Top 100 Life Basketball Quotes
#1. Like life, basketball is messy and unpredictable. It has its way with you, no matter how hard you try to control it. The trick is to experience each moment with a clear mind and open heart. When you do that, the game - and life - will take care of itself.
Phil Jackson
#2. I can't say there was one thing in particular that helped prepare me for life beyond basketball except for the exposure to college and that laboratory, that allows us to learn who and what we are, and to be able to utilize that knowledge in real life.
Len Elmore
#3. Because I grew up with a drill sergeant in my life, I respect order and it really gave me the discipline to be a leader and not a follower. It also helped me stay out of trouble.
Shaquille O'Neal
#4. Basketball came to me and for some reason it gave me an opportunity to live a life that I didn't dream possible. But it did let me live my dreams.
Jerry West
#5. When you're 18, when you're at college, sports can be your life. You can watch every baseball game, every college basketball game, every football game. Once you have a family and kids, you can't do that anymore.
Drew Magary
#6. First off, I'd like to thank God for changing my life. He let me really realize what life is all about. Basketball is just a platform, In order for me to inspire people. And I realize that.
Kevin Durant
#7. Doesn't matter where you come from, what you have or don't have ... All you need to have is faith in God, and undying passion for what you do, what you choose to do in this life, and a relentless drive and the will to do whatever it takes to be successful at whatever you put your mind to.
Stephen Curry
#8. You don't go through life, you grow through life
Kevin Ollie
#9. There's more to life than basketball. The most important thing is your family and taking care of each other and loving each other no matter what.
Stephen Curry
#10. I'm someone who always comes on the court no matter what's going on in my life. It's all about basketball and my teammates and my team. I don't let any distractions in, and I bring my best every night, regardless of what's going on or what people are talking about.
Kris Humphries
#11. There are people in this life for whom even the best of things don't work out. They could wear cashmere suits and still look like tramps; be very rich but badly in debt; be tall but lousy at basketball.
Martin Page
#12. I wasn't going to let Jerry Sloan embarrass me, because basketball had a proper role in my life. I suspected my basketball philosophy wasn't the bottom line anyway.
John Amaechi
#13. Life is like a basketball game, you can shoot but miss. sometimes you even lose a game. There is always a next tournament, but never a time to give up.
David Dunham
#14. Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you.
John Wooden
#15. The Boston Celtics are not a basketball team, they are a way of life.
Red Auerbach
#16. Life for me outweighs the game of basketball.
Derek Fisher
#17. I like to describe my life as a black hole with a little light out there.
Dennis Rodman
#18. I learned early that if I wanted to achieve anything in life, I'd have to do it myself. I learned that I had to be accountable.
Lenny Wilkens
#19. Maybe my life isn't great. We don't have all the answers. Look at it from my side.
Dennis Rodman
#20. Have a spiritual basis which guides you in life. Have a philosophy of life to live by.
Tom Osborne
#21. I'm not saying that they were Einsteins; they were marginal students. But every ballplayer whoever touched me has moved up his station in life. And the players moved up my station.
Al McGuire
#22. My mother taught me to always be strong and always work hard. She's been working hard her whole life for me and my brother. I'm a lot like her in that I work hard for what I want. She taught me that.
Kevin Durant
#23. I'm not chasing championships. Championship's chasing us. I'm not doing that. I want my players to be better people once they leave campus because this is a life lesson. This is more than basketball. This is life lessons that we're trying to teach.
Kevin Ollie
#24. The next time I will cry is when I die. My life has been that beautiful.
Al McGuire
#25. When I was growing up, we used to play basketball in a park that was never shoveled when it snowed. The basketball rims were never fixed. And we understood then that there was a relationship between public policy and our quality of life.
DeForest Soaries
#26. If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.
Isaiah Thomas
#27. I am reaching a point in my life where the basketball chapter in my life is slowly closing from a competition standpoint.
Alonzo Mourning
#28. Man, meeting Michael Jordan for me was like.. black Jesus walking towards me. It was overwhelming to me to finally meet the guy I've looked up to my whole life.
LeBron James
#29. I can't play the game of basketball and live my life on what other people expect me to do or what they think I should do. That doesn't make me happy. What makes me happy is being able to make plays for my teammates, to be able to represent the name on the back of my jersey.
LeBron James
#30. In my case, I played sports my whole life. I got out of college, and I didn't bother to get health care coverage because I just figured I didn't need it. But you know that if you blow out your knee on a basketball court or you get in a car accident, and you're uninsured, it can bankrupt you.
Denis McDonough
#31. I want her to understand that it's going to be a factor in her life. I just want her to know that (racism) does exist, and I want her to always be diligent, and if she sees it, address it and fight it.
Charles Barkley
#32. Most people who are healthy, and I'm healthy, can't even live my life. Trust me. I get up 530-6 every morning. I'm in the gym. I run a couple miles. I lift weights, and then I'm at work until 8-9 o'clock at night.
Magic Johnson
#33. A fierce hatred of embarrassment ruled a surprising amount of the life of Moses Malone, the Hall of Fame basketball center.
Joseph Bottum
#34. My personal life is the same. At the end of the day, this is just a job. I love what I do, and it's a great job. But it's like my alter ego. There's Chris Brown the singer. And there's Christopher Brown, the down-home Tappahannock boy that plays video games and basketball and hangs out.
Chris Brown
#35. Basketball Rule #4
If you miss
enough of life's
free throws
you will pay
in the end.
Kwame Alexander
#36. There is no such thing as life in-between.
Pat Riley
#37. I just aim for basketball season to start. I don't really care about anything else in life.
John Carpenter
#38. All the courage and competitiveness of Jackie Robinson affects me to this day. If I patterned my life after anyone it was him, not because he was the first black baseball player in the majors but because he was a hero.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#39. Just imagine what would have happened if Michael Jordan quit after getting cut from his High School Basketball team?
JohnA Passaro
#40. My life had no meaning at all. I found only brief interludes of satisfaction. It was like my whole life had been about my whole basketball career.
Pete Maravich
#41. Sometimes I feel like the Tom Hanks character in Big. But my life is not a movie. I never have to go back to Coney Island to find the fortune-teller machine so I have to grow up again.
Shaquille O'Neal
#42. There is a rare exception of mainstream sports that have a fatality rate. That's motor sports and rodeo, ... football, baseball, basketball, hockey, you make a mistake and you give up a run or some points. In these two sports, if you make a mistake, it could cost you your life.
Don Andrews
#43. It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life that those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest.
Brutus Hamilton
#44. In basketball - as in life - true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way.
Phil Jackson
#45. Colleges should offer lots of optional life-enriching experiences, like intramural basketball and a place to sunbathe. But reading books, like basketball or sunbathing, is a leisure activity, neither more nor less admirable than any other, and colleges should not pretend otherwise.
Steven E. Landsburg
#46. was right then that I knew I'd called the wrong person. I should have dialed Oscar, my slightly younger brother, instead. He was the levelheaded one in my life, the basketball player studying mechanical engineering.
Mariana Zapata
#47. Basketball is always a piece of my life, but never the centerpiece.
Rebecca Lobo
#48. My greatest gift that I have in life is basketball.
Isaiah Thomas
#49. Being black or white isn't an accomplishment. What you do with your life - or what you accomplish with your life - dictates what you should be proud of.
Charles Barkley
#50. If you are not willing to work hard and establish discipline in your life, then all your dreams are merely pipe dreams.
Rick Pitino
#51. We're going to miss Damon. He was a great shooter ... He got what he wanted, but he gave up a lot. No more night life, no more warm weather and no more a lot of media attention ... I guess this was his first shot at getting something big. I guess he had to take it.
Shaquille O'Neal
#52. I was a skinny, scrawny guy. I stuttered horrendously, couldn't speak at all. I was a very shy, reserved player and a very shy, reserved person. I found a safe place in life in basketball.
Bill Walton
#53. No matter what ... ball made my heart beat faster, made me want to jump up and down and be Superman. That's what life was about anyway, being Superman and living like life itself was important. Basketball made my life important.
Walter Dean Myers
#54. I understand basketball is not my entire life. It's only a part of my life. And there are a lot of other things that interest me a great deal ... other goals to seek, and this is how I have balance in life.
Yao Ming
#55. They say I couldn't play football, I was too small. They say I couldn't play basketball, I wasn't tall. They say I couldn't play baseball at all and now everyday of my life, I ball.
Lil' Wayne
#56. Coach Wooden, when he speaks, you listen. I've taken a lot of things from him and his little blue book because to him, it's not just about basketball, it's about life as well.
Kevin Love
#57. In life, never spend more than 10 percent of your time on the problem, and spend at least 90 percent of your time on the solution.
Tony Robbins
#58. Make your life exciting. Do what you have to do as long as you don't hurt people.
Al McGuire
#59. I'm going forward with my plans for life. I'm looking at things not only basketball-wise, but personal-wise.
Dwyane Wade
#60. It doesn't bother me at all. Do I hold any hard feelings? Not at all, ... Life is too short to sit around and hold grudges. I don't hold any whatsoever.
Kobe Bryant
#61. The life I was leading was changing me into someone I didn't even know.
Dennis Rodman
#62. We should do three things every day of our life. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is to think, we should spend some time in thought. And, number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears.
Jim Valvano
#63. I love playing basketball because you could be having a rough day in your life, and while you're on the court it gives you a clear mind. I'm not worried about anything. I'm there just playing freely and I go out there all and I have fun.
Derrick Rose
#64. People that don't know me think that basketball is my life 24/7. Trust me, there is much more to my life. My number one priority in my life is my family.
Dick Vitale
#65. Basketball was my whole life until I was 20 years old. All I knew was basketball. Then came golf, and I thought that's all I wanted to do then.
Kip Moore
#66. I've accomplished everything a person can accomplish on a basketball court, but I never thought about the future when I was younger. I never made plans for the next stage in my life.
Sheryl Swoopes
#67. My first motion capture game was with Sony - 'NBA: The Life.' It was very ahead of its time. Brandon Akiaten, he was the writer and director. He had a real vision of what this game was meant to be; it was a basketball game where I was the Jerry Maguire sports agent type guy. And it was great!
Nolan North
#68. Basketball was always a game to me. One of the greatest things in life for me was to be able to play what I loved dearly and get paid for it. So it was always a game to me and that's how I perceived everything.
Larry Bird
#69. For me, basketball kind of mirrors life. It sounds deep, but the sport has transformed my personality and my daily coping mechanisms. It has meant a lot.
Robbie Jones
#70. Life is what you allow yourself not to see.
Al McGuire
#71. My dad taught me that you have to work hard for anything you want in life, and I wanted to be good at playing basketball.
Seimone Augustus
#72. One of the questions I get asked a lot is, 'What do you do to stay in shape?' My glib answer is, 'I play.' But I mean it. Sure, I go to the gym, but I don't spend my life there. Most of my activity is outdoors, whether it's basketball or mountain biking or rock climbing.
Jason Lewis
#73. We learn to make a shell for ourselves when we are young and then spend the rest of our lives hoping for someone to reach inside and touch us. Just touch us - anything more than that would be too much for us to bear.
Bill Russell
#74. Each moment of my life I was dreaming of how great I could be, and continued working hard. Each time I closed my eyes I could see me shining bright like a sun.
Kobe Bryant
#75. I always say to my guys, 'The most important day of your life is today. This very minute is the most important of you life. You must win this minute. You must win this day. And tomorrow will take care of itself.
John Chaney
#76. I knew Rick Pitino was going to make them play that outbreak, monkey defense. He's been doing it all his life.
Shaquille O'Neal
#77. There are lots of things that I will probably never experience in this life. Military combat. Being dictator of a small central American country. Dunking a basketball. Being a famous rock star. Or walking on Mars. But one thing I have been, and will always be, is an entrepreneur.
Michael Arrington
#78. Basketball is just something else to do, another facet of life. I'm going to be a success at whatever I choose because of my preparation. By the time the game starts, the outcome has been decided. I never think about having a bad game because I have prepared.
David Robinson
#79. I couldn't imagine not playing basketball. To me, basketball is what life is all about.
Bill Walton
#80. I've never felt my job was to win basketball games - rather, that the essence of my job as a coach was to do everything I could to give my players the background necessary to succeed in life.
Bobby Knight
#81. I used to play football all the time. In the U.S., people don't play football, so I had to learn basketball. Looking back, that's what I like about my life - doing new things, having a new perspective.
Barkhad Abdi
#82. I made a ridiculous statement when I first went to North Carolina State. I said I know basketball down there was like life or death. It was very wrong. It's more important.
Jim Valvano
#83. If the only reason I coached was to win basketball games, my life would be pretty shallow
Mike Krzyzewski
#84. I am more than just a serious basketball fan. I am a life-long addict. I was addicted from birth, in fact, because I was born in Kentucky and I learned, early on, that Habitual Domination was a natural way of life.
Hunter S. Thompson
#85. 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
#86. My mom is one of 14 children. She's a great lady. She's a Taurus. Has been a profound influence in my life, still is to this day. Born in meager surroundings in rural South Carolina.
Julius Erving
#87. We overload in our workouts so that the game slows down in real life. It helps you become a smarter basketball player.
Stephen Curry
#88. My life is very simple. I like simplicity and for my time to be my own, so that I have the freedom to devote the majority of it to Islam.
Hakeem Olajuwon
#90. I'm 6-foot-4. If my life depended on it, I could still dunk a basketball. Then I would need assistance from a first responder to get down from the rim.
Willie Geist
#91. But the point of using the number was to show that sex was a great part of my life as basketball was a great part of my life. That's the reason why I was single.
Wilt Chamberlain
#92. I have to tell you, I'm proudest of my life off the court. There will always be great basketball players who bounce that little round ball, but my proudest moments are affecting people's lives, effecting change, being a role model in the community.
Magic Johnson
#93. There was a possibility I could have been out of the NBA. It's taught me something that was a little deeper than basketball. I'm talking about life decisions.
Lamar Odom
#94. I'm a GM in fantasy basketball and I'm a GM on PlayStation, so on PlayStation I probably would have got a little more, but this is real life, so I don't know.
Jalen Rose
#96. Not only is there more to life than basketball, there's a lot more to basketball than basketball.
Phil Jackson
#97. Obama's the one who never worked a day in his life. He never earned a penny that wasn't public money. How many fund-raisers does he attend every week? How often does he play basketball and golf? I wish I had that kind of time.
Roger Ailes
#98. Basketball has been my life and I worked at it so hard because I enjoyed it so much.
Larry Bird
#99. I tried golf for a while, but I wasn't very good at it, so I didn't play a lot of golf. I enjoy all sports, not just football. I like basketball, baseball, and I got into the World Cup. So really, sports in general are my life, and football specifically.
John Madden
#100. In college I never realized the opportunities available to a pro athlete. I've been given the chance to meet all kinds of people, to travel and expand my financial capabilities, to get ideas and learn about life, to create a world apart from basketball.
Michael Jordan
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