quotations about basketball
Any American boy can be a basketball star if he grows up, up, up.
BILL VAUGHN
attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
Don't let winning make you soft. Don't let losing make you quit.
LARRY BIRD
attributed, 1001 Motivational Messages and Quotations for Athletes and Coaches
But that's the thing about basketball: you don't play games on paper.
BILL SIMMONS
The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy
Apparently I need shoes with a 'swoosh' on the side if I'm to continue playing basketball.
BETH FANTASKEY
Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
The real secret behind top athlete's genius, then, may be as esoteric and obvious and dull and profound as silence itself. The real, many-veiled answer to the question of just what goes through a great player's mind as he stands at the center of hostile crowd-noise and lines up at the free-throw that will decide the game might well be: nothing at all.
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
"How Tracy Austin broke my heart"
The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.
BILL RUSSELL
attributed, Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance
Coaching is easy. Winning is the hard part.
ELGIN BAYLOR
The Sporting News, 1977
Being hip-hoppers, we were obliged to be obsessed with basketball.
NIKESH SHUKLA
Coconut Unlimited
Basketball is like most other things: if your basics are off, nothing else is really going to help you improve.
GREG DUTCHER
Killing Calvinism
The only important statistic is the final score.
BILL RUSSELL
attributed, Boston Celtics IQ: The Ultimate Test of True Fandom
As I got better and better, there were a lot of double teams, and I drew a lot of defenders, so I had to learn how to pass the ball, and get it off to my teammates, because the more people that came to defend me, that means there are more openings for other players.
YAO MING
interview, Nov. 14, 2003
Basketball is a sport that involves the subtle interweaving of players at full speed to the point where they are thinking and moving as one.
PHIL JACKSON
Sacred Hoops
On a good team there are no superstars. There are great players who show they are great players by being able to play with others as a team.
RED HOLZMAN
attributed, Team Work: Rediscovering the Essence of Basketball
Defense should be played with your feet and your brain, not your hands.
BOB KNIGHT
"33 Basketball Coaching Points from Bob Knight", The Coaching Toolbox
At any point during practice, call a timeout. Huddle the players and give them 4 or 5 specific instructions. Then send them back on the court. Wait 15 seconds and then ask them to write down the 4 or 5 things you asked them to do. It is scary how little they will recall.
BOB KNIGHT
"33 Basketball Coaching Points from Bob Knight", The Coaching Toolbox
I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.
KOBE BRYANT
attributed, Team Work: Rediscovering the Essence of Basketball
We talk to these players a lot about a 4-count or a beat that you're playing this game at. It's just a 4-4 beat. And if you've got that ball in your hands longer than two seconds, you're holding up your team.
PHIL JACKSON
attributed, Team Work: Rediscovering the Essence of Basketball
I decided one day early on in high school that I wanted to be great at basketball, not just a good basketball player. I would go to the elementary school by my house and shoot thousands of shots all day, every day.
GILBERT ARENAS
Daily Texan, Mar. 29, 2001
You can't win without the ball.
RED AUERBACH
ESPN, Jun. 2005
I was all about resurrecting the lost art of the midrange jumper, but then one day I was shooting free throws--just standing at the foul line at the North Central gym shooting from a rack of balls. 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. I started thinking about little kids putting a cylindrical peg through a circular hole, and how they do it over and over again for months when they figure it out, and how basketball was basically just a slightly more aerobic version of the same exercise. Anyway, for the longest time, I just kept sinking free throws. I hit eighty in a row, my all-time best, but as I kept going, I felt more and more like a two-year-old.
JOHN GREEN
The Fault in Our Stars