Basketball Practice Quotes

#1. Think of new ways to do old things. You must protect against boredom in a practice situation.

George Raveling

#2. The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game.

Bobby Knight

#3. Once practice starts, we work hard, and that's the best conditioning there is. Everything counts. Every little thing counts. Run hard, play hard, go after the ball hard, guard hard. If you play soft (what I call signing a 'non-aggression pact' with your teammates), you won't ever get into shape.

Pete Carril

#4. You always have to be on edge. You always have to take every practice, every game, like it is your last.

Kobe Bryant

#5. My practices were not set up to be easy or enjoyed.

Bobby Knight

#6. My dad was the one who really loved basketball, and he was the one that put the basketball in my hands, and my mom was 'Team Mom' of all my teams. I used to play for three or four teams at once and she would just spend her entire afternoon driving me from practice to practice to practice.

Jeremy Lin

#7. We always need to be prepared and work hard in practice so we can be just like the farmer who has put that fourth cutting of hay in the barn. After he does that, he can feel good about what is going to happen the rest of the winter.

Don Meyer

#8. Basketball Rule #2 (random text from Dad)
Hustle dig
Grind push
Run fast
Change pivot
Chase pull
Aim shoot
Work smart
Live smarter
Play hard
Practice harder

Kwame Alexander

#9. Specialists can never practice their specialties too much. The danger is in not practicing enough. Make that mistake, and soon you may not be in the specialty business anymore.

Johnny Unitas

#10. Basketball doesn't care what color your skin is. It doesn't care what language you speak or what religion you practice. It doesn't care if you're big or small, fast or slow. It just asks you to play, to complete, to lose with dignity, to win humility.

Jim Calhoun

#11. If a farmer and his family can get up at 5:30 every morning to milk cows, surly we can get up at that time to practice basketball.

Don Meyer

#12. I always stayed on before and after practice. I just think that if you want to excel at anything, be it basketball, dance or the piano, you need to practice a lot.

Dolph Schayes

#13. I'd rather have preparation than motivation. Everyone likes to play, but no one likes to practice.

Bum Phillips

#14. Make the practices like games and the games like practices.

Don Meyer

#15. It's not about the number of hours you practice, it's about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice

Kobe Bryant

#16. We stop practice every time we see one of our players not blocking out.

Jim Calhoun

#17. You better have great practices.

Al McGuire

#18. There is generally not any conscious thought; it's all instinct, and practice takes over.

Cindy Nelson

#19. In practice, don't just run basketball drills, teach the players how to play basketball.

Don Meyer

#20. Play and practice like you are trying to make the team.

Mike Krzyzewski

#21. I always designed my practice plans the night before and then made tweaks a few hours before practice began

Bobby Knight

#22. By itself, practice does not make perfect. Those of us with a ten-year-old son practicing the trumpet may understand that.

Daniel Hanley

#23. Practice gotta be harder than the games and it never is unless you want it to be as a player. The coach can't drive that

John Calipari

#24. Whether you're trying to excel in athletics or in any other field, always practice. Look, listen, learn - and practice, practice, practice. There is no substitute for work, no shortcut to the top.

Frank Robinson

#25. Practice habits were crucial to my development in basketball. I didn't play against the toughest competition in high school, but one reason I was able to do well in college was that I mastered the fundamentals. You've got to have them down before you can even think about playing.

Larry Bird

#26. I'm a firm believer in that you play the way you practice.

Larry Bird

#27. I am not a strategic coach; I am a practice coach.

John Wooden

#28. I wasn't as critical during games as I was at practice. Players needed confidence during games more than criticism.

Dean Smith

#29. I would spend almost as much time planning a practice as conducting it. Everything was planned out each day

John Wooden

#30. Always acknowledge hustle plays in practice.

Lou Campanelli

#31. I continually stress to my players that all I expect from them at practice and in the games is their maximum effort.

John Wooden

#32. When people ask me now if I miss coaching UCLA basketball games, the national championships, the attention, the trophies, and everything that goes with them, I tell them this: I miss the practices.

John Wooden

#33. There's a lot of chatter in basketball and, rightfully, you want players to be talking to each other ... But sometimes in practice, it gets too verbose ... so I tried to take things out of the ordinary and make them special so they'd understand the difference.

Phil Jackson

#34. Champions play as they practice. Create a consistency of excellence in all your habits.

Mike Krzyzewski

#35. To me, the most enjoyable part is the practice and preparation

Bobby Knight

#36. My last year with the Spurs, I was late to practice one time.

Dennis Rodman

#37. It's easier to date a football player for sure. Football players have one game a week, and they practice every day, but they're all at home. In basketball, they're on the road all the time.

Khloe Kardashian

#38. For every pass I caught in a game, I caught a thousand in practice.

Don Hutson

#39. Empower the people around you, from the janitor to the athletic director. You do that by being sincere, caring about others, and then putting it into practice.

Sue Gunter

#40. Practice to beat the best.

Dick Bennett

#41. I will have no problem coming to practice on time. The locker room is great, but we have to prove ourselves on the court.

LeBron James

#42. I love practice. It is when a coach exercises the most control over the improvement of his or her team.

Mike Krzyzewski

#43. I needed to go to class; I needed to go to practice; I needed to have a life away from basketball.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

#44. Given a full summer to practice basketball, and especially my jump shot, I know that I could play in the NBA and do well.

Tony Gonzalez

#45. In 19 years Stockton never once lost a suicide drill in practice. Well, there was one day. He was sick. But he still ran it

Jerry Sloan

#46. I thought we'd be discussing about me not leaving Philadelphia and they just kept asking me about the practice, so I lost it.

Allen Iverson

#47. I believe you win games by what you do from your first practice until your first game

Jack Ramsay

#48. We have a very intelligent team. I've had clubs that when you tell a guy to go back door, he leaves the gym. Or you tell the team you're going to have a closed practice and eight guys don't show up.

Jim Valvano