Best Basketball Quotes & Sayings

I used to play basketball and I was pretty competitive, but I was never a bad loser. I never got angry. For me it was always about doing my best and devoting myself to a challenge. — Benicio Del Toro

A big market is something that doesn't really concern me too much. It's cool to think about, it's good for off-the-court deals. But I'm more of a basketball player. That's what I want to be known as. And this is the best place for me to play basketball. I'm glad I'm here. — Kevin Durant

Until my senior year, baseball and basketball were my best sports; and even when I was a senior, I still wanted to play baseball professionally. But the family wanted me to go to college, and I guess I agreed with them, or else I would have accepted some of the offers I got. — Joe Namath

Michael Jordon may have been the best basketball player in history, but he couldn't have won six NBA titles without a team. — Mark E. Hyman

How good can we expect to be if our best player is not our best teammate — Brad Stevens

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

You don't have to be best friends as basketball players but I do believe in chemistry. I think it makes everything different if a team is really together and they're all on that same page. They might not like each other, per se, but if you're on the same page and the chemistry is there, you can play great basketball. You can go back to teams like Detroit, the Bad Boys. Those guys had great chemistry, that's why they won. — Dwight Howard

The best teams play for each other, not with each other — Jeff Van Gundy

Guys have made livings off me. Nick Anderson got a new contract. Travis Knight got a new contract off me. As a matter of fact, Derek Fisher called me yesterday to thank me. If you double me, I'm kicking out to Eddie, who's the best shooter in the East. Or I'm going to give it to Dwyane, or put it on the ground and come bang on you. — Shaquille O'Neal

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

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

Basketball's so much like life: if something's going great, you wait a minute, it will change. If something's going bad, you wait a minute, it will change. So I try to play things on such an even keel, knowing that things are going to change. You take the good with the bad; you don't get too excited, you don't get too down and sometimes that's the hardest thing in the world to do when you're in the midst of it, but that's the best way to handle it. — Tim Duncan

Characteristics of a Team Player We all fit into different niches. Each of us must make the effort to contribute to the best of our ability according to our own individual talents. And then we put all the individual talents together for the highest good of the group. Thus, I valued a player who cared for others and could lose himself in the group for the good of the group. I believe that quality makes for an outstanding player. It is also why the best players don't always make the best team. I mean by this that a gifted player, or players, who are not team players will ultimately hurt the team, whether it revolves around basketball or business. Understanding that the good of the group comes first is fundamental to being a highly productive member of a team. — John Wooden

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

The Miami Heat has the best fans. — Shaquille O'Neal

Playing in the playoffs is the best basketball in the world, and if you can learn under that pressure, succeed under that pressure, it gives you more confidence the next year. — Tony Parker

I wanted to the best player in the state - [the best] the area has ever seen. That's always been my goal. Guys like Elgin Baylor, Adrian Dantley and Dave Bing, it's tough to pass those guys. So I'm studying, working. My project's not over yet. Hopefully, I get there. — Kevin Durant

I'm the NBA's best NFL player, and I've always been the sexiest 7-footer in the NBA - for 12 years running. — Shaquille O'Neal

Our best years are only ahead of us, so we got to continue to keep pushing. — Kevin Durant

On paper, I think this is the best team I've been on. — Shaquille O'Neal

Offensively, you do what you do best and you do it again and again. Defensively, you attack your opponent's strength. — Vince Lombardi

Scientists contribute in a variety of ways and I don't think I can singular one even including [Albert] Einstein, that I can say that he's the best. We don't work like the best basketball player and the best musician and so on. Science is a collective effort. — Ahmed H. Zewail

If i'm not trying my best, I might as well retire. — Derrick Rose

Whatever I lack in size and strength and speed, I kind of make up for in being grittier. When it comes to something like basketball I'm definitely not the best guy on the court, but I love elbowing and pushing people out or boxing them out. — Steven Yeun

When I travel around the globe, I try as hard as I can to represent the NBA and the game of basketball to the best of my abilities. I get to go around the world and not only share the game but also my philanthropic work. Building a hospital in the Congo is one of the proudest achievements of my life. — Dikembe Mutombo

Don't ever have a rule that you won't enforce with your best player. — Doug Collins

The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores. — Al McGuire

I don't pay attention to what others are doing. I feel strongly that if I have correct goals and the determination to keep pursuing them the best way I know how, everything else falls into line. — Dan Dierdorf

It's a heavy duty to try to do everything and please everybody. My job was to go out there and play the game of basketball as best I can and provide entertainment for everyone who wanted to watch basketball. Obviously, people may not agree with that; again, I can't live with what everyone's impression of what I should or what I shouldn't do. — Michael Jordan

The 1992 US Olympic basketball team is the best sports team ever, the equivalent of rounding up the greatest American writers of the last century or so and watching them collaborate: 'OK, Twain, you do the dialogue and hand off to Faulkner. He'll do the interior monologue. Hemingway will edit - no, don't make that face, you know you overwrite. And be nice to Cheever. He's young, but he's got a good ear. Wharton and Cather can't play - they're girls.' — Anna Quindlen

As a young man just beginning to publish some short fiction in the t&a magazines, I was fairly optimistic about my chances of getting published; I knew that I had some game, as the basketball players say these days, and I also felt that time was on my side; sooner or later the best-selling writers of the sixties and seventies would either die or go senile, making room for newcomers like me. — Stephen King

The weird thing about rap is that you don't get compared in the same way that athletes do, even though it's probably the most competitive sport in music. In basketball, they look at a player and say: 'This guy was the best in his prime at this sport.' But in rap it's not until you're dead or retired that people think about it like that. — Chance The Rapper

Passing is your best weapon against man to man. Dribble penetration is your best weapon against zone. — Bobby Knight

I'm not gonna be bad at anything, and I want to actually be the best at anything I'm doing. So if I'm playing basketball, if I'm taking the SATs, like, there's a competitive spirit behind it. With production, it's the same thing. — J. Cole

I try to take it and leave it in God's hands. I try to do what He wants me to do and come out here and perform the best I can for my teammates. That's my responsibility. This is a tough league. Outside of basketball, the lifestyle is tough - the travel. Honestly, I think that responsibility is pretty tough but I don't believe that God gives us anything we can't handle. — Jrue Holiday

Heart in champions has to do with the depth of our motivation and how well your mind and body react to pressure - that is, being able to do what you do best under maximum pain and stress. — Bill Russell

The worst day coaching is better than the best day doing anything else — Don Meyer

The best way to build team chemistry is the way Rupp used to substitute, when they fouled out. — Dean Smith

Your best players have to unite and inspire the group ... otherwise, they'll divide the group — Jeff Van Gundy

I am Jon-Robert Holden - a basketball player, a son, a brother, a father, a friend, a writer and an Olympian!All these things are great , but I am simply a child of God who pushed himself to be the best I could be .And by following my heart and pursuing my passion I know that He blessed my steps prior to me getting here.And it's because of this I simply and humbly say, "Thank You". — Jon-Robert Holden

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

I could run 200 yards at a stretch, I could duck between players, I felt free to make plays that suited me best. It wasn't like football then and basketball today, where coaches tell you what foot to put down. — Jim Brown

Great players never look in the mirror and think I'm a great basketball player. You ask yourself, Am I the best player I can be? — Michael Jordan

If my primary purpose here at Indiana is to go out and win ballgames, I can probably do that as well as anybody can. I would just cheat, get some money from a lot of people around Indianapolis who want to run the operation that way, and just go out and get the best basketball players I can. Then we'd beat everybody. — Bobby Knight

Basketball is a great mystery. You can do everything right. You can have the perfect mix of talent and the best system of offense in the game. You can devise a foolproof defensive strategy and prepare your players for every possible eventuality. But if the players don't have a sense of oneness as a group, your efforts won't pay off. And the bond that unites a team can be so fragile, so elusive. — Phil Jackson

As far as carrying the torch for the years to come, I don't know. I just want to be the best basketball player I can be. — Kobe Bryant

The problem with kids these days is they don't have enough fun stuff to do. When I was stationed with my family in Germany, youth basketball programs gave me something to strive to do my best at. — Shaquille O'Neal

My dream has become a reality now, and it's the best feeling I've ever had. — LeBron James

Sometimes the best recruits are the ones you don't get. — Don Meyer

Your best athletes might give basketball a try just when they think, geez, this might be something that pays off for me in the end. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Leadership does not mean getting people to do their job. It means getting people to do their best. — Harvey MacKay

I think in college they give you a chance to really mature, form yourself and build relationships. I think that's what a team is all about, and when you build relationships, it shows on the court and that brings out success. I love the whole attitude of staying in college to take advantage of a free education. I just felt like Kentucky wasn't a fit for me. The whole attitude and approach of the one-and-dones, that's good for them, that's their decision. But I think [Duke] Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] is a guru of basketball. I want to learn from one of the best. — Jabari Parker

When I bought the [WNBA] team, I saw that no one really cared about them. Like the locker facilities that these young women have to work in-they weren't right. I want to give them the best locker room facilities and show them they're valued-because if you show them value, they're going to perform better. And this goes for all women, not just basketball players. — Sheila Johnson

Doing the best you are capable of doing is victory in itself, and less than that is defeat. — John Wooden

Pat Riley is the best coach I've ever had. — Shaquille O'Neal

Fatherhood will put a man through a lot, but it's a tremendous job, the best in the world - even better than playing basketball. — Derek Fisher

Our offensive philosophy is to simply find a way to get the ball into the hands of our team's best player. — Kelvin Sampson

This summer is going to be a different summer for a lot of people. Everyone is going to take care of their own business and everyone is going to do what's best for them, including me. — Shaquille O'Neal

I'm always hungry. I want to be the best. — Kevin Durant

Being the best right now doesn't do anything for my feathers. — Shaquille O'Neal

For five years I've felt like the best prostitute in a high-class whorehouse. But all the other girls get paid more than I do. — Dennis Rodman

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

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

Magic Johnson is the best player who plays on the ground, and Michael Jordan is the best player who plays in the air. — John Paxson

I haven't always recruited for the best talent. I've taken a few guys who would fit for different reasons. Leadership. Toughness — Tom Izzo

The man that got me into collecting sneakers in the first place was the man they call Michael Jordan. He was the one who kind of exposed me to the sneaker world - he was my favorite basketball player, and he had the best shoes. — Macklemore

The goal in life is the same as in basketball: make the effort to do the best you are capable of doing
in marriage, at your job, in the community, for your country. Make the effort to contribute in whatever way you can. You may do it materially or with time, ideas, or work. Making the effort to contribute is what counts. The effort is what counts in everything. — John Wooden

Everywhere I've been, I've been the best player. I love being a leader, and I love being the best. I just want to get better. It's not about being cocky or selfish or anything like that. It's just how I am. — LeBron James

Winning is the best deodorant. — Jason Kidd

I've decided to listen to my doctors and get the procedure I need on my knee. USA Basketball said I had to do what was best for me. They want me to be obviously as healthy as possible so I can continue to play this game at a high level. — Dwyane Wade

Basketball is what got me out of the projects. It got my momma the house she never had, the car she never had. Nobody is going to get the best of me. You might score more points than me, but you're going to know you were in a dogfight. — Kenyon Martin

The highest level of achievement is attained by the teams with the best conditioned players — Jack Ramsay

When I was teaching basketball, I urged my players to try their hardest to improve on that very day, to make that practice a masterpiece.
Too often we get distracted by what is outside our control. You can't do anything about yesterday. The door to the past has been shut and the key thrown away. You can do nothing about tomorrow. It is yet to come. However, tomorrow is in large part determined by what you do today. So make today a masterpiece. You have control over that.
This rule is even more important in life than basketball. You have to apply yourself each day to become a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better. Only then will you will be able to approach being the best you can be. It begins by trying to make each day count and knowing you can never make up for a lost day. — John Wooden

When a player keeps a calm demeanor on the court, it's easier for his ability to shine. The best response to an opposing player's physical or psychological tactics is to keep cool and come right back at him with the force of your game, not your fists. Revenge is always sweeter if your team wins the game. — Walt Frazier

Every little kid that steps on the court or the field has aspirations to go pro. I think being a pro basketball player is the best job. The thing I had to realize was that I can't do every dream that I have. — Brian McKnight

We may not be the best conditioned team in the country, but our players think they are. — John Wooden

I'm playing against great players, playing against the best in the world. The competition-that's what I've always wanted. — Kobe Bryant

The players have no real self-esteem when it comes to putting the best image out there in a real competitive fashion. — Oscar Robertson

And I didn't fall in love with the game of basketball just because it was me playing. I fell in love with it Because I got guys like this, Like these guys every single day That push me to be the best player I can be. — Kevin Durant

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

Confrontation simply means meeting the truth head-on. — Mike Krzyzewski

I'm one of the best defenders to ever play basketball, so I'm still the first option on defense. — Metta World Peace

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

Put your two best players away from the ball and bring it back to them. — Don Meyer

Do your best when no one is looking. — Bob Cousy

Practice to beat the best. — Dick Bennett

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

There's a misconception about teamwork. Teamwork is the ability to have different thoughts about things; it's the ability to argue and stand up and say loud and strong what you feel. But in the end, it's also the ability to adjust to what is the best for the team. — Tom Landry

I believe it's impossible to claim you have taught, when there are students who have not learned. With that commitment, from my first year as an English teacher until my last as UCLA basketball teacher/coach, I was determined to make the effort to become the best teacher I could possibly be, not for my sake, but for all those who were placed under my supervision. — John Wooden

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

Good shooters take the shots; best shooters take most of the shots. — Don Meyer

I always believe I can beat the best, achieve the best. I always see myself in the top position. — Serena Williams

My teammates at Duke - all of them, black and white - were a band of brothers who came together to play at the highest level for the best coach in basketball. — Grant Hill

I just want to try to ignore the scrutiny and all the distractions and just play hard basketball and let the best come ... Improving game by game and trying to improve my game is what I want to do. — Andrew Bogut

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

Indeed, the maligned American pastime of baseball may be by-far the greatest and best sport by one criterion, when it comes to emulating and training for genuinely useful Neolithic skills! Think about it. The game consists of lots of patient waiting and watching (stalking), throwing with incredible accuracy and speed, sprinting, dodging ... and hitting moving objects real hard with clubs! And arguing. Hey, what else could you possibly need? Now, tell me, how do soccer or basketball prepare you to survive in the wild, hm? — David Brin

Butch, you come from DeWitt Clinton. There are five thousand brothers in that school. You're the best there. You've been all-city two years in a row. How bad can you be? You come with me and we'll make nice music. — Al McGuire

The best teams have chemistry. They communicate with each other and they sacrifice personal glory for a common goal. — Dave DeBusschere

Mental Toughness is doing the right thing for the team when it's not the best thing for you — Bill Belichick

Reggie when I first met you, You didn't say two words to me, I didn't know who you were, But we instantly clicked, And you became one of my best friends man ... Words can't express how much I care about you, Your well-being, How you feeling, Not even just basketball man, But off the court, I always make sure you're alright. You're such a humble person man. You do everything for the team. You always put yourself last. And I learned a lot from you. Thank you man, thank you. — Kevin Durant