Basketball isn’t just a game; it’s a source of inspiration, life lessons, and motivation. Whether you’re a player, coach, or fan, these powerful quotes from some of the greatest names in basketball history will ignite your passion and drive you to excel both on and off the court.
If you need help getting locked in, learning from the best is a great place to start. As always, you can view these quotes anytime on your iOS device using our app:
NBA Legends
Michael Jordan
- “I’ve missed more than 9,000 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.”
- “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
- “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.”
- “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”
- “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen.”
- “The game has its ups and downs, but you can never lose focus of your individual goals, and you can’t let yourself be beaten because of lack of effort.”
Kobe Bryant
- “The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.”
- “I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come.”
- “If you see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear.”
- “I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.”
- “I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.”
- “I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I want to be the only Kobe Bryant.”
- “The beauty of coaching is growing the players from the ground up. That journey continues.”
- “I’ve shot too much from the time I was eight years old. But ‘too much’ is a matter of perspective. Some people thought Mozart had too many notes in his compositions. Let me put it this way: I entertain people who say I shoot too much. I find it very interesting. Going back to Mozart, he responded to critics by saying there were neither too many notes or too few. There were as many as necessary.”
- “If you do not believe in yourself, no one will do it for you.”
- “Friends can come and go, but banners hang forever.”
- “The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them, and you really want them to be successful.”
LeBron James
- “The only way to succeed is to work hard, stay focused, and never give up.”
- “To be the best, you have to work the hardest. You have to chase what seems impossible over and over and over again, because giving up is not an option, and when you feel like you’ve reached your limit, it’s only the beginning, that’s when it’s time to dig deep, to find the courage to push some more.”
Kevin Durant
- “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”
Kawhi Leonard
- “Don’t let small details distract you from your big picture goals.”
Stephen Curry
- “If you don’t fall, how are you going to know what getting up is like?”
- “I want to practice to the point where it’s almost uncomfortable how fast you shoot, so that in the game things kind of slow down.”
- “Be the best version of yourself in anything that you do. You don’t have to live anybody else’s story.”
- “Play like you’re in first. Train like you’re in second.”
Other NBA Stars
- “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.” - Tim Duncan
- “Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you do repeatedly.” - Shaquille O’Neal
- “Sometimes a player’s greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.” - Scottie Pippen
- “If you’re afraid of failure, you don’t deserve to be successful!” - Charles Barkley
- “When you’re not practicing, someone else is getting better.” - Allen Iverson
- “My whole life, people have doubted me. My mom did. People told me in high school I was too short and not fast enough to play basketball. They didn’t know my story. Because if they did, they’d know that anything is possible.” - Jimmy Butler
- “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
- “Your greatest asset should be your work ethic.” - Kevin Garnett
Legendary Coaches
John Wooden
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”
- “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”
- “Poise and confidence are not possible unless you have prepared correctly. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Poise and confidence are a natural result of proper preparation.”
- “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have the time to do it over?”
Phil Jackson
- “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
- “The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome. The ride is a lot more fun that way.”
- “No one plays this or any game perfectly. It’s the guy who recovers from his mistakes who wins.”
Pat Summit
- “Confidence is what happens when you’ve done the hard work that entitles you to succeed.”
- “Winning is fun…sure. But winning is not the point. Wanting to win is the point. Not giving up is the point. Never letting up is the point. Never being satisfied with what you’ve done is the point.”
- “Quit? Quit? We keep score in life because it matters. It counts. Too many people opt out and never discover their own abilities, because they fear failure. They don’t understand commitment. When you learn to keep fighting in the face of potential failure, it gives you a larger skill set to do what you want to do.”
- “There is always someone better than you. Whatever it is that you do for a living, chances are, you will run into a situation in which you are not as talented as the person next to you. That’s when being a competitor can make a difference in your fortunes.”
- “When you learn to keep fighting in the face of potential failure, it gives you a larger skill set to do what you want to do in life. It gives you vision. But you can’t acquire it if you’re afraid of keeping score.”
Other Coaches
- “It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” - Paul “Bear” Bryant
- “Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships.” - Paul “Bear” Bryant
- “I don’t look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball.” - Mike Krzyzewski
- “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.” - Mike Krzyzewski
- “Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win.” - Bobby Knight
- “What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.” - Dean Smith
- “It’s what you get from games you lose that is extremely important.” - Pat Riley
- “There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either in, or you’re out. There’s no such thing as ‘life in-between’.” - Pat Riley
- “Your best player has to set a tone of intolerance for anything that gets in the way of winning.” - Jeff Van Gundy
- “It takes three things to be a ‘special’ player: talent, character, and competitive fire.” - Kevin Eastman
- “Coaches shouldn’t have to push you to work hard. You should push yourself because you want to be a great player.” - Bob Knight
- “No one is bigger than the team. If you can’t do things our way, you’re not getting time here, and we don’t care who you are.” - Gregg Popovich
- “Some say you have to use your five best players, but I found out you win with the five that fit together best as a team.” - Red Auerbach
- “We wait for life to get easier. But life never gets easier. What happens is you handle hard better.” - Kara Lawson
- “A lot of people notice when you succeed, but they don’t see what it takes to get there.” - Dawn Staley
- “I like the challenge of getting players to rise to certain levels, but that’s the easy part. The biggest challenge is to get them to believe in what we’re doing. They have to understand that it’s O.K. to have good days and bad days.” - Dawn Staley
- “I tell our guys everyday, every person on the roster can help us win a game by making just one play.” - Steve Kerr
- “Your mark is what you do on a day when you don’t want to do it. How good are you on a day when you just don’t have it? Can you push yourself that day? That’s a mark of your character.” - Bob Hurley, Sr.
- “Systems win! Believe in your system, and then sell it to your players.” - Billy Donovan
- “Don’t ever have a rule that you won’t enforce with your best player.” - Doug Collins
- “Practice shared suffering. If one guy messes up, everyone runs. If one guy does well, everyone benefits.” - Don Meyer
- “The more your players have to think on the basketball court, the slower their feet get.” - Jerry Tarkanian
- “Average players want to be left alone. Good players want to be coached. Great players want to be told the truth.” - Doc Rivers
- “Defense tells you if you won or not, offense tells you by how much.” - Danny Hurley
Other Sports Figures and Inspirational Quotes
- “I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.” - Lou Holtz
- “I don’t have to be what you want me to be.” - Muhammad Ali
- “Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.” - Tom Landry
- “The man who has no imagination has no wings.” - Muhammad Ali
- “The harder you work, the luckier you get.” - Gary Player
- “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” - Jerry West
- “Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.” - Peyton Manning
- “There’s only one way to become a hitter. Go up to the plate and get mad. Get mad at yourself and mad at the pitcher.” - Ted Williams
- “It’s not about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” - Rocky Balboa
- “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.” - Jack Dempsey
- “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.” - Bill Russell
- “You always have to give 100%, because if you don’t, someone, somewhere will give 100% and they will beat you when you meet.” - Ed Macauley
- “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting it is.” - Arnold Palmer
- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” - Wayne Gretzky
- “The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.” - Bill Walton
- “Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.” - Marv Levy
- “If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.” - Ronnie Lott
- “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” - Steve Jobs
- “I was taught to play the game from a total team concept. To be able to do everything reasonably well and some things extraordinarily well. If I’m not shooting well, I’ll try to be an asset in other ways – like defense, passing, rebounding, and hustle.” - Rick Barry
- “If you only ever give 90% in training then you will only ever give 90% when it matters.” - Michael Owen
- “One score makes happy ONE player, one assist makes happy TWO.” - Toni Kukoc
- “I don’t complain about playing time. My job is to play so well the coach can’t sit me.” - Shane Battier
Wrapping Up
These quotes from basketball’s greatest minds offer more than just motivation for the court. They provide valuable life lessons about perseverance, teamwork, and the pursuit of excellence. Whether you’re facing challenges in sports, work, or personal life, let these words of wisdom guide you and your team towards success.
We’ll be sure to keep this post updated, so be sure to check back often!
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