Bill Russell Quotes About Basketball

Quotes about: Basketball

• I hope I epitomize the American dream. For I came against long odds, from the ghetto to the very top of my profession. I was not immediately good at basketball. It did not come easy. It came as the result of a lot of hard work and self-sacrifice. The rewards, where they worth it? One thousand times over.

  Bill Russell

  Leadership, Basketball, Sports

• Most people have a harder time letting themselves love than finding someone to love them.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Letting Go, Fear

  Bill Russell, Taylor Branch (1980). “Second wind: the memoirs of an opinionated man”

• The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Nba, Games

  Bill Russell, Taylor Branch (1980). “Second wind: the memoirs of an opinionated man”

• If Shakespeare can compare all of life to a stage, maybe it's not odd to believe that part of the play can take place on a basketball court.

  Bill Russell

  Inspirational, Basketball, Believe

  Bill Russell, Taylor Branch (1980). “Second wind: the memoirs of an opinionated man”

• Commitment separates those who live their dreams from those who live their lives regretting the opportunities they have squandered.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Dream, Regret

• Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Focus And Concentration, Victory

• You got to have the killer instinct. If you do not have it, forget about basketball and go into social psychology or something. If you sometimes wonder if you've got it, you ain't got it. No pussycats, please.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Psychology, Killers

• Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Athlete, Reality

• Heart in champions has to do with the depth of our motivation and how well your mind and body react to pressure - that is, being able to do what you do best under maximum pain and stress.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Pain, Motivation

  Bill Russell, Taylor Branch (1980). “Second wind: the memoirs of an opinionated man”

• Remember that basketball is a game of habits. If you make the other guy deviate from his habits, you've got him

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Nba, Games

• The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Motivational Sports, Block

• Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Team, Nba

  Bill Russell, David Falkner (2001). “Russell Rules: 11 Lessons on Leadership from the Twentieth Century's Greatest Winner”, p.36, Penguin

• The most important thing to me is the friends that I've made.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Nba, Important

• We couldn't sustain it. And they got a lot of kids that can shoot. We just couldn't close out well enough.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Kids, Enough

• I think that David Stern is probably the greatest commissioner that any sport has ever had in the history of this country.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Sports, Country

• People say it was the greatest individual rivalry they've ever seen. I agree with that. Let me assure you that if either Wilt's or Russ' coach had ever told one of them he couldn't guard the other guy, he would have lost that player forever.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Player, People

• What distinguishes a great player is his presence. When he goes on to the court, his presence dominates the atmosphere.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Player, Nba

• The morale and the camaraderie that we had for one another earlier in the year is starting to come under duress because of all the losses. Some of the guys are feeling the pressure now from the last year when they were not successful.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Successful, Loss

• I think what has happened to our basketball team, we've been badly distracted. They're not reading too many positive things in the paper.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Team, Reading

• What's more important than who's going to be the first black manager is who's going to be the first black sports editor of the New York Times.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Sports, New York

• After I played him for the first time, I said 'Let's see. He's four or five inches taller. He's 40 or 50 pounds heavier. His vertical leap is at least as good as mine. He can get up and down the floor as well as I can. And he's smart. The real problem with all this is I have to show up.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Real, Smart

• The last five or six days, I've been running. The last two days, I've been running pretty hard. Everybody's got to be someplace.

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Running, Two

• On females officiating in the NBA -Incompetence should not be confined to one sex.

  Bill Russell

  Funny, Basketball, Sex

• Don't knock the ball in the stands, keep it in your hands!

  Bill Russell

  Basketball, Hands, Balls

• We learn to make a shell for ourselves when we are young and then spend the rest of our lives hoping for someone to reach inside and touch us. Just touch us—anything more than that would be too much for us to bear.

  Bill Russell

  Inspirational, Basketball, Would Be

  Bill Russell, Taylor Branch (1980). “Second wind: the memoirs of an opinionated man”

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