Great Players Quotes & Sayings

I tell the players that they can't relive any day in their lives and that they can't relive the minutes of a game, so they should make a great effort, a Mount Everest type effort, to live up to their potential. Success is a communal type thing, and if we win, then everyone can be considered successful and we can move uptown together. — Al McGuire

I know I've broken all the rules of all the games, that all the great players and best love calculators recommend that you play, if you want to make someone like you a lot. But that's okay, because I give up. I've got my coffee sitting in my San Francisco cup, I've got Kona island and a working beating heart that's not cold, hard, or numb - very workable and capable of loving, breaking, mending and repeating. So that's just what I'll do. Because I'm too tired. Too tired uping all nighting wasting my precious timing wishing it was your heart pumping, wanting me - like I used to want you. — Coco J. Ginger

You can't win unless you have good people with great attitude. They are the ones who won the games. I didn't win any games. You never saw a coach make a tackle anywhere. My philosophy was to get the best players and then try to do something new with them. — Hank Stram

It's hard to be a clubhouse guy without being a great guy. I mean, the nature of the job is, you know, you're picking up dirty clothes and you're doing all the tasks that the players - that nobody else wants to do. — Terry Francona

I'd do a demo recording by myself, layering instruments on top of one another, and while that's fun, it doesn't have the same impact as getting some great players together in a great studio with a great engineer and producer, then waiting for the magic. — Bernie Leadon

William McKinley Oswald was my high school football coach. He was a great coach and had a profound influence on my life. But I think he could have learned his method of motivating players from an army drill sergeant. — Joseph B. Wirthlin

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

Milan is my favorite team. Every weekend I check the Serie A results to see how Milan fared. Milan has really great players, like Seedorf, Ibra, Pato and Thiago Silva. Then there is Nesta who is a great champion, it's enough just to look at his career. — Mamadou Sakho

Great negotiators are able to question the assumptions that the rest of the involved players accept on faith or in arrogance, and thus remain more emotionally open to all possibilities, and more intellectually agile to a fluid situation. Unfortunately, — Chris Voss

There was no publicity. You had to like it. There was no pressure, just great competition. The attitude of the coaches and players was exceptional. — Jim Brown

I think Charlie George was one of Arsenal's all time great players. A lot of people might not agree with that, but I personally do — Jimmy Greaves

When I played with Michael Jordan on the Olympic team, there was a huge gap between his ability and the ability of the other great players on that team. But what impressed me was that he was always the first one on the floor and the last one to leave. — Steve Alford

English fans love spectacular players like Alan Shearer and that is exactly what United have now signed. He has magic in his boots. The first thing you notice about him is that he is incredibly quick and very, very powerful for such a young man. He has great, close control and his technique is excellent. He believes he can do anything with the ball, and that confidence makes him very special indeed. — Cristiano Ronaldo

Great players and great teams want to be driven. They want to be pushed to the edge. They don't want to be cheated. Ordinary players and average teams want it to be easy — Pat Riley

What drove me to become the world's greatest bodybuilder is no different from what drives other athletes to become great tennis players or boxers or jockeys. — Arnold Schwarzenegger

On the PGA Tour, guys finish in the top 10, make a ton of money and think they're great players. In my era, you had to win. We didn't settle for anything else. — Hale Irwin

There are so many great players walking the planet but it is rare to find musicians that can live life together in a way that isn't ego centric. For whatever reason, musicians are just bizarrely composed humans. I think I'm living in the middle of a miracle. — Crowder

Good players can take coaching; great players can take coaching and learn. — John Wooden

Funnily enough we have never had one enquiry for Paul Scholes. You know why? Because they all know he will never leave. in my time he would be in the top six or seven (best United players ever) without a doubt. His contribution and quality have been great, even without the fantastic goals he has scored. [ ... ] He has that wonderful velvet touch on the ball. When he gets it, it goes stone dead. It is wonderful to see that amidst all the mayhem that can happen in a football match. — Alex Ferguson

It was simple reality - most competitive tennis players in my day were privileged, spoiled, entitled and white. Also, many of them were beautiful, fit, tan and of good stock - great big hair and white teeth and long legs. Then there were the rest of us. — Anne Lamott

Wherever Mantle went in the great metropolis - Danny's Hideaway, the Latin Quarter, the '21' Club, the Stork Club, El Morocco, Toots Shor's - his preferred drink was waiting when he walked through the door. Reporters waited at his locker for monosyllabic bons mots. Boys clustered by the players' gate, hoping to touch him. — Jane Leavy

LeBron James has cemented himself as one of the GREAT PLAYERS of ALL TIME. — Stephen A. Smith

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

You look at all the great players that they've had and the potential of playing in Yankee Stadium. — Nick Johnson

You can have great players, but if they don't want to be coached, what are you going to do? — Scott Brooks

The great thing about baseball players, from the point of view of personal hygiene, is how seldom they break a sweat. — Michael Lewis

Rugby is great. The players don't wear helmets or padding; they just beat the living daylights out of each other and then go for a beer. I love that. — Joe Theismann

I think school is very important and I personally had a great experience at North Carolina, which helped shape me as a basketball player and a person. Every once in a while, you will have a player who can make the jump and have an immediate impact on the professional level, but most of the players who come out would absolutely benefit from going to college. — Michael Jordan

This may sound arrogant, but I believe that if we'd done teamship better, we'd still be there. Where we fell down was the inability to hold together. We should have learnt from the great football teams. The players may not like each other. They have egos, they have their own ambitions, they have different personalities, but they are still bloody good teams. — Alastair Campbell

I'm surrounded by great guitar players. — Rick Springfield

I was lucky enough to get to see guys like Bugs Henderson, Jimmy Wallace, all those great Texas blues players. — Dimebag Darrell

The NFL has done a great job in giving players information on how to go to a second career after football and how to invest their money while they're playing to ensure when their career is over, that they have something else in place to fall back on. One of the big things the NFL does is promote education in different fields. — Kamerion Wimbley

The most skillful is Thierry Henry, he has impressed me the most. He's played a great tournament(Euro '00). He has the pace of Anelka, and the sense of Trezeguet. He's got something that no French player has ever had. He can do everything: from scoring goals, to giving assists, crossing and creating space for other players, and he fights for every ball. I've never see a player in France like him — Michel Patini

The USGA doesn't want to recognize the fact that today's players are better than ever. They seem willing to do anything to prevent us from shooting scores that would make us appear better than the great names of the past. — Hale Irwin

Other players and at least one great composer - Beethoven - had lived with deafness, but hearing loss wasn't where Hugh's woes ended. There was the vertigo, the trembling, the periodic loss of vision. There was nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, galloping pulse. Worst of all was the almost constant tinnitus. He had always thought deafness meant silence. This was not true, at least not in his case. Hugh Yates had a constantly braying burglar alarm in the middle of his head. — Stephen King

I think great players can play in any year, that's why they're great. A lot of it is down to the mental approach. — Ian Rush

I think Liverpool have a long history with many great players. I hope one day to be up there with those great players. I'll try my best to write some history here. — Luis Suarez

The key is having great players. But there are a lot of teams that have All-Stars and haven't been able to put it together. — Mark Cuban

I always felt like hanging around the pocket was trouble, but the truth is, the great players take the beatings in the pocket and expose themselves
and that is the real risk. — Steve Young

The great secret is that an orchestra can actually play without a conductor at all. Of course, a great conductor will have a concept and will help them play together and unify them. But there are conductors that actually inhibit the players from playing with each other properly. — Joshua Bell

The role that I play as a lone striker, I enjoy it and particularly playing with great players. — Jermain Defoe

He has been named as the heir apparent of the great Argentine hero, Diego Maradona, by journalists, players, and Maradona himself, alike. I'd personally put him in a drawer of my bedside table. — Franz Beckenbauer

Ronaldo is better than George Best and Denis Law, who were two brilliant and great players in the history of United. — Johan Cruijff

Players have a great deal of flexibility when conducting diplomatic relations with their allies. — Mike Simpson

Guitarists shouldn't get too riled up about all of the great players that were left off of 'Rolling Stone Magazines' list of the Greatest Guitar Players of all Time' ... Rolling Stone is published for people who read the magazine because they don't know what to wear ... — Joe Satriani

We've all seen talented young players who get to a certain level but there comes a point where that talent will only take you so far. The great players go away and work on extra things. They work harder on their skills, they start having early nights and they think about their diet and training. That is what takes them to the next level. — Warren Gatland

Suddenly we could all hear, we could all listen, and instead of being caught up in our finite little balls of bullshit, we could all become players in that great universal orchestra again. — Anthony Kiedis

I think the future looks great for music, musicians, bass players, and all we love about music. — Billy Sheehan

I'm more of an actor than a musician. I've made a little name for myself as an actor, but I also front this band. We have some great players out here, and we've found a little niche with L.A. Hootenanny. — Todd Lowe

There's a bit in "Echoes" we call "the wind section" where it all falls apart, and then comes back in,' explains Guy Pratt. 'Some of the younger players, mentioning no names, couldn't get their heads around it not being a set number of bars. It was like, "You have to feel it and know instinctively when to come back in." David's great line about that was, "The trouble with modern musicians is that they don't know how to disintegrate. — Mark Blake

Every generation has their own great players. Who's to say that anyone's better than Cheryl Miller or Nancy Lieberman? Whose anyone to say Michael Jordan is better than Oscar Robertson or Magic Johnson or Larry Bird? Every generation has its great player. There's never going to be one player that's so above and beyond anyone else. — Diana Taurasi

I've been so fortunate in life to have worked for such great organizations, with great owners and general managers and all the great players, along with the support of my family. — Tony La Russa

I was doing all the coaching schools so that I'd be able to stay in the game, and I gave myself a chance by doing that. I was only an average player, could score a goal or two, that sort of thing, but I wasn't a Bobby Charlton or a Messi, or Ronaldo. There are very, very few really great players who have become great coaches. — Alex Ferguson

It's just fun to go out and compete. It doesn't matter what your record is or what the other team's record is. You're playing in an NFL game, and you are out there competing with great players. — Jamie Martin

It's just that [the Hawks have made] a lot of changes. A lot of their great players have moved on. They have a lot of new faces and a lot of young guys who are going to be a part of this team for a long time. It'll take time. They've got a nice little core to start with. — Mike Modano

The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called "Keep to-morrow dark," and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) "Cheat the Prophet." The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. They then go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun. — G.K. Chesterton

For me, there's nothing that beats playing. When I'm not playing, I'll watch games on the television, watch stuff on You Tube, everything. I just live for football, love watching great players. — Jermain Defoe

The best have the courage and I say this all the time. The courage to take the ball all the time, the courage to make sure that they are not going to be intimidated by their opponents, and the courage to express themselves at all times and I think that all the great players have got that. — Alex Ferguson

For us the chief point of interest is the place where the game is played. Generatly it is a simple circle, dyutamandalam, drawn on the ground. The circle as such, however, has a magic significance. It is drawn with great care, all sorts of precautions being taken against cheating. The players are not allowed to leave the ring until they have discharged their obligations. But, sometimes a special hall is provisionally erected for the game, and this hall is holy ground. The Mahabharata devotes a whole chapter to the erection of the dicing hall - sabha - where the Pandavas are to meet their prtners. Games, of chance, therefore, have their serious side. They are included in ritual. — Johan Huizinga

It's always good to have your players with you, it makes you feel great. That is just it. The coach and the players understand one another but people outside don't understand. But it's good to see him, it's good to see all the players. — Stephen Keshi

You always miss a great player, but I think the players on this team have taken a lot of pride in overcoming obstatcles when we have a player down ? not only the offensive players, but the defensive players. We were very fortunate that we played that well. — Bobby Petrino

Life is full of all sorts of setbacks and twists and turns and disappointments. The character of this team will be how well you will come back from this letdown, this defeat. You could still be a great team and you can still accomplish great things as football players but it's going to take a real resolve to do it." -Coach Ladouceur — Neil Hayes

We want players here who are going to be here for the long term. Players who buy houses here, who settle in the area. It's a brilliant club, great supporters but we want players to come here to be part of that community rather than being ships in the night having a last pay day at Ipswich ... we want to build for the future rather than do a quick fix because I think it's going to be a long-term job. — Paul Jewell

Give all the credit in the world to Angelique Kerber - great, great talent. She's been in the top 10 for the last four years, and she's one of those players that just really had a difficult time, when the chips were on the table, to kind of bring them over. And this time, she did it. I'm really happy for her because these chances don't come for these other players. Serena Williams has got 21 grand slam champions. Angelique Kerber was in her first final. — Howard Bryant

In some ways the players are no different to kids as you've got to set boundaries and you've got to work within those boundaries. If you work hard and you do everything that's asked of you, there's great reward afterwards. — Warren Gatland

When I was a little kid wanting to play music, it was because of people like Pete Johnson, Huey Smith, Allen Toussaint, Professor Longhair, James Booker, Art Neville ... there was so many piano players I loved in New Orleans. Then there was guys from out of town that would come cut there a lot. There was so many great bebop piano players, so many great jazz piano players, so many great Latin piano players, so many great blues piano players. Some of those Afro-Cuban bands had some killer piano players. There was so many different things going on musically, and it was all of interest to me. — Dr. John

It is really amazing to be able to do cinematic, big feature style film music on a weekly basis and do it in LA, on a big scoring stage, on a studio lot, and do it with the right players and make it sound great. — Christopher Lennertz

Don't let talent get in way of team performance. Great players do what's outstanding for team, not what makes them stand out — Jerry West

Today I join the greatest players that played the game. It is a great feeling being here. — Eddie Murray

It was about finding creative, original musicians. Musicians who are strong composers. Flexible, empathetic musicians, who are great individually but who also have a great sense for cooperation and collaboration, great listeners as well as great players. — Joshua Redman

People will think there are no other great ballplayers. Look at Garnett. Look at Duncan, Shaq, Kobe. Look at the players with Sacramento. The have a really good basketball team. — Oscar Robertson

Great guitar players are a dime a dozen. It is sometimes your very limitations as players that set you apart from the crowd. — Dean Wareham

Instead of working hard to keep their share of a shrinking pie, or working even harder to make sure the industry stays as is, I think the most essential thing legacy book industry players can do is set up independent ventures with great people and little interference and work really hard to put themselves out of business by starting at the bottom, not by reinforcing the top. — Seth Godin

Being a part of the finesse and physicality of box lacrosse has been a great experience for me. I feel that I have learned and improved as an overall lacrosse player. Learning to adapt in tight space while reading defenders and offensive players has been the biggest improvement in my game. — Paul Rabil

I had the vision of creating my own camp to make sure I was teaching the campers what I wanted. Plus I picked other players that were good on the field and off so we could be great role models for these girls to look up to. I hope to inspire others and encourage them to go after their dreams. — Jennie Finch

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

It's always great playing with other musicians. It's also a great situation where I'm the older guy, I've influenced generations of guitar players. — Ace Frehley

I didn't want my records to sound like anybody else, and when I've got my guys in the studio, I have a language with those guys because we work together every day. A lot of times, you bring in outside guys, studio players, whatever, and they're great musicians. It's just that they don't necessarily play the way I want it to be played. — Jason Aldean

I played with a lot of great players before. They're all the same. They take a lot of responsibility for their own play, put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform and to play well. — Mark Messier

The Bronx are great. I have a lot of respect for those guys, they know more about music and how that world works than most of the players out there. — Coeur De Pirate

On a good team there are no superstars. There are great players who show they are great players by being able to play with others as a team. They have the ability to be superstars, but if they fit into a good team, they make sacrifices, they do things necessary to help the team win. What the numbers are in salaries or statistics don't matter; how they play together does. — Red Holzman

As a person, to inspire some young girls and give them something to look at and give them something to play for, I think is such a great position to be in. I'm glad that I can follow all of the great Korean players' footsteps. — Inbee Park

When your great players are team players, everybody else follows their lead. The best team doesn't always win - it's usually the team that gets along best. — John C. Maxwell

He has to be a great teacher. You have to have the right stuff and in the right proportions, and you have to convey that to the coaches, and then to the players. — Pete Carroll

You know, when you can play with the greatest players of that particular era, you look forward to going to the ballpark. I mean, you thought it was great to be there in the clubhouse. You thought it was great to be on the field. — Johnny Bench

Basketball is great; no one in Europe seems to believe just how close the spectators can sit to the players. — Michael Douglas

The great thing is that when you hire string players you always get really great players. I don't know why that is. — Hamilton Leithauser

I've got a great repertoire with my players. — Danny Ozark

I got to work for some great administrators at great institutions, and I had an opportunity to coach great players. Iowa is no different. — Steve Alford

I believe a lot of players that start to think about money - 'Oh my goodness; I'm up for a new contract' - they don't have a great season because they're thinking about all these different things. Do your business on the field, and everything takes care of itself. — LaDainian Tomlinson

By all means examine the games of the great chess players, but don't swallow them whole. Their games are valuable not for their separate moves, but for their vision of chess, their way of thinking. — Anatoly Karpov

I have a tendency, especially when I'm playing with great players, to try and get them the ball. — Steve Nash

I'm not angry. As an athlete ... you should be open to criticism, and you're allowed to be criticized, because not everybody has the same opinion, not everybody likes the same players. The rankings are quite volatile: Today you're 'great,' tomorrow you're 'not,' but then you're 'great' again. It makes for great stories. Now, I always look at the long term and by doing that, obviously, I can stay calm through the storm. — Roger Federer

In the economy we guarantee all market players the same conditions, and the private sector plays an increasingly important role. We are in the process of dissolving thousands of state-owned companies and converting them into stock corporations. We even plan to accelerate this development. In contrast, it is the party's responsibility to improve the lives of the people, and this is where our citizens have great confidence in us. Party members who commit crimes are severely punished. — Nguyen Minh Triet

The huge egos of great chess players are legendary. Psychologists have been amazed by their vanity, have studied it, and anecdotes concerning it are abundant. But never before has there been such a prima donna as Bobby. Already he has managed to alienate and offend almost everybody in the chess world. That includes officials, patrons, writers, almost everybody and anybody who might be in a position to help him in his career. — Israel Albert Horowitz

Coach wastes no time delivering one of his brief, post-game speeches. As usual, it sounds like he's talking in point form.

"We lost. It feels shitty. Don't let it get to you. Just means we work harder during practice and bring it harder for the next game." He nods at everyone, then stalks out the door.

I'd think he was pissed at us, if not for the fact that his victory speeches more or less go the same way - "We won. It feels great. Don't let it go to your head. We work just as hard during practice and we win more games." If any of our freshman players are expecting Coach to deliver epic motivational speeches a la Kurt Russell in Miracle, they're in for a grave disappointment. — Elle Kennedy

Pele really had everything - goalscoring ability, a great passer, good in the air, quick, he used both feet, almost the perfect footballer. Many words have been written about Pele but his record speaks for itself -more than 1,000 goals and three World Cup victories. He also played at a time when attacking players were not protected by referees as much as they are today. — Osvaldo Ardiles

My own Brubeck Institute in California is turning out fantastic young jazz players, and I know great things will happen. — Dave Brubeck

A lot of other bass players have told me I'm the only bass player who plays with a pick but sounds like he's playing with the thumb and fingers, which is a great compliment. — Glenn Hughes

But what I'd really like to tell you is I never dreamed of being in the Hall of Fame. Standing here with all these great players was beyond any of my dreams. — Robin Yount