.”
“To handle yourself, use your head, to handle others, use your heart.”
“One of the greatest gifts leaders can give others is hope.”
“The boss depends on authority, the leader depends on good will.”
The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind in other people the convictions and the will to carry on.
Basketball Quotes Unknown Source
“The boss says ‘go,’ the leader says ‘let’s go.’ ”
“A good leader is a guy who can step on your toes without messing up your shine.”
“The man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.”
“You cannot lead anyone else farther than you have been able to go yourself..”
“Be the most enthusiastic person you know.”
“We would accomplish many more things if we id not think them impossible.”
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did.”
“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.”
“Good leaders must first become good servants”.
“Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.”
“A big man is one who makes us feel bigger when we are with him.”
“Don’t spend a dollar’s worth of time on a dime decision.”
“We are judged by what we finish, not what we start.”
“Advice for dealing with extremely difficult people, “Don’t wrestle with the pigs. You both get mud on you, and the pigs like it.”
“Your toughest competition in life is anyone who is willing to work harder than you.”
“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the quality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.”
“When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away; but, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”
“When you’re through improving, you’re through.”
“A person who is successful has simply formed the habit of doing things that unsuccessful people will not do.”
“Your attitude is either the lock or the key to the door of success.”
“It’s OK to lend a helping hand, the challenging part is getting people to let go of it.”
“If you have to tell people you are in charge, you aren’t.”
“Outstanding leaders will appeal to the hearts of their followers, not their minds.”
“There are two quick ways to disaster—taking nobody’s advice and taking everybody’s advice.”
“A wise leader resolves conflicts peaceably, not forcibly.”
“The best way to see the future is to create it.”
“True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders.”
“To love what you do and feel that it matters—how could anything be more fun?”
“Everybody wants to follow the leader; but, nobody wants to lead the followers.”
“Our patience will achieve more than our force.”
“Leadership is not a role, it is a function.”
“Love and respect do not automatically accompany a position of leadership, they must be earned.”
“You never know who’s right, but you always know who’s in charge.”
“A leader’s success is largely determined by the ability to motivate others.”
“Leaders get out in front and stay there by raising the standards by which they judge themselves—and by which they are willing to be judged.”
“Your attitude is either the lock or the key to the door of success.”
“Shine your stars, work your horses, Fix your problems, Get rid of deadwood.”
“A team consist of not only the players on the court, but also the coaches and the bench. It is a team game and a team wins!”
“We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails.”
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
“What you do reflects your attitude, not what you say or even how you say it.”
Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you’re made of.”
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.
Prejudice is a great time saver, it enables one to form opinions without bothering to get the facts.
Real leaders have no need to advertise their leadership except by their conduct, sympathy, understanding, and ability.”
As you can see, not all of our basketball quotes came from basketball coaches or basketball players. Send us some of your favorite basketball quotes, and we will include them in our list!
For your quotes:
Frequently incorrectly attributed to Bobby Kennedy, who used it a lot, as I do whenever suitable, including basketball motivation:
“There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? ”
George Bernard Shaw