Quotes & Sayings About Basketball Games

I grew up with baseball; I played in Little League and went to games with my dad. But I, as I grew up, became more of a basketball fanatic than a baseball one. — Jonah Hill

I didn't miss any games, but Coach Knight came out and spent three days with my family in Chicago when my dad passed away. I came back and played and it was good therapy for me. Having a basketball family and a coach who understood and actually became like a father figure for that time was comforting to me, and I'm sure that will be comforting to Coleman. — Mike Krzyzewski

I'm very, very confident in my ability to see the game - even before it's played. — LeBron James

Those to whom defense is not important will have the best seat in the game — Rick Majerus

Coaches win practices, players win games — Pete Carril

I truly love the game; I wouldn't be playing if I didn't love the game. I'm not getting paid astronomical dollars; it's truly for the love of the game of basketball. — Michael Jordan

Sometimes the coaches tell me to be selfish, but my game won't let me be selfish. — LeBron James

I don't really have anything to say. Basketball is not a game that you can play with your mouth. It needs action to prove yourself. — Yao Ming

I believe you win games by what you do from your first practice until your first game — Jack Ramsay

It's what you get from games you lose that is extremely important. — Pat Riley

I was a kid who loved to play games. Any kind of game, any kind of ball. Give me a baseball, give me a basketball, give me something I can bounce and throw. — Terry Bradshaw

I want to be one of the best players in the game. — Kevin Durant

If you play good attack, you win the game, but, if you play good defence you win championships — Zeljko Obradovic

I never looked at basketball as work. I always enjoyed it as my hobby. I loved it. Once that love is gone, and I'm tired of working out every day and doing all the stuff to get me ready for games, and I'm tired of lifting and conditioning and doing all that other stuff around it, and I'd rather stay in bed, then it's time to go. — Dirk Nowitzki

Players draw confidence from a poised, alert coach who anticipates changing in game conditions — Jack Ramsay

Millions of guys play millions of basketball games every day of the week at the playground or the YMCA. But LeBron James gets $20 million a year because he can jam on all of those guys. We're always going to want to see LeBron and Kobe go at it. — Adam Carolla

I sing the 'Star Spangled Banner,' so I can get into football, basketball and baseball games for free. — John Cullum

Remember that basketball is a game of habits. If you make the other guy deviate from his habits, you've got him — Bill Russell

I've always been taught that basketball is a team game and greater than the sum of its parts. — Len Elmore

I had no experience with broadcasting basketball games, so I took a tape recorder and went to a playground where there was a summer league, and I stood up in the top of the stands and I called the game. — Ed Bradley

I know there's a lot of pressure, but I'm just going to go out and play my game. — Carmelo Anthony

Flash, take the game off. I'll go out and do the work. — Shaquille O'Neal

Basketball is a game. Baseball is a religion. Baseball is American. — Jerry Reinsdorf

Being in a wheelchair has made everyday things difficult. Things you wouldn't imagine. Like the looks I get at high school basketball games when they tell everyone to stand for the National Anthem. — Travis J. Dahnke

Baseball, football, basketball - these quintessentially American pastimes are recognizably sports because they involve play: they are games. One plays football, one doesn't play boxing ... The boxing match is the very image, the more terrifying for being so stylized, of mankind's collective aggression; its ongoing historical madness. — Joyce Carol Oates

On his 916th game as coach at University of Alabama - I've been here so long that when I got here the Dead Sea wasn't even sick. — Winfrey Sanderson

If the only reason I coached was to win basketball games, my life would be pretty shallow — Mike Krzyzewski

The players I respected most were the toughest players, not those who talked a good game or blocked a shot and acted like a fool. — Jay Bilas

Everyone on the bench stands for the man coming out of the game. — Dean Smith

We [ me and brother] wanted to win at things like basketball games or baseball games, but off the field we never felt like we had to compete with each other. — Bengie Molina

I also developed an interest in sports, and played in informal games at a nearby school yard where the neighborhood children met to play touch football, baseball, basketball and occasionally, ice hockey. — Steven Chu

In the closing seconds of every game, I want the ball in my hands for the last shot - not in anybody else's, not in anybody else's in the world. — Larry Bird

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

Prepare for every game like you just lost your last game. — Lon Kruger

This is a mind over matter thing. We have to find it within ourselves to play for two hours. We love the game, so it's not like we're doing something we hate. We're doing something we love. — Kay Yow

The Olympic Games is holy. Athletes from around the world, including myself, of course, dream to participate. — Yao Ming

It was a weird game. There was ugly shooting and a lot of turnovers and mistakes, and we were just fortunate to get the win. I should have done better, but it was just a very ugly and weird game ... I knew the game was going to be an ugly game when I saw those three guys at the scorer's table. Ugly people call ugly games. — Shaquille O'Neal

Physiologists, in fact, have calculated that rowing a two-thousand-meter race - the Olympic standard - takes the same physiological toll as playing two basketball games back-to-back. And it exacts that toll in about six minutes. A well-conditioned oarsman or oarswoman — Daniel James Brown

It's part of my game, getting to the free-throw line and being aggressive. If you say that I get superstar calls or I get babied by the refs, that's just taking away from how I play. That's disrespectful to me. — Kevin Durant

Make the practices like games and the games like practices. — Don Meyer

I just like to win basketball games. That's what motivates me. — Chamique Holdsclaw

I'm a big sports guy - golf, tennis, baseball, basketball, snowboarding - and I love games. — Jason Dohring

You have to earn your right to win the game with effort and togetherness — Brad Stevens

Basketball is a full court game, so every drill must be done full court. — Bobby Knight

These days I smile benignly at the fights that I see in NBA games. There aren't any broken noses or black eyes, which happened quite often when I played. — Bob Cousy

Although you do look at the big picture, if you're dealing with the now, it can be kind of frustrating. You're losing basketball games, things not going the way you want it to go or should go, but at the same time we've just got to stay with it. Just stay positive, just stay focused, as a team, as a unit, because the ship easily can sink early. — Carmelo Anthony

I don't think people can watch University of Texas basketball or football games with me - really, anything Texas is playing - without wanting to punch me in the face. I'm as big a Longhorn fan as you'll find. — Jordan Spieth

I just try to focus on the basketball game and not get caught up in all the media. — Lamar Odom

I love football. My weekends are booked. Saturday college games and Sunday NFL and 'Monday Night Football.' Booked! Football is first, then basketball and then everything else. — Jordin Sparks

I've been in Philadelphia 10 years, man. I knew it was going to be a challenge, mentally. I always thought life would come to an end if I ever left Philadelphia. And I feel like a newborn. Being in Denver it's just a better situation for me. And I'm just happy that I feel like I got an opportunity where I can win basketball games here. — Allen Iverson

The game honors toughness — Brad Stevens

My kids have played soccer and baseball and basketball, and the parents who come to games are always saying and doing things that are just wildly inappropriate. — Jeff Garlin

Few players have cast a spell across the game like Yao Ming, before or since. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Jury verdicts, basketball games, and even music are enough to set off black rage, it seems, — Ron Paul

He [Phil Jackson] is such a basketball genius in terms of the details of the game, the little nuances of the game and the rhythm of the game. — Kobe Bryant

The game of business used to be like football: size mattered. Then it changed to basketball: speed and agility. Today, business is more like chess. Customer priorities change continually, and the signals given by these changes are vital clues to the next cycle of growth ... — Adrian Slywotzky

I'm not super social, don't really go to parties, or basketball games, or football games very often, the big social occasions. — Taylor Phinney

Ten minutes after you lose that last game, you start working on next season. — Don Meyer

Losing a basketball game hurts but when you see what you've been through, you look on it and say well if this is the worst thing that can happen to me, then I'm okay. — LeBron James

I like basketball, and I've been to three games, which is so much more fun than seeing it on TV, I think. — Heidi Klum

The fundamentals of the game are the same wherever you go: pass, dribble, shoot, defend, rebound, screen, play hard and together — Terry Stotts

People really don't care, in some ways, that you have a family. With a high profile job like I have, they just want you to win basketball games. You can do that and still keep your family together. I try the best I can to be at the basketball practices or tennis practices or recitals. In my first year at Dallas my (then 11-year old) son Avery Jr., said, "You know daddy, you're still the best coach in the NBA." I was like, "But I haven't won a playoff game yet." And he said, "That's okay. You're still my daddy." That makes you feel good. — Avery Johnson

You can't not be into basketball and grow up in Chicago or live in L.A., because people are so fanatical about the teams. You know what's going on with the games even if you don't watch. — Virginia Madsen

As you get older, stuff starts to wear down. I can't play four basketball games a week anymore. It takes me three days to recover from one. I'm a little older, a little scrappier. So now I do yoga instead. And whatever else happens in the day, I'm set up in the best way possible. I feel great. I'm so flexible. — Stephen Lang

It's better to have a good player with the basketball in late game situations than to have plays. — Rick Pitino

That's what I do now: I lead and I teach. If we win basketball games from doing that, then that's great, but I lead and teach. Those are the two things I concentrate on. — Mike Krzyzewski

Mostly I play sports games - football and basketball. 'Inside Drive' and 'NFL Fever.' — Paul Pierce

We want to win it all. The only reason we play this game is to win championships. — LeBron James

You can't think about basketball or you ruin your game. It is an instinctive game. — Dolph Schayes

Toward the end of Carmel's life, the perception of super talls shifted dramatically, thanks largely to televised NBA games, By 1975, pretty much everyone had seen super tall people on TV, in the context of being celebrated in front of sold-out basketball arenas. This new frame of reference could not have been more positive. By 1995 Shaquille O'Neal was known as The Man of Steel, not the Traveling Human Giant. The idea of super tall people as freaks was replaced by the idea of super tall people as amazing athletes. — Arianne Cohen

A good coach improves your game. A great coach improves your life. — Michael Josephson

Generally speaking, individual performances don't win basketball games — John Wooden

I wasn't as critical during games as I was at practice. Players needed confidence during games more than criticism. — Dean Smith

Simplify the game as much as possible. When you add, you must subtract. — Don Meyer

Everyone who loves pro basketball assumes it's a little fixed. We all think the annual draft lottery is probably rigged, we all accept that the league aggressively wants big market teams to advance deep into the playoffs, and we all concede that certain marquee players are going to get preferential treatment for no valid reason. The outcomes of games aren't predeteremined or scripted but there are definitely dark forces who play with our reality. There are faceless puppet masters who pull strings and manipulate the purity of justice. It's not necessarily a full-on conspiracy, but it's certainly not fair. And that's why the NBA remains the only game that matters: Pro basketball is exactly like life. — Chuck Klosterman

I don't know a lot of show runners. I mean I met a lot of them in picket lines. I'm not part of a, like, secret society or pickup basketball game. As far as I'm concerned, pick-up basketball games are secret societies. They confuse me. I've never been a networker or I've never been very social. — Joss Whedon

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

I really do miss playing basketball. I don't play a lot of pick-up games. But I do like using basketball as a form of cross training. — Jackie Joyner-Kersee

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

It's a luxury to play. I get to play basketball for a living. I'm a lucky guy and I'm thankful for everything I have and what I get to do. I realize how many people would give their left foot to just play one game in the NBA. This is the NBA! — Chris Bosh

The best part of basketball, for those people on the inside, is the bus going to the airport after you've won a game on an opponent's floor. It's been a very tough battle. And preferably, in the playoffs. And that feeling that you have, together as a group, having gone to an opponent's floor and won a very good victory, is as about as high as you can get. — Phil Jackson

That which interests most people leaves me without any interest at all. This includes a list of things such as: social dancing, riding roller coasters, going to zoos, picnics, movies, planetariums, watching tv, baseball games; going to funerals, weddings, parties, basketball games, auto races, poetry readings, museums, rallies, demonstrations, protests, children's plays, adult plays ... I am not interested in beaches, swimming, skiing, Christmas, New Year's, the 4th of July, rock music, world history, space exploration, pet dogs, soccer, cathedrals and great works of Art. How can a man who is interested in almost nothing write about anything? Well, I do. I write and I write about what's left over: a stray dog walking down the street, a wife murdering her husband, the thoughts and feelings of a rapist as he bites into a hamburger sandwich; life in the factory, life in the streets and rooms of the poor and mutilated and the insane, crap like that, I write a lot of crap like that — Charles Bukowski

I am not too accusatorial or defensive by nature. I have always been kind of philosophical about it, remembering that it is just a game. People take these things too seriously. — Steve Nash

Nobody travels better than Northern State fans and nobody knows the game better than Northern State fans. If I'd die and went to heaven and I was coaching, it would be at Wachs Arena. — Don Meyer

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. — Michael Jordan

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

Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, rebounding wins championships. — Pat Summitt

It always amazes me that spectators want to coach, coaches want to officiate, and officials just want to watch the game — Lou Holtz

I know there are expectations, but I don't let them affect mt game. I just play basketball. — Seimone Augustus

When things go bad, it's easy to point fingers. People who attempt to switch the blame are afraid to fail. We've all been afraid to fail before a game, but it shouldn't stop us from continuing, and from doing what we have to do to get the job done. — John Elway

But I have to say this in defense of humankind: In no matter what era in history, including the Garden of Eden, everybody just got here. And, except for the Garden of Eden, there were already all these games going on that could make you act crazy, even if you weren't crazy to begin with. Some of the crazymaking games going on today are love and hate, liberalism and conservatism, automobiles and credit cards, golf, and girls' basketball. — Kurt Vonnegut

Regardless of what you do put in, every game boils down to doing the things you do best and doing them over and over again. — Vince Lombardi

I definitely like to stay active. I'm a huge fan of the NBA and the sport of basketball. I love to play pick-up games in Brooklyn where I live. — Brendan Dooling

The result of all this muscular effort, on both the larger scale and the smaller, is that your body burns calories and consumes oxygen at a rate that is unmatched in almost any other human endeavor. Physiologists, in fact, have calculated that rowing a two-thousand-meter race - the Olympic standard - takes the same physiological toll as playing two basketball games back-to-back. And it exacts that toll in about six minutes. — Daniel James Brown

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

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

Now I'm a free agent, literally and figuratively. I've reached that enviable state in life in which I can do pretty much what I want. And what I want is to continue to play basketball. I still love the game, and I still have something to offer. My coaches and teammates recognize that. At the same time, I want to be genuine and authentic and truthful. — Jason Collins

I would never predict a run like that. Last season, that's beyond reality. I think we can go 25-14. I think we can play 10 games over .500, even more than (that) over .500, and that would be a great run. Any time you go 30-15 or something like that, that's pretty incredible basketball. — George Karl

I don't try to get players emotionally up for a game; it creates too many peaks and valleys ... I strive for even keel; they will get up for the big games. — Denny Crum

I've got five grandkids. They play baseball, they play football, they play basketball. I go to all the games. You always have that urge to say something when you're watching them. But I've learned to keep it to myself. I've blurted out some things and embarrassed myself. — John Madden