Top 100 Mike Krzyzewski Quotes
#1. For a college basketball player or coach, to reach the Final Four is la-la land. You've achieved, you've got your stamp of approval. My first team to do that was in 1986. Then we did it in '88, '89 and '90.
Mike Krzyzewski
#2. If you win a National Championship, or you win two, people think you have not only seen the Holy Grail, but you've embraced it. Basically, I do what a lot of people do, but I've been able to win.
Mike Krzyzewski
#3. You can't defer if you're the person who's in the leadership position.
Mike Krzyzewski
#4. Sometimes in a defeat, you can set the stage for future victory. I wanted them to feel good about what they had accomplished. Not to like losing, but to like the success that they had.
Mike Krzyzewski
#5. Even though we want huge individual egos, our collective ego is unbelievable.
Mike Krzyzewski
#7. I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one.
Mike Krzyzewski
#9. I think leadership is never singular. In a good organization, it's plural.
Mike Krzyzewski
#10. I believe a big part of leadership is about winning the moment.
Mike Krzyzewski
#11. Believe that the loose ball that you are chasing has your name wirtten on it.
Mike Krzyzewski
#12. My mom gave me unconditional support and unfailing love. You can't get any better than that. That's why I've never been afraid to lose.
Mike Krzyzewski
#13. To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.
Mike Krzyzewski
#14. I have a plan of action, but the game is a game of adjustments.
Mike Krzyzewski
#15. Making shots counts, but not as much as the people who make them.
Mike Krzyzewski
#16. The other thing I knew I had was a high level of competitiveness.
Mike Krzyzewski
#17. Leaders have to give time for relationships. But more demands will be placed on their time as they become more successful. So if a person's success is based on developing relationships, then they have to continually find new ways of getting it done
Mike Krzyzewski
#18. With accomplishments comes confidence and with confidence comes belief. It has to be in that order.
Mike Krzyzewski
#19. Courage and confidence are what decision making is all about.
Mike Krzyzewski
#20. Are you going to show integrity only when someone is watching you - or are you going to show it all the time?
Mike Krzyzewski
#21. Footwork is one of the primary prerequisites to becoming a great player
Mike Krzyzewski
#22. I'm looking for players who make their teammates better. You do that with enthusiasm and passion.
Mike Krzyzewski
#23. You develop a team to achieve what one person cannot accomplish alone. All of us alone are weaker, by far, than if all of us are together.
Mike Krzyzewski
#25. A leader has to be positive about all things that happen to his team. Look at nothing in the past as failure.
Mike Krzyzewski
#26. Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated
Mike Krzyzewski
#27. I believe work is good. There is dignity in work. I also believe that a hard-work ethic forges strong leaders.
Mike Krzyzewski
#28. I don't think we surprise people. We try to out-execute them.
Mike Krzyzewski
#29. Whatever a leader does now sets up what he does later. And there's always a later.
Mike Krzyzewski
#30. Defense is one man guarding the ball and four others helping him
Mike Krzyzewski
#31. When you are passionate, you always have your destination in sight and you are not distracted by obstacles. Because you love what you are pursuing, things like rejection and setbacks will not hinder you in your pursuit. You believe that nothing can stop you!
Mike Krzyzewski
#32. Turning down the Lakers was tough, but it is always good to renew your vows to the loves of your life.
Mike Krzyzewski
#33. In putting together your standards, remember that it is essential to involve your entire team. Standards are not rules issued by the boss; they are a collective identity. Remember, standards are the things that you do all the time and the things for which you hold one another accountable.
Mike Krzyzewski
#34. If you set up an atmosphere of community and trust, it becomes a tradition. Older team members will establish your credibility with newer ones. Even if they don't like everything about you, they'll say, 'He's trustworthy, committed to us as a team.'
Mike Krzyzewski
#35. I don't look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball.
Mike Krzyzewski
#36. You can see and you can listen, but you have to have moments in which you feel.
Mike Krzyzewski
#37. If the only reason I coached was to win basketball games, my life would be pretty shallow
Mike Krzyzewski
#38. I have a rule on my team: when we talk to one another, we look each other right in the eye, because I think it's tough to lie to somebody. You give respect to somebody.
Mike Krzyzewski
#39. My ambition in high school was to be a high school coach and teacher, and that's still what I do: teach.
Mike Krzyzewski
#40. I think some parents now look at a youngster failing as the final thing. It's a process, and failure is part of the process. I would like it if the teacher and the parents would connect more. I think that used to be, but we're losing a little bit of that right now.
Mike Krzyzewski
#42. Goals should be realistic, attainable, and shared among all members of the team
Mike Krzyzewski
#43. It's simply doing what you're supposed to do as well as you can when you're supposed to do it.
Mike Krzyzewski
#45. That's why basketball was so good, because I didn't really need you or anyone else to play it. It would be better if we played four-on-four or five-on-five, but I could go out there alone.
Mike Krzyzewski
#46. The only way you're going to grow is to be in difficult situations.
Mike Krzyzewski
#47. When I was growing up, there weren't any Little Leagues in the city. Parents worked all the time. They didn't have time to take their kids out to play baseball and football.
Mike Krzyzewski
#48. Fun is to experience things you would not have been able to experience in any other setting.
Mike Krzyzewski
#49. 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
#50. In all forms of leadership, whether you are a coach, a CEO, or a parent, there are four words that, when said, can bring out the best in your team, your employees, and your family. I BELIEVE IN YOU. Those four words can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try.
Mike Krzyzewski
#51. 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
#52. There are always those times when you're going to be down. It's how you step through it that makes you the person you are.
Mike Krzyzewski
#53. A leader's responsibility to his team is paramount. It overshadows even his own personal feelings at any given time.
Mike Krzyzewski
#54. I never want to lead a team that is not allowed the freedom to pursue what's in their hearts. If you want your team to be fully committed, then you'd better be fully committed
Mike Krzyzewski
#55. You should do things because of what your expectations are of yourself.
Mike Krzyzewski
#56. When you cleanse yourself of a big victory, you may open yourself up to the opportunity for an even bigger victory
Mike Krzyzewski
#57. A leader may be the most knowledgeable person in the world, but if the players on his team cannot translate that knowledge into action, it means nothing.
Mike Krzyzewski
#58. A common mistake among those who work in sport is spending a disproportional amount of time on "x's and o's" as compared to time spent learning about people.
Mike Krzyzewski
#59. Sometimes it's not bad to hurt. Sometimes you don't want things until you get hurt. We got hurt today, let's see what we do.
Mike Krzyzewski
#60. We travel in Duke stuff ... They can have a hat, but it must be a Duke hat.
Mike Krzyzewski
#61. Confidence shared is better than confidence only in yourself.
Mike Krzyzewski
#62. Why do you play a game? I play a game to see how good we can be.
Mike Krzyzewski
#63. Leaders have to search for the heart on a team, because the person who has it can bring out the best in everybody else.
Mike Krzyzewski
#64. The best teams are team in any sport that lose themselves in the team. The individuals lose their identity. And their identities come about as a result of being in the team first.
Mike Krzyzewski
#66. Almost everything in leadership comes back to relationships.
Mike Krzyzewski
#67. It's funny what happens when you become a grandparent. You start to act all goofy and do things you never thought you'd do. It's terrific.
Mike Krzyzewski
#68. Players' attention spans get less and less as they progress.
Mike Krzyzewski
#69. The team that trusts-their leader and each other-is more likely to be successful.
Mike Krzyzewski
#70. Parents can really help, but they can also really hinder the development of their youngsters.
Mike Krzyzewski
#71. The life expectancy of a team is about eight months. Then the next year, it's a whole new team.
Mike Krzyzewski
#72. Good sound habits are more important than rules - use concepts.
Mike Krzyzewski
#73. When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance.
Mike Krzyzewski
#75. Every leader needs to remember that a healthy respect for authority takes time to develop. It's like building trust. You don't instantly have trust, it has to be earned.
Mike Krzyzewski
#76. I try to see each new season as a new challenge because I have a new team to work with, new opponents to encounter, and often new ideas and theories to try
Mike Krzyzewski
#77. I've tried to handle winning well, so that maybe we'll win again, but I've also tried to handle failure well. If those serve as good examples for teachers and kids, then I hope that would be a contribution I have made to sport. Not just basketball, but to sport.
Mike Krzyzewski
#78. That's another thing, we made up games. We didn't have equipment. When it snowed, we would play slow motion tackle football. We would play hockey, but we wouldn't skate. We just made things up. I loved doing that.
Mike Krzyzewski
#79. You start developing a championship attitude by, first of all, telling kids that they are really good and that they have the potential to become better.
Mike Krzyzewski
#80. Playing sport was somewhat frivolous, but I liked it. I rebelled a little bit, and wouldn't go to music lessons and things like that, but I would go and play ball. My parents learned to love it because they saw how much I got out of it.
Mike Krzyzewski
#81. Discipline is doing what you are supposed to do in the best possible manner at the time you are supposed to do it.
Mike Krzyzewski
#82. The thing I loved the most - and still love the most about teaching - is that you can connect with an individual or a group, and see that individual or group exceed their limits.
Mike Krzyzewski
#83. The worst thing we can do is put the (other) team in a one-and-one.
Mike Krzyzewski
#84. Once you win a National Championship, how do you do that again? How do you get the passion to do that again? We won it again right away, the next year. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I didn't give myself an opportunity to enjoy the first one.
Mike Krzyzewski
#86. Therefore, as a player, as a coach, even though we might have lost in a season or not won a championship, it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy that I'm going to win some time. I've never felt myself a loser.
Mike Krzyzewski
#87. I had a really bad temper, when I was growing up. Sport helped me channel that temper into more positive acts.
Mike Krzyzewski
#88. When I had troubles, I'd go out with basketball - you can do it by yourself, too. So you'd go out and shoot, and you'd fantasize.
Mike Krzyzewski
#89. I was very pleased with the entire selection process. The manner in which it was conducted included all parts of United States' basketball, from the professional level to the colleges and high schools. Everyone was considered.
Mike Krzyzewski
#90. When a leader takes responsibility for his own actions and mistakes, he not only sets a good example, he shows a healthy respect for people on his team
Mike Krzyzewski
#91. When you first assemble a group, it's not a team right off the bat. It's only a collection of individuals
Mike Krzyzewski
#92. As teachers and coaches, we must remember that when mere winning is our only goal, we are doomed to disappointment and failure. But when our goal is to try to win, when our focus is on preparation and sacrifice and effort instead of on numbers on a scoreboard then we will never lose.
Mike Krzyzewski
#93. In high school, in sport, I had a coach who told me I was much better than I thought I was, and would make me do more in a positive sense. He was the first person who taught me not to be afraid of failure.
Mike Krzyzewski
#94. It's always an honor to be ranked high, but whatever is said about you, you take it and then take a realistic look at yourself and who you are.
Mike Krzyzewski
#95. Effort is fully replenishable. There is no need to save any of it. Leave every bit you have on the playing field
Mike Krzyzewski
#96. I've been so fortunate in my life that my family has never been jealous of my success. They have shown true love and commitment to me by being supportive. They shared in it.
Mike Krzyzewski
#97. In our program, the truth is the basis of all 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 each other the truth. We must be honest with one another. There is no other way.
Mike Krzyzewski
#99. Encourage members of your team to take the initiative and act on their own.
Mike Krzyzewski
#100. I'm fortunate now that I coach at Duke University and we've won a lot. I have some kids who haven't failed that much. But when they get to college, they're going to fail some time. That's a thing that I can help them the most with.
Mike Krzyzewski
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