Basketball Quotes - Page 43

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

...Basketball doesn't care what color your skin is. It doesn't care what language you speak or what religion you practice. It doesn't care if you're big or small, fast or slow. It just asks you to play, to complete, to lose with dignity, to win humility.

[The NBA] used to be a small band of basketball groupies. Now there are a lot more corporate-type people working in the league.

Unless you plan to out-rebound and out-shoot everyone you play, then you better learn to handle the ball.

The pleasure of sport was so often the chance to indulge the cessation of time itself--the pitcher dawdling on the mound, the skier poised at the top of a mountain trail, the basketball player with the rough skin of the ball against his palm preparing for a foul shot, the tennis player at set point over his opponent--all of them savoring a moment before committing themselves to action.

You aren't going to win championships unless you make layups and free throws.

It doesn't cost nothing to be nice to people

To be a team, you must be a family.

Everybody's talking trash these days, so why not keep quiet?

Basketball is a game of sacrificing yourself for the next guy, being a team that takes good shots, and taking the right shots

We don't do things we aren't good at by nature. I wouldn't play basketball because I'm only 5' 1". Find what you enjoy - whether it's racing, flying a helicopter, being a doctor, or stitching clothes together. Once you've done that, you have the passion you need.

The first shot does not beat you.

Players have to buy into your system and be willing to accept the role, you, as the coach, have assigned to them

You know what I always say about basketball whenever anybody tried to tell me the Knicks are gonna be good: They're old. Old people don't get healthy. They die.

If I weren't earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.

To me, the most enjoyable part is the practice and preparation

People have been killing because of racial differences since the time of Adam and Eve, but in this country racism has been primarily aimed at African Americans.

This must be how the guys in Space Jam felt when MJ gave them their powers back through that old basketball.

That's what makes it so fun to be on a team. You're sitting at your house, thinking up this wild, crazy stuff as to how it's going to go, and the other guys are sitting at their houses doing the same thing.

I wasn't a bad guy. I just wanted God to give me a second chance.

Let me be clear: Any new approach must ensure the integrity of the game. One of my most important responsibilities as commissioner of the NBA is to protect the integrity of professional basketball and preserve public confidence in the league and our sport. I oppose any course of action that would compromise these objectives. But I believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated

Basketball, in America, is like a culture. It is like a foreigner learning a new language. It is difficult to learn foreign languages and it will also be difficult for me to learn the culture for basketball here.

I understand basketball is not my entire life. It's only a part of my life. And there are a lot of other things that interest me a great deal ... other goals to seek, and this is how I have balance in life.

I don't really have anything to say. Basketball is not a game that you can play with your mouth. It needs action to prove yourself.

Get your education. The number of guys who are blessed to be in the league is so small compared to the number of high school players [who want to play in the league]. But one thing you can do is get your college education. If you are blessed enough to get a scholarship to play college basketball, make sure you get your college degree, too, then move on from there.