Praise behaviour that you want repeated
Basketball, more than any other sport, is a team game...about the thousands of small, unselfish acts, the sacrifices on the part of the players that result in team building.
Champions have no off-season.
The thing I like about my body is that it's strong. I can move furniture around my apartment. I can ride my horse... I can play basketball. It's a well functioning machine.
Offense is spacing and spacing is offense.
I've been in the league 12 years. To sit on the bench and complain about the way things were, that doesn't get anything done. I don't know. I'm playing for a championship and trying to make the playoffs. My effort has never changed.
I'm pretty fundamental when it comes to running. A basketball player doesn't practice his free throw shooting by doing slam dunks all over the place. He does it by practicing free throws. That's the attitude I take: You don't get better at running by doing everything but running. You get better by running.
I know I'm never as good or bad as one single performance. I've never believed in my critics or my worshippers, and I've always been able to leave the game at the arena.
I don't hate anyone, at least not for more than 48 minutes, barring overtime.
Poor white people and poor black people just don't know how much they have in common. Rich people don't give a damn about either group.
I just wish all these young black kids would realize how significant it is to stop acting a fool out there, killing each other, not getting their education. You know, people have died to put us in a situation to be successful.
The main thing to do is relax and let your talent do the work.
We're still getting better as a team. We're still learning how to play basketball as a team and how to win tough games.
I smile all the time, even when I'm in a bad mood. I always try to keep a smile on my face.
Every little kid that steps on the court or the field has aspirations to go pro. I think being a pro basketball player is the best job. The thing I had to realize was that I can't do every dream that I have.
As coaches we talk about two things: offense and defense. There is a third phase we neglect, which is more important. It's conversion from offense to defense and defense to offense.
Son, my name isn't Knight to you, it's coach Knight or it's Mr. Knight. I don't call people by their last name and neither should you.
A great way to test the conditioning of your team is the two-mile run.
Everyone wants to win, but not everyone is willing to prepare to win.
I won the city scoring championship as a senior.
Race wasn't an issue. My family was French, but Yorkville was a melting pot of races and cultures.
But as a coach I wanted to keep things from being too complicated.
I dribbled by the hour with my left hand when I was young. I didn't have full control, but I got so I could move the ball back and forth from one hand to the other without breaking the cadence of my dribble. I wasn't dribbling behind my back or setting up any trick stuff, but I was laying the groundwork for it.
Bill Russell was my favorite player of all-time.
Any American boy can be a basketball star if he grows up, up, up.
