Everyone is born with a certain potential. You may never achieve your full potential, but how close you come depends on how much you want to pay the price.
They said you have to use your five best players but I found you win with the five who fit together the best.
The Boston Celtics are not a basketball team, they are a way of life.
I don't believe in statistics. There are too many factors that can't be measured. You can't measure a ballplayer's heart.
The only correct actions are those that demand no explanation and no apology.
You don't win games as a coach during games. You win games as a coach before games. Players win during games, not coaches
It's not what you tell your players that counts. It's what they hear.
Just do what you do best.
He who believes in nobody knows that he himself is not to be trusted.
Stand up for your players. Show them you care on and off the court.
An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise.
If they think we've got an edge, we've got an edge.
The best way to forget ones self is to look at the world with attention and love.
To a father, when a child dies, the future dies; to a child when a parent dies, the past dies.
Look after your people.
I can't stand a ballplayer who plays in fear. Anybody who has a good shot has got to take it and keep taking it. So he misses...so what?
All records are made to be broken.
Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.
You've got to avoid overcoaching. You've got to avoid talking too much. You've got to avoid showing players that you're the boss every time. You don't have to do that. They know you're in charge.
You can't win without the ball.
If you're keeping score, win!
I never had a set of rules. Every situation is different.
The coach should be the absolute boss, but he still should maintain an open mind.
Everything can happen in the playoffs.
When players are used to winning, they put out a little more. Basketball 3rd winningest coach (regular season and playoffs) in NBA history; won 1,037 times in 20 years.
