50+ Basketball Quotes

"I really get motivated when I have doubters." Shaquille O’Neal

05/09/2020 09:33:00h

50+ Basketball Quotes | iSTOCK

50+ Basketball Quotes

Teamwork is a keyword when we are talking about basketball. This is one of the sports that are more played all around the world, but not everybody knows what it really means to belong to a basketball team. Those who are inside this world know that the words perseverance and hard work are always present, but they also know the true meaning of fellowship.

If you already know what it is like being in a basketball team, reading these basketball quotes will make you smile. If you aren't lucky enough to know it, you will know what you're missing when you read them!

1"Do your best when no one is looking. If you do that, then you can be successful in anything that you put your mind to."

Bob Cousy

2"Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates."

Magic Johnson

3"The invention of basketball was not an accident. It was developed to meet a need. Those boys simply would not play ‘Drop the Handkerchief.’"

James Naismith

4“The single most important aspect of coaching is running effective practices.”

Bob Knight

5“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Michael Jordan

6“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”

Phil Jackson

7"Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise."

Kobe Bryant

8"Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath."

Wilt Chamberlain

9"Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

10“In order to achieve to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them.”

Bob Knight

11“We’re building a culture of accountability, trust, and togetherness. Entitlement will not be tolerated.”

Brad Stevens

12“What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.”

Dean Smith

13“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”

Kevin Durant

14“All at once, I couldn’t figure out why I was methodically tossing a spherical object through a toroidal object. It seemed like the stupidest thing I could possibly be doing.”

John Green

15"There is nothing wrong with dedication and goals, but if you focus on yourself, all the lights fade away and you become a fleeting moment in life."

Pete Maravich

16"I think that my God-given physical attributes, big hands, and big feet, the way that I'm built, proportion-wise, just made basketball the most inviting sport for me to play."

Julius Erving

17"Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute."

Bill Russell

18“Encourage ‘random’ picks on the ball because they cannot be scouted.”

Doc Rivers

19“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.”

Larry Bird

20“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. you are what you repeatedly do.”

Shaquille O’Neal

21“I am more than just a Serious basketball fan. I am a life-long Addict. I was addicted from birth, in fact, because I was born in Kentucky.”

Hunter S. Thompson

22"Successful programs consist of people working hard, working together, while never worrying about who gets the credit."

Don Meyer

23"If you are afraid of failure you don't deserve to be successful!"

Charles Barkley

24"Basketball is a lifelong game. You continue to learn from the game day in and day out, and all along the way, you get better."

Scottie Pippen

25“Shout praise and whisper criticism.”

Don Meyer

26“There’s a great quote by Julius Irving that went, ‘Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like doing them.’

David Halberstam

27“If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.”

Isiah Thomas

28"Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best."

Tim Duncan

29"You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good."

Jerry West

30“Teams that play together beat those teams with superior players who play more as individuals.”

Jack Ramsay

31"Play the right way’ means play unselfishly, respect each other’s achievements, play hard, fulfill your role.”

Gregg Popovich

32“Nothing is given. Everything is earned.”

LeBron James

33“Someone created the box score, and he should be shot.”

Daryl Morey

34"Never give up. Failure and rejection are just the first steps to succeeding."

Jim Valvano

35"If you look up the definition of greatness in the dictionary, it will say Michael Jordan."

Elgin Baylor

36"Team work is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one."

Mike Krzyzewski

37“Don’t try to imitate other coaches. Be your own person with your own style and do your own thing.”

Hubie Brown

38“How good can we expect to be if our best player is not our best teammate.”

Brad Stevens

39“But I’d never, like, actually danced at one. I was usually one of the guys playing basketball in the corner.”

Rick Riordan

40"Acknowledge the difficult spot you're in and commence digging out of it. Don't point fingers, don't recriminate, and don't make excuses. Stay positive and get to work."

Rick Pitino

41"When you're not practicing, someone else is getting better."

Allen Iverson

42"If you don't practice you don't deserve to win."

Andre Agassi

43"Make your supporters proud and your haters jealous."

Klay Thompson

44"Keep practicing. Never let anyone tell you're too small or too slow."

Chris Paul

45"I live my life trying not to never appear to be a small man."

Julius Erving

46“We old athletes carry the disfigurements and markings of contests remembered only by us and no one else. Nothing is more lost than a forgotten game.”

Pat Conroy

47"What you do speaks louder than what you say."

Stephen Curry

48"Every day when I get on the floor I give it my all and play because you never know what tomorrow holds."

Russell Westbrook

49“A lot of late nights in the gym, a lot of early mornings, especially when your friends are going out, you’re going to the gym, those are the sacrifices that you have to make if you want to be an NBA basketball player.”

Jason Kidd

50“Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.”

Michael Jordan

51"Your decisions reveal your priorities."

Jeff Van Gundy

52"Admit to and make yourself accountable for mistakes. How can you improve if you’re never wrong?"

Pat Summitt

➡️ Motivational