Pat Riley Quotes about Basketball

Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.

There are only two options regarding commitment; you’re either in or you’re out.

Great players and great teams want to be driven. They want to be pushed to the edge. They don't want to be cheated. Ordinary players and average teams want it to be easy

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.

You have no choices about how you lose, but you do have a choice about how you come back and prepare to win again.

Don't let other people tell you what you want.

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.

There's no such thing as coulda, shoulda, or woulda. If you shoulda and coulda, you woulda done it.

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

Each Warrior wants to leave the mark of his will, his signature, on important acts he touches. This is not the voice of ego but of the human spirit, rising up and declaring that it has something to contribute to the solution of the hardest problems, no matter how vexing!

If you get tough mentally, you can get tough physically and overcome fatigue.

Great effort springs naturally from great attitude.

When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor.

Being a part of success is more important than being personally indispensable.

From nobody to upstart. From upstart to contender. From contender to winner. From winner to champion. From champion to Dynasty.

Giving yourself permission to lose guarantees a loss.

There can only be one state of mind as you approach any profound test; total concentration, a spirit of togetherness, and strength.

It's what you get from games you lose that is extremely important.

The Ten Commandments were not a suggestion.

To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.

A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.

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

Never be ready to play yesterday. Being ready to play today is what's important

There's always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning.

You can never have enough talent.