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

  58 Copy quote

• Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.

  Al McGuire

  Leadership, Basketball, Sports

  23 Copy quote

• We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

  Will Durant

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  505 Copy quote

• Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.

  James Naismith

  Inspirational, Motivational, Basketball

  58 Copy quote

• The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

  Vince Lombardi

  Inspirational, Motivational, Basketball

  Vince Lombardi (2012). “What it Takes to be Number One”, p.70, Thomas Nelson Inc

  78 Copy quote

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• The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.

  Vince Lombardi

  Inspirational, Motivational, Running

  59 Copy quote

• Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Essays "Circles" (1841)

  71 Copy quote

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• Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious.

  Al McGuire

  Motivational, Basketball, Sports

  18 Copy quote

• Coaches build teams, parents build players.

  Charles Piazzi Smyth

  Motivational, Sports, Team

  7 Copy quote

• Basketball is a game that gives you every chance to be great, and puts every pressure on you to prove that you haven't got what it takes. It never takes away the chance, and it never eases up on the pressure.

  Bob Sundvold

  Inspirational, Basketball, Games

  45 Copy quote

• So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Courage, Badass, Military

  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

  29 Copy quote

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• The best teams have chemistry. They communicate with each other and they sacrifice personal glory for a common goal.

  Dave DeBusschere

  Motivational, Basketball, Team

  53 Copy quote

• Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you.

  John Wooden

  Basketball, Choices, Coaching

  17 Copy quote

• Criticize on defense and encourage on offense.

  John Brady

  Basketball, Coaching, Defense

  44 Copy quote

• A lot of guys go through their whole careers and don't win a championship, but are still great coaches.

  Chuck Daly

  Basketball, Winning, Careers

  52 Copy quote

• Everyone wants to win, but not everyone is willing to prepare to win.

  Bobby Knight

  Basketball, Motivational Sports, Winning

  7 Copy quote

• I learned early that if I wanted to achieve anything in life, I'd have to do it myself. I learned that I had to be accountable.

  Lenny Wilkens

  Basketball, Coaching, Achieve

  47 Copy quote

• Champions never complain, they are too busy getting better

  John Wooden

  Champion, Get Better, Complaining

  49 Copy quote

• Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart.

  Phil Jackson

  Love, Inspirational, Basketball

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  56 Copy quote

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• Even when I'm old and grey, I won't be able to play it, but I'll still love the game.

  Michael Jordan

  Love, Motivational, Basketball

  16 Copy quote

• Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

  Robert Kennedy

  Inspirational, Success, Encouraging

  Robert F. Kennedy (1967). “To seek a newer world”, Doubleday Books

  86 Copy quote

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• 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.

  Charles Barkley

  Basketball, Sports, Running

  Charles Barkley, Roy S. Johnson (1993). “Outrageous!”

  12 Copy quote

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• It's not how big you are, it's how big you play.

  John Wooden

  Basketball, Play, Bigs

  "How (and why) position-less lineups have taken over the NBA playoffs" by Ian McMahan, www.theguardian.com. May 1, 2018.

  16 Copy quote

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• I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Motivational, Niece, Mean

  Abraham Lincoln, Bob Blaisdell (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Book of Quotations”, p.44, Courier Corporation

  14 Copy quote

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• I was in the right place at the right time.

  Mel Allen

  Photography, Perseverance, Good Luck

  73 Copy quote