Great Basketball Quotes

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

  James Naismith

  Inspirational, Motivational, Basketball

  45 Copy quote

• Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.

  John Wooden

  Basketball, Motivational Sports, Character

  "The Wizard's wisdom: 'Woodenisms'", www.espn.com. June 4, 2010.

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• If you make every game a life and death proposition, you're going to have problems. For one thing, you'll be dead a lot.

  Dean Smith

  Inspirational, Funny, Basketball

  66 Copy quote
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  Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

  John Wooden

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  "The Wizard's wisdom: 'Woodenisms'", www.espn.com. June 4, 2010.

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  Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

  John Wooden

  Inspirational, Success, Basketball

  John Wooden, Jack Tobin, Bill Walton (2004). “They Call Me Coach”, McGraw Hill Professional

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• Any American boy can be a basketball star if he grows up, up, up.

  Bill Vaughan

  Funny, Basketball, Stars

  3 Copy quote

• 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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• 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

  21 Copy quote

• 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

  26 Copy quote

• Good, Better, Best. Never let it rest. Until your Good is Better, and your Better is your Best.

  Unknown

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  "Dedication, Teamwork and Camaraderie: Tim Duncan" by Angela Guzman, www.beliefnet.com.

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• Fans never fall asleep at our games, because they're afraid they might get hit by a pass.

  George Raveling

  Inspirational, Basketball, Fall

  42 Copy quote

• The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy.

  Jerry Tarkanian

  Basketball, Sports, Teamwork

  54 Copy quote

• Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.

  John Wooden

  Basketball, Motivational Sports, Character

  Andrew Hill, John Wooden (2002). “Be Quick - But Don't Hurry: Finding Success in the Teachings of a Lifetime”, p.114, Simon and Schuster

  21 Copy quote

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• One man cannot make a team.

  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

  Motivational, Basketball, Sports

  15 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

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

  Henry Ford

  Inspirational, Success, Leadership

  610 Copy quote

• 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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  You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.

  Michael Jordan

  Inspirational, Motivational, Happiness

  77 Copy quote
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  I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.

  Michael Jordan

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  "I Can't Accept Not Trying : Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence". Book by Michael Jordan (p. 129), 1994.

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  Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.

  Michael Jordan

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  208 Copy quote

• Basketball doesn't build character it reveals it.

  James Naismith

  Basketball, Character, Inspirational Basketball

  63 Copy quote

• A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play.

  Mike Krzyzewski

  Basketball, Team, Hands

  "Duke of the Court". Interview, www.achievement.org. May 22, 1997.

  61 Copy quote

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