Quotes & Sayings About Sports Basketball

No matter how you total success in the coaching profession it all comes down to a single factor - talent. There may be a hundred great coaches of whom you have never heard in basketball, football, or any sport who will probably never receive the acclaim they deserve simply because they have not been blessed with the talent. Although not every coach can win consistently with talent, no coach can win without it. — John Wooden

Competing in both track and field and basketball for the Bruins I have a lot of great memories to choose from. But my all-time favorite moment in collegiate sports has to be in 1982 when we won UCLA's first NCAA title in track. — Jackie Joyner-Kersee

It's intense in every sport. No matter what, USC vs. UCLA is crazy. Especially when it comes down to football and basketball, it's just nuts. — Akeem Ayers

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

There's a great quote by Julius Irving that went, 'Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them.' — David Halberstam

Basketball Rule #4

If you miss
enough of life's
free throws
you will pay
in the end. — Kwame Alexander

A person really doesn't become whole, until he becomes a part of something that's bigger than himself. — Jim Valvano

[My] career was sputtering until [I] did a 360 and got headed in the right direction. — Tracy McGrady

I was sporty in high school. I played tennis and hockey, and was basketball captain. Then I went to university and stopped doing sport and started eating ice cream. — Rebel Wilson

I wanted to be a football player. Football is a sport that I love, but the more I started playing basketball, the more I started dreaming of playing in the NBA. — Dwyane Wade

An acrobatic dunk will make it onto Sports Center. A simple, unspectacular bounce pass in the rhythm of the offense will not. System basketball has been replaced by players who want to be the system. — Phil Jackson

When I was a kid, I was always an athlete. I played a lot of sports. I played football, basketball, baseball and soccer. — Scott Caan

Football, basketball, and the Olympic sports all have their problems with banned substances. — Jim Sensenbrenner

It's just about being in the zone, in any sport, be it football, basketball or baseball. — Mark Teixeira

My father was a basketball player, so I loved basketball because he did. It was a direct transference. But, more than that, basketball, in the United States at least, plays the same function that soccer does everyone else in the world. It's the sport of poverty. It's the sport born of poverty. It's the cheapest sport. — Sherman Alexie

Although I grew up in Kansas City, ... I have always kept more or less au courant of Texas barbecue, like a sports fan who is almost monomaniacally obsessed with basketball but glances over at the N.H.L. standings now and then. — Calvin Trillin

First impressions matter more in basketball than in any other sport, and they can be savored only in person. Players can't hide behind pads or helmets, so we can stare at them, evaluate every move they make: running, jumping, walking, even ogling the cheerleaders. We can see every ripple and tattoo. If they're lazy, we can tell. — Bill Simmons

Other people go to the office. I get to coach. I know I've been blessed. — Jim Valvano

We old athletes carry the disfigurements and markings of contests remembered only by us and no one else. Nothing is more lost than a forgotten game. — Pat Conroy

It was what made him good at team sports: soccer, basketball, politics. Miller — James S.A. Corey

We're not very good at the niceties and the small talk that are required to be a good neighbor, so block parties and barbecues tend to be awkward. Our politics rarely jibe (we're a couple of mouthy liberals living in the heart of red country), and we don't give a shit about sports, especially college basketball and hypercompetitive soccer for young children, which are the favorites around here. — Jen Mann

I was a better basketball player growing up in high school than I was a swimmer. Basketball to this day is my favorite sport. — Ryan Lochte

The NBA is the strongest professional sports league in the world. The league and the game is bigger than any one person, Michael Jordan included, and they always will be. I hope that today players, especially our young players, continue to recognize that simple fact. Nothing is more important than the game itself and the fans who support it. — Michael Jordan

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

The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team. — Phil Jackson

Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up. — Red Auerbach

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

I played all kinds of sports when I was young: tennis, handball, basketball, some soccer. I focused on basketball when I was 16 or 17 and then came to the U.S. when I was 20. — Dirk Nowitzki

I grew up playing sports, football, basketball, baseball, everything, and acting was such a different environment and different world for me. — Cam Gigandet

Soccer's appeal lay in its opposition to the other popular sports. For children of the sixties, there was something abhorrent about enrolling kids in American football, a game where violence wasn't just incidental but inherent. They didn't want to teach the acceptability of violence, let alone subject their precious children to the risk of physical maiming. Baseball, where each batter must stand center stage four or five times a game, entailed too many stressful, potentially ego-deflating encounters. Basketball, before Larry Bird's prime, still had the taint of the ghetto.
But soccer represented something very different. It was a tabula rasa, a sport onto which a generation of parents could project their values. Quickly, soccer came to represent the fundamental tenets of yuppie parenting, the spirit of Sesame Street and Dr. Benjamin Spock. — Franklin Foer

We try to stress the little things because little things lead to big things. — Steve Alford

Football was really my least favorite sport and the last sport that I ended up picking up as a kid. My dad started me off with baseball, which most kids did at that time. I really enjoyed basketball. That was my favorite sport. — Tony Dungy

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

I think we have our sports within our own culture that are huge with baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Those are the sports in America that we grow up with and soccer isn't really there yet. — Claudio Reyna

The '80s was brand new. It was AIDS. It was gangbanging. It was starting to become big dope-dealing, and crack was starting to flood the neighborhoods. And then you had hip hop, which was something new, other than what we were doing, which was sports, playing football, basketball, baseball. And I was excited. — Ice Cube

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

On the court, Jason Collins is not a huge basketball star, but he has already claimed his place in civil rights history as the first openly gay athlete to play in one of the four major U.S. sports leagues. — Nancy Gibbs

One man cannot make a team. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I need to work with great directors and actors, people who are better than me, so that I am challenged. It is like playing sports - surfing, basketball, it doesn't matter what it is, if you play with people who are better than you, then you get better too. It is the same thing with acting. — Paul Walker

Sports were a big part of my life. I was the captain of the basketball team in high school, and captain of the basketball team at Princeton. — John W. Rogers Jr.

First off, do everything they can to give their kids the opportunities to play sports; asthma is not a deterrent to playing sports. — Dominique Wilkins

I like playing many other sports, such as basketball. — Guan Tianlang

I love sports. I've played basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, track and field growing up. — Michael B. Jordan

Sports like baseball, basketball, and hockey develop muscles. That's why Americans have the strongest eyes in the world. — Robert Orben

Basketball, more than any other sport, is a team game ... about the thousands of small, unselfish acts, the sacrifices on the part of the players that result in team building. — Dean Smith

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

It's very warm there, so we were outdoors all the time. The local people had programs for us year-round, where as kids we had the opportunity to play football, basketball, baseball, track and field - we just went from one sport to the next, year-round. — Rafer Johnson

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

Whirlyball is only the most awesome sport on the planet! It's like bumper cars plus lacrosse meets basketball. — St. Vincent

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

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

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

I don't think you can explain why all these other sports and college basketball have a fair representation of African American coaches, but college football doesn't. You can dig and scramble and scratch, but at the end of the day I think it's just pure, old-fashioned racism. — Frank Deford

One reason outfielders don't have stronger arms might be they don't practice as much as we did. Most teams today don't take outfield practice. Another reason is baseball has to compete with other sports now - basketball, football, soccer - for the better athletes that might have more skills and stronger arms. — Al Kaline

As all of us with any involvement in sports knows, no two umpires or no two referees have the same strike zone or call the same kind of a basketball game. — Herb Kohl

We have to move the meter in sports in Africa, especially basketball. With the growth of the NBA globally, we have to figure out more ways to develop facilities, coaching, leagues, and youth development in Africa. The talent is incredible. Especially physically. How do we get the youth to start playing at an early age just like in soccer? The future is bright. We now have an NBA office in Africa, we have legends and Hall of Famers, we have African assistant coaches, front office members, and some prominent African players over the last 10 years. So we must plan well for the next 10. — Masai Ujiri

It takes a tremendous amount of skill to be a football player. And some of these guys have enough skills to do other sports. Soccer could be one. Basketball could be another. Things where you need incredible hand-eye coordination are always options. I think a football player would be able to adapt to a lot of sports. — Troy Polamalu

The beautiful thing about the game of golf is you can play good golf and compete well into your later years, and you can't do this in basketball or football or baseball. But in golf, it's a longer live sport. — Tom Watson

Everyone thought I was going to die like a year later, they didn't know. So I helped educate sports, and then the world, that a man living with HIV can play basketball. He's not going to give it to anybody by playing basketball. — Magic Johnson

Drama is played at the pace of chess ... or billiards ... or poker. Engrossing? Sure. But comedy is played at the jubilant, high-octane speed of sports like basketball or hockey. — Mark Waters

Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me - sports ... basketball. I use it because you're naive if you don't see the national full-court press picking away right now: A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket ... and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. — Sarah Palin

I think that my God-given physical attributes, big hands, and big feet, the way that I'm built, proportion-wise, just made basketball the most inviting sport for me to play. — Julius Erving

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

I love various sports, including basketball, tennis and billiards. — Yani Tseng

The function of football, soccer, basketball and other passion-sports in modern industrial society is the transference of boredom, frustration, anger and rage into socially acceptable forms of combat. A temporary substitute for war; for nationalism; identification with something bigger than the self. — Edward Abbey

I grew up in Westlake Villiage, a suburb of L.A. There was a guy there who was a fighter and was like, 'I'll teach you to box.' I started a little bit of boxing, then it crossed over into jiu-jitsu. I was into it for a little while, but then I started doing basketball, baseball, team sports. — Jonathan Lipnicki

I have 'the first' attached to my name in a whole lot of different aspects when it comes to the sport of basketball. — Lisa Leslie

My swag was phenomenal. — Gilbert Arenas

The tradition in Serbia has always been team sports - football, basketball, handball, volleyball and water polo, individual sports are not supported. — Novak Djokovic

Football's another sport I absolutely despise. Along with baseball. Really, for me, basketball's the only real sport, the only one that matters. — Stephen Graham Jones

I'm a big sports fan - mainly basketball. — Lamorne Morris

I got into running because I was too uncoordinated to play baseball, too small for basketball, and too tiny for football. I lived in a broken home and had looked to those sports as a way of staying away from my home. — Gerry Lindgren

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

ESPN, is having the ability to foretell future outcomes in sports. — Anthony Liccione

Basketball was not my main sport in grade school, or even the first year of high school. — Mike Krzyzewski

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

When I was in school, I was very much into just sports, mostly basketball, and didn't really see myself as much of a student. But once I got into college, I figured I wasn't going to be play beyond college. I started to think what was I going to do, since I wouldn't be able to make a living with basketball. There were a couple of things I liked to do. I wrote poetry, spoken word mostly. — Matt De La Pena

The problem with many athletes is they take themselves seriously and their sport lightly. — Michael Waltrip

You know how when you step on court your coach is like "go go go!"? And all throughout you just keep telling yourself to hit harder and harder and keep at it? You know how much you treasure those five-minute timeouts? You know how good you feel at the end of a session? You know how you're glad you're tired? No pills, no shots, just plain energy. I want to work like that. Whether I have to write ten thousand words or send five hundred emails, brainstorm for hours at a time, I want to have that energy. To keep fighting. To know it's all worth it.
Oh, yeah. That's my perfect day. — Thisuri Wanniarachchi

I've always made weird sounds with my mouth. I've always been fascinated by the sound design, what you can do with your mouth. I was the kid dancing around in third grade on the basketball court. While everyone would be playing sports, I would be jumping around. — Charlie Puth

The doors had a peephole, and periodically an Iranian guard would look through and choose who he would let in. It was a bit like waiting to be picked for a sports team at school. You stand there trying to look as useful as possible to the two kids lucky enough to have been chosen as captains. If they were picking you for footy you tried to look as tough as possible. For basketball, you tried to look as tall as possible. For cricket, as long-suffering and patient as possible. That day, every time the guard looked through the peephole, I tried to look as un-Great Satan-like as I could. — Peter Moore

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

Basketball can serve as a kind of metaphor for ultimate cooperation. It is a sport where success, as symbolized by the championship, requires that the dictates of community prevail over selfish impulses. — Bill Bradley

I've got four brothers, so with them and all our friends we had these sports parties in the basement. We'd play basketball, mini-sticks, baseball in the backyard, football, whatever it was. We were busy 24/7. — Rob Gronkowski

Basketball is sort of an interesting sport that, you know, the top player on your team makes so much more of an impact than the top player in any other sport. — Daryl Morey

I come from an area where it's mostly, like, football and basketball, those are the sports. So my brother started surfing ... I used to make fun of him for it, and then he challenged me to do it, and I'm a huge competitor, and I did it ,and I got hooked. — Manny Montana

I played college basketball in West Virginia for two years, and then I graduated from NYU with a sports management degree because I realized the NBA's not going to happen. — Ramon Rodriguez

Let me be clear: Any new approach must ensure the integrity of the game. One of my most important responsibilities as commissioner of the NBA is to protect the integrity of professional basketball and preserve public confidence in the league and our sport. I oppose any course of action that would compromise these objectives. But I believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated — Adam Silver

If you are afraid of failure, you don't deserve success. — Nastia Liukin

You know, softball is the other sport I do besides basketball. — LeBron James

Growing up, I played about every sport imaginable except soccer and hockey. I've always had a passion for basketball. I remember actually playing basketball when I was two or three years old. The time I knew that I could really take my game to the next level. — Dwight Howard

I'd rather be a face for happiness and doing things that you have a passion for, rather than faking it and pretending like I'm this face of women's basketball, when I can't stand the sport at all. — Elena Delle Donne

I wanted to have a career in sports when I was young, but I had to give up the idea. I'm only six feet tall, so I couldn't play basketball. I'm only 190 pounds, so I couldn't play football, and I have 20/20 vision, so I couldn't be a referee. — Jay Leno

February is always a bad month for TV sports. Football is gone, basketball is plodding along in the annual midseason doldrums, and baseball is not even mentioned. — Hunter S. Thompson

I've always thought that my exposure to competitive sports helped me a great deal in the operating room. It teaches you endurance, and it teaches you how to cope with defeat, and with complications of all sort. I think I'm a well-coordinated person, more than average, and I think that came through my interest in sports, and athletics ... Playing basketball You have to make decisions promptly, and that's true in the operating room as well. — Denton Cooley

There is no such thing as life in-between. — Pat Riley

If I weren't earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming. — Charles Barkley

Basketball isn't just a sport. It is an art, one that must be mastered to succeed. — Stephen Curry

The pleasure of sport was so often the chance to indulge the cessation of time itself
the pitcher dawdling on the mound, the skier poised at the top of a mountain trail, the basketball player with the rough skin of the ball against his palm preparing for a foul shot, the tennis player at set point over his opponent
all of them savoring a moment before committing themselves to action. — George Plimpton

I played six to 10 hours a day, every day, 90 days during the summer, and I'd do incredible things. I would dribble blindfolded in the house. I would take my basketball to bed with me, I'd lay there after my mother kissed and tucked me in, and I'd shoot the ball up in the air and say, 'Finger tip control, backspin, follow through. — Pete Maravich