Basketball Quotes - Page 45

A lot of players know how to play the game, but they really don't know how to play the game, if you know what I mean. They can put the ball in the hoop, but I see things before they even happen. You know how a guy can make his team so much better? That's one thing I learned from watching Jordan.

I really don't like talking about money. All I can say is that the Good Lord must have wanted me to have it.

The best players will play. That's the way it will always be.

I don't just try to score. The challenge is elevating my teammates to be able to win a championship.

When you're a coach you've got to go up the ladder, you've got to be ready to travel. That's the nature of coaching

I didn't really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home.

I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.

If you do things with a certain type of result and cause a certain type of reaction or effect, then you increase your market value. It's very much a competition for the entertainment dollar, and that's never been more clearly evident than in today's NBA game.

It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.

Discipline yourself, and others won't need to.

I had a basketball net that my dad had put up outside. I went out there and dribbled all day long. I wanted to play basketball. Then Id go baseball, and then Id go to football. I remember playing football in a plowed field. I grew up going from one thing to the next wanting to play something.

Other people go to the office. I get to coach. I know I've been blessed.

Even bad teams have optimism. You don't want to take away the optimism so early in the season. The Bad News Bears coach wouldn't even tell (his team) that.

I tell people that the scales lie. You may have played basketball and weighed 175 pounds, with a 30-inch waist, back when you were in college. And you may still weigh 175 at 55. But you probably have a 35-inch waist and you've probably lost 30 or 40 pounds of muscle -- and gained 30 or 40 pounds of fat. The tape measure doesn't lie. Get that tape measure out and put it on your hips and your waist. Keep checking it. And keep exercising and cutting those calories down until that tape measure gets close to where you were in your prime.

Use different basketball offensive alignments to cause confusion for the other team.

When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team.

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.

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.

There are some rappers out there that I listen to, that I'm like: "You are really good but you could be like the Michael Jordan of rap if you applied yourself." There's a lot of people who are better at basketball than Michael Jordan, but Michael Jordan just wanted to be Michael Jordan, more.

You can pick captains, but you can't pick leaders. Whoever controls the locker room controls the team

There is nothing more important than rebounding... don't just give it lip service.

Basketball gave me a lot, which is why I want to stay connected with this sport later on, maybe working with young people. But it would be more in the background. Being in the spotlight was never really my thing. I never wanted to be famous.

Every time I think about changing a diaper, I run a little bit harder and a little bit faster to make sure I can afford a nanny until my daughter's old enough to take care of that herself.

Play against the Game, not your opponent.

Failure, to me, is not having the desire to try. Having the desire to try is in it own way success.