INSPIRATIONAL BASKETBALL QUOTES
• Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.
— Wilt Chamberlain
• One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• When I was young, I never wanted to leave the court until I got things exactly correct. My dream was to become a pro.
— Larry Bird
• People have always doubted whether I was good enough to play this game at this level. I thought I was, and I thought I could be. What other people thought was really always irrelevant to me.
— Steve Nash
• The main thing to do is relax and let your talent do the work.
— Charles Barkley
• Ask me to play. I’ll play. Ask me to shoot. I’ll shoot. Ask me to pass. I’ll pass. Ask me to steal, block out, sacrifice, lead, dominate. Anything. But it’s not what you ask of me. It’s what I ask of myself.”
— LeBron James
• I have definitely gone through my ups and downs and faced my adversity and my nay-sayers, but managed to do all right. It is a pretty classic tale.
— Steve Nash
• Sometimes in the past when I played something might make me lose focus, or I would go home after a game where I thought I could have played better and I would let it hang over my head for a long time when it shouldn’t. But now, being a parent, I go home and see my son and I forget about any mistake I ever made or the reason I’m upset. I get home and my son is smiling or he comes running to me. It has just made me grow as an individual and grow as a man.”
— LeBron James
• My responsibility is getting all my players playing for the name on the front of the jersey, not the one on the back.
— Source Unknown
• Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.
— Tim Duncan
• Basketball doesn’t build character it reveals it.
— Author Unknown
• They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds.
— Wilt Chamberlain
• Sometimes a player’s greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.
— Scottie Pippen
• The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.
— Bill Russell
• The only difference between a good shot and a bad shot is if it goes in or not.
— Charles Barkley
• You don’t play against opponents. You play against the game of basketball.
— Bobby Knight
• “You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.”
–Michael Jordan
• “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.”
–Jerry West
• “It’s what you get from games you lose that is extremely important.”
–Pat Riley
• “There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.”
–Derek Jeter
• “I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.”
–Michael Jordan
• “If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!”
–Charles Barkley
• “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”
–Michael Jordan
• “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – are all an opportunity for me to rise.”
–Kobe Bryant
• “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
–Michael Jordan
• “Don’t let what other people think decide who you are.”
–Dennis Rodman
• “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
• “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
• Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do.
— John Wooden, the first person ever enshrined as the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player (1961) and as a coach (1973).
• You always have to give 100%, because if you don’t someone, somewhere will give 100% and they will beat you when you meet.
— Ed Macauley
• Love never fails; Character never quits; and with patience and persistence; Dreams do come true.
— Pete Maravich
• I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.
— Kobe Bryant
• Never mistake activity for achievement.
— John Wooden
• The best teams have chemistry. They communicate with each other and they sacrifice personal glory for the common goal.
— Dave DeBusschere
• I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.
— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.
— John Wooden
• Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.
— Magic Johnson
• Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.
— Phil Jackson
• Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.
— Jim Valvano
• If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.
— Pat Riley
• How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal, and you have to be willing to work for it.
— Jim Valvano
• Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.
— John Wooden
• The key is not the “will to win” . . . everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.
— Bob Knight
• Do your best when no one is looking. If you do that, then you can be successful in anything that you put your mind to.
— Bob Cousy
• The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life – mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical.
— Julius Erving
• Every time you compete, try harder to improve on your last performance. Give nothing short of your very best effort.
— Elgin Baylor
• Never underestimate the heart of a champion.
— Rudy Tomjanovich
• Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you.
— John Wooden