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

1. "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."
2. "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."
3. "You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them."
4. "I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."
5. "Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen."
6. "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

7. "The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do."
8. "I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come."
9. "If you see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear."
10. "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."
11. "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."
12. "I don't want to be the next Michael Jordan, I want to be the only Kobe Bryant."
13. "The beauty of coaching is growing the players from the ground up. That journey continues."
14. "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."
15. "If you do not believe in yourself, no one will do it for you."
16. "Friends can come and go, but banners hang forever."
17. "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

18. "The only way to succeed is to work hard, stay focused, and never give up."
19. "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

20. "Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard."

Kawhi Leonard

21. "Don't let small details distract you from your big picture goals."

Stephen Curry

22. "If you don't fall, how are you going to know what getting up is like?"
23. "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."
24. "Be the best version of yourself in anything that you do. You don't have to live anybody else's story."
25. "Play like you're in first. Train like you're in second."

Other NBA Stars

26. "Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best." - Tim Duncan
27. "Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you do repeatedly." - Shaquille O'Neal
28. "Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team." - Scottie Pippen
29. "If you're afraid of failure, you don't deserve to be successful!" - Charles Barkley
30. "When you're not practicing, someone else is getting better." - Allen Iverson
31. "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
32. "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
33. "Your greatest asset should be your work ethic." - Kevin Garnett
34. "Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle." - Christian Laettner
35. "You have a choice to make when you're not playing. Either you're invested and a great teammate, or you're not." - Brad Stevens
36. "Nothing is given. Everything is earned." - LeBron James

Legendary Coaches

John Wooden

37. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."
38. "If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes."
39. "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."
40. "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have the time to do it over?"
41. "Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there." - John Wooden

Phil Jackson

42. "The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."
43. "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."
44. "No one plays this or any game perfectly. It's the guy who recovers from his mistakes who wins."
45. "Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We." - Phil Jackson

Pat Summit

46. "Confidence is what happens when you've done the hard work that entitles you to succeed."
47. "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."
48. "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."
49. "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."
50. "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."

Mike Krzyzewski

51. "I don't look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball."
52. "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."
53. "I get a group of people who are talented to commit to excellence and to work together as one. That's where it starts. Different talents, same commitment." - Mike Krzyzewski
54. "Making shots counts, but not as much as the people who make them." - Mike Krzyzewski
55. "Believe that the loose ball that you are chasing has your name on it." - Mike Krzyzewski
56. "During the season, your team should be led with exuberance and excitement. You should live the journey. You should live it right. You should live it together. You should live it shared. You should try to make one another better. You should get on one another if somebody's not doing their part. You should hug one another when they are. You should be disappointed in a loss and exhilarated in a win. It's all about the journey." - Mike Krzyzewski
57. "In our program, the truth is the basis of all that we do. There is nothing more important than the truth because there's nothing more powerful than the truth. Consequently, on our team, we always tell one another the truth. We must be honest with one another. There is no other way." - Mike Krzyzewski
58. "Throughout the season, I look into my players' eyes to gauge feelings, confidence levels, and to establish instant trust." - Mike Krzyzewski
59. "When you first assemble a group, it's not a team right off the bat. It's only a collection of individuals." - Mike Krzyzewski
60. "Two are better than one if two act as one." - Mike Krzyzewski
61. "There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride. I like to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important. But all of them together are unbeatable." - Mike Krzyzewski
62. "People want to be on a team. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be in a situation where they feel that they are doing something for the greater good." - Mike Krzyzewski
63. "I'd take a 2-star recruit with a 5-star work ethic over a 5-star recruit with a 2-star work ethic any day." - Mike Krzyzewski

Other Coaches

64. "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
65. "Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships." - Paul "Bear" Bryant
66. "Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win." - Bobby Knight
67. "What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it." - Dean Smith
68. "It's what you get from games you lose that is extremely important." - Pat Riley
69. "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
70. "Your best player has to set a tone of intolerance for anything that gets in the way of winning." - Jeff Van Gundy
71. "It takes three things to be a 'special' player: talent, character, and competitive fire." - Kevin Eastman
72. "Coaches shouldn't have to push you to work hard. You should push yourself because you want to be a great player." - Bob Knight
73. "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
74. "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
75. "We wait for life to get easier. But life never gets easier. What happens is you handle hard better." - Kara Lawson
76. "A lot of people notice when you succeed, but they don't see what it takes to get there." - Dawn Staley
77. "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
78. "I tell our guys everyday, every person on the roster can help us win a game by making just one play." - Steve Kerr
79. "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.
80. "Systems win! Believe in your system, and then sell it to your players." - Billy Donovan
81. "Don't ever have a rule that you won't enforce with your best player." - Doug Collins
82. "Practice shared suffering. If one guy messes up, everyone runs. If one guy does well, everyone benefits." - Don Meyer
83. "The more your players have to think on the basketball court, the slower their feet get." - Jerry Tarkanian
84. "Average players want to be left alone. Good players want to be coached. Great players want to be told the truth." - Doc Rivers
85. "Defense tells you if you won or not, offense tells you by how much." - Dan Hurley
86. "Don't turn your back on me! I'm the best f****** coach in the sport!" - Dan Hurley
87. "I believe you win games by what you do from your first practice until your first game." - Jack Ramsay
88. "The survival rate for competitors is much higher than complainers." - Avery Johnson
89. "Disrespect will close doors that apologies can't reopen. Always remember that." - Avery Johnson

Other Sports Figures and Inspirational Quotes

90. "I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary." - Lou Holtz
91. "I don't have to be what you want me to be." - Muhammad Ali
92. "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
93. "The man who has no imagination has no wings." - Muhammad Ali
94. "The harder you work, the luckier you get." - Gary Player
95. "You can't get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good." - Jerry West
96. "Pressure is something you feel when you don't know what the hell you're doing." - Peyton Manning
97. "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
98. "It's not about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." - Rocky Balboa
99. "A champion is someone who gets up when he can't." - Jack Dempsey
100. "Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory." - Bill Russell
101. "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
102. "Winning isn't everything, but wanting it is." - Arnold Palmer
103. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - Wayne Gretzky
104. "The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot." - Bill Walton
105. "Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement." - Marv Levy
106. "If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it." - Ronnie Lott
107. "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
108. "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
109. "If you only ever give 90% in training then you will only ever give 90% when it matters." - Michael Owen
110. "One score makes happy ONE player, one assist makes happy TWO." - Toni Kukoc
111. "I don't complain about playing time. My job is to play so well the coach can't sit me." - Shane Battier
112. "Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute." - Bill Russell
113. "Success is a result of consistent practice of winning skills and actions. There is nothing miraculous about the process. There is no luck involved." - Bill Russell
114. "Confidence is everything in this game, if you don't think you can, you won't." - Jerry West

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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