Encouraging Basketball Quotes

• It doesn't matter who scores the points, it's who can get the ball to the scorer.

  Larry Bird

  Basketball, Winning, Balls

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• It is not the critic who counts...The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Success, Courage, Badass

  Address at the Sorbonne, Paris, 23 Apr. 1910. Richard M. Nixon quoted this passage in his address to the nation announcing his decision to resign the presidency, 8 Aug. 1974. See Theodore Roosevelt 1; Theodore Roosevelt 2; Theodore Roosevelt 5

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• 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

  94 Copy quote

• Don't give up. Don't ever give up.

  Jim Valvano

  Basketball, Sports, Giving Up

  Arthur Ashe Courage Award Acceptance Address, delivered 3 March 1993

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• Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

  John Wooden

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "This Speech Was Given Before The #4Women4AllWomen Run" by Powdered Feet, womensrunning.competitor.com. January 25, 2017.

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• It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

  John Wooden

  Motivational, Inspiring, Graduation

  John Wooden (2013). “Quotes from Coach John Wooden: Winning with Principle”, p.160, B&H Publishing Group

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• What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.

  John Wooden

  Life, Basketball, Motivational Sports

  John Wooden (2013). “Quotes from Coach John Wooden: Winning with Principle”, p.29, B&H Publishing Group

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• They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Motivational, Basketball

  29 Copy quote

• Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers.

  Pat Riley

  Basketball, Teamwork, Motivational Sports

  Pat Riley (1993). “Winner Within Success”, Putnam Publishing Group

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• Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.

  Scottie Pippen

  Basketball, Teamwork, Inspirational Sports

  59 Copy quote

• If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you. You haven't done much today.

  Mikhail Gorbachev

  Basketball, Running, Yesterday

  Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, Green Cross International (2011). “Mikhail Gorbachev: Prophet of Change : from the Cold War to a Sustainable World”, p.322, CLAIRVIEW BOOKS

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

  Jim Valvano

  Basketball, Motivational Sports, Blessed

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• The most important quality I look for in a player is accountability. You've got to be accountable for who you are. It's too easy to blame things on someone else.

  Lenny Wilkens

  Motivational, Basketball, Sports

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• Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer.

  Rick Pitino

  Basketball, Sports, Nba

  Rick Pitino (1997). “Success is a Choice: Ten Steps to Overachieving in Business and Life”, Broadway

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• Winning is about having the whole team on the same page.

  Bill Walton

  Motivational, Basketball, Sports

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• The coach should be the absolute boss, but he still should maintain an open mind.

  Red Auerbach

  Basketball, Sports, Boss

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• You can run a lot of plays when your X is twice as big as the other guys' O. It makes your X's and O's pretty good.

  Paul Westphal

  Inspirational, Basketball, Running

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• Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Motivational, Inspiring, Leadership

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.5, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

  Dolly Parton

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Twitter post from May 11, 2010

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• Imagination is more important than knowledge.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Positive, Leadership

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.32, St. Martin's Press

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  Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

  Henry Ford

  Inspirational, Success, Leadership

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• A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

  Francis Bacon

  Inspirational, Success, Graduation

  1625 Essays, no.52,'Of Ceremonies and Respects'.

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• Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.

  Red Auerbach

  Motivational, Basketball, Sports

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  What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.

  Dean Smith

  Inspiring, Basketball, Sports

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• Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

  Vince Lombardi

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  President Robert Robbins' Installation Speech, president.arizona.edu. November 29, 2017.

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