Top 100 Quotes About Basketball Winning
#1. The NBA is all about winning, but at this level (college basketball) winning doesn't make you happy. You can win, and play lousy, and in my program, feel lousy. To me it's about: How good can we be.
Geno Auriemma
#2. When I told my wife UConn would win the Big East tournament, she wanted to know why a team from Alaska got into the Big East tournament.
Vic Ziegel
#3. You can easily separate 'team guys' from 'me guys' by how they accept coaching. The guys that accept it are about winning
Bill Parcells
#4. You have to make shots to win basketball games and we didn't do that. You also have to get back on defense, so it was a double-whammy.
Gregg Popovich
#5. In all my years one thing has never changed; You win with serious, tough-minded players. That never changes
Tom Thibodeau
#6. You can make all the excuses you want, but if you're not mentally tough and you're not prepared to play every night, you're not going to win.
Larry Bird
#7. I was definitely out of control, but I loved the game of basketball and I played to win and I didn't understand anything less than that. That's why I have a hard time with the young men who can't play because they went to the dentist this afternoon.
Mel Daniels
#8. Win or lose, I am programmed to do more. That's because I am the other son of Jorel - Superman.
Shaquille O'Neal
#9. Sometimes you learn more from losing than winning. Losing forces you to reexamine.
Pat Summitt
#10. There are some concrete ways to create a winning attitude. But nothing beats practicing it. When you prepare to win, belief comes easily.
Pat Summitt
#11. Evaluate wins and losses objectively, focusing more on effort and execution than on the outcome of the game
Morgan Wootten
#12. Generally speaking, individual performances don't win basketball games
John Wooden
#13. Winning teams at the NBA level, the college level, and the high school level all play team basketball. Championship teams have five players on the same page at all times.
Hubie Brown
#14. A lot of guys go through their whole careers and don't win a championship, but are still great coaches.
Chuck Daly
#15. Bottom line, you're either a risk taker, or your not, and if you don't take risks, you'll never win big.
Geno Auriemma
#16. They said you have to use your five best players but I found you win with the five who fit together the best.
Red Auerbach
#17. You don't win games as a coach during games. You win games as a coach before games. Players win during games, not coaches
Red Auerbach
#18. We win or the alumni bash in our teeth. (On the dental plan at NC State)
Jim Valvano
#19. Freshman want to play. Sophomores want to start. Juniors want to score. Seniors want to win
John Beilein
#21. There's no reason to play in the NBA if you don't believe you can win it all.
LeBron James
#22. I believe you win games by what you do from your first practice until your first game
Jack Ramsay
#23. Remember that tomorrow when you are trying to get somebody to do something. If, for example, you don't want your children to smoke, don't preach at them, and don't talk about what you want; but show them that cigarettes may keep them from making the basketball team or winning the hundred-yard dash.
Dale Carnegie
#24. It all depends on how you want to define what an MVP is. I've been fortunate to win the trophy four times, but I've been the MVP of my team for a long time - just because of the way I lead and the way I approach us being professionals off the floor.
LeBron James
#25. Coaches win practices, players win games
Pete Carril
#26. Winning is more related to good defense than good offense
Jack Ramsay
#27. If winning weren't important nobody would keep score.
Al McGuire
#28. When I step on that basketball court, I'm thinking about basketball, I'm thinking about winning - but there's so much that goes into thought about how I'm going to open this game up to others. It's so much more than just basketball.
Carmelo Anthony
#29. Systems win! Believe in your system, and then sell it to your players.
Billy Donovan
#30. We want to win it all. The only reason we play this game is to win championships.
LeBron James
#31. The ideal way to win a championship is step by step.
Phil Jackson
#32. I'm one year older, one year sexier - one more, baby. For me, it's all about the bigger picture. We want to win the whole thing. We've got to beat whoever is in our way.
Shaquille O'Neal
#33. Winning takes character. Workers get the most out of themselves. When a body has limited talent, it must muster all its resources of character to overcome adversity.
Pete Carril
#34. Winning coaches look for opportunities to praise. Anything that reflects a commitment to the team is praiseworthy
Bill Parcells
#35. I understand the NBA and the role I play on my team. I know that I have to play a leadership role and do whatever I have to do to win.
Carmelo Anthony
#36. I don't want to shoot my mouth in my foot, but those are games we can win.
Sherman Douglas
#37. Know how to win and how to lose and be able to handle adversity.
Tom Osborne
#38. The day I stopped worrying about stats is the day I started winning
Shaquille O'Neal
#39. 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
#41. Winning is only important in war and surgery.
Al McGuire
#43. Eddie Robinson is about one word: winning and losing.
Paul Collier
#44. It seemed like we were losing every night for a different reason. Now we're winning a different way every time. It's a great feeling.
Blake Griffin
#45. For me, it always goes back to something I learned in basketball. There's winning and there's losing, and in life you have to know they both will happen. But what's never been acceptable to me is quitting.
Magic Johnson
#46. Work as hard as you can to become as good an individual player as you can to help your team win
Doug Collins
#47. The only thing on my mind right now is trying to win the whole thing.
LeBron James
#48. Winning a postseason game is like winning five regular season games. There is just no feeling like it. Everything is magnified. Every free throw, turnover, shot and play.
Don Meyer
#49. I do not want players who do not have a keen desire to win and do not play hard and aggressively to accomplish that objective.
John Wooden
#50. Some clubs want to win so much they'll do anything to get it. Our approach has been just the opposite. We've tried to do things the right way. And the right way is [abiding by] the rules and regulations ... I may not like all of them, but once they are [official], we play by them.
Don Shula
#51. What do you do to help us win when you're not scoring baskets?
John Calipari
#52. I've given these guys the blueprint on how to win a premiership, now I just have to be patient until they're ready.
LeBron James
#54. That dude scored 8 points in the last 19 seconds, pulled out a miracle win at the Garden. He made me choke on a chicken bone that day. I'm serious.
Shaquille O'Neal
#55. You have to earn your right to win the game with effort and togetherness
Brad Stevens
#56. Our goal is not to win. It's to play together and play hard. Then, winning takes care of itself.
Mike Krzyzewski
#57. So, yeah, I'm going to try to win the national championship next year. But I'm not going to kill myself doing it. I'm not going to kill my players either. You really start to realize there's a lot more to what we're trying to do then winning games
Geno Auriemma
#58. I believe a big part of leadership is about winning the moment.
Mike Krzyzewski
#59. If they want to win right now, I'm all for it. That's all I said the whole time. If you want to wait five years, let me know. My legs aren't as young as they used to be.
Kobe Bryant
#61. I probably should've listened to Michael a year ago when he said that Charles will never win a championship because he doesn't show any dedication.
Scottie Pippen
#62. Bill Russell is one of the great names in basketball, an all-American ... and the only athlete to ever win an NCAA Championship, an Olympic Gold Medal, and a professional championship all in the same year-1956 ... But Bill Russell had this one problem: He threw up before every game.
John Eliot
#63. Can't win without talent, you know.
Al McGuire
#64. If you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.
Michael Jordan
#65. When players are used to winning, they put out a little more. Basketball 3rd winningest coach (regular season and playoffs) in NBA history; won 1,037 times in 20 years;
Red Auerbach
#66. Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, rebounding wins championships.
Pat Summitt
#67. When I'm losing, they call me nuts. When I'm winning, they call me eccentric.
Al McGuire
#68. When I was young, I was sold on winning. I was always serious on the court. As I got older, I realized that it was just a basketball game. Just go out there and have fun.
Carmelo Anthony
#69. It feels good to come here and be a winning program.
Kevin Durant
#70. My opinion about basketball, the way I was taught, was when you step on the court, you play to win.
Larry Bird
#71. I hate to lose more than I like to win.
Larry Bird
#72. I don't let individual statistics make me a focus or more of a focus. I just tried to come out and attack early and get a big lead. We were able to take it in overtime and win.
LeBron James
#73. Aint nobody here think we could get no win but us
Kenyon Martin
#74. The only thing even in this world is the number of hours in a day. The difference in winning or losing is what you do with those hours.
Woody Hayes
#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. If I don't get five [titles], I won't be happy with myself as a basketball player. I don't know how you guys will feel about me.
Shaquille O'Neal
#77. My goal is to win the next game one possession at a time. That's it. I don't have any other goals
Brad Stevens
#78. If the only reason I coached was to win basketball games, my life would be pretty shallow
Mike Krzyzewski
#79. In all the research you do as a coach, studying other coaches and championship-type situations, you find that all those teams combined talent with great defense. You've got to stop other teams to win.
Pat Riley
#80. Hornergy' is Zen's term for the indomitable athletic edge powered by sexual restraint. The basketball, baseball and football teams haven't had a winning season in years. The table-tennis team, however, is undefeated.
Megan McCafferty
#81. If you play good attack, you win the game, but, if you play good defence you win championships
Zeljko Obradovic
#82. It's always nice to start the season with a win.
Yao Ming
#83. Rebounding wins championships, you need to emphasize it and work with kids on it.
Pat Summitt
#84. You can't measure success if you have never failed. My father has taught me that if you really do want to reach your goals, you can't spend any time worrying about whether you're going to win or lose. Focus only on getting better.
Steffi Graf
#85. Why would I want to help them (the T -Wolves) win a title? They're not doing anything for me. I'm at risk. I have a lot of risk here. I got my family to feed.
Latrell Sprewell
#87. I've learned what it feels like to lose, believe me. But I think, in the end, that is just going to make winning that much better.
Kevin Durant
#88. To win the big games you must get to the Free Throw line, and then you must make them.
Rick Majerus
#89. Anyone can win a slam-dunk contest. The real Superman is dead. He was assassinated by Pat Riley. I'm the Big Cactus now and ready to roll again.
Shaquille O'Neal
#90. The motivation for me is just the game itself, just playing the game the right way and trying to win, compete every time I step out there on the floor. That's motivation enough for me to go out there and play well.
Kobe Bryant
#91. Winning is the first priority. Individual development is important, but if each guy gets better, the team gets better
Lawrence Frank
#92. Basketball is a pretty simple game. What wins is consistency and competitiveness.
Gregg Popovich
#93. Our titles would not have been possible without the unselfishness displayed by all our teams, the team wins, not the individuals
John Wooden
#94. Although I wanted my players to work to win, I tried to convince them they had always won when they had done their best.
John Wooden
#95. A lot of people talk about the Fab Five, and they were wonderful, one of the best teams you'll ever see in college basketball. But the '89 team is the best one to ever play at Michigan in my opinion because they won the national championship. Winning a championship is winning a championship.
Trey Burke
#96. Your best player has to set a tone of intolerance for anything that gets in the way of winning
Jeff Van Gundy
#97. The more you lose, the more positive you have to become. When you're winning, you can ride players harder because their self-esteem is high. If you are losing and you try to be tough, you're asking for dissension.
Rick Pitino
#98. Your program must have an overriding purpose which is clearly visible and which teaches lessons beyond winning.
Don Meyer
#99. I would tell players to relax and never think about what's at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you've lost your focus.
Michael Jordan
#100. This is a team game and one man doesn't win and one man doesn't lose. In the end, the best team usually wins.
Wilt Chamberlain
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