Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I just love the game of basketball so much. The game! I don't need the 18,000 people screaming and all the peripheral things. To me, the most enjoyable part is the practice and preparation.
That's the toughest part about coaching, I think, is that the longer you're in it, the more winning becomes, 'Phew, I'm glad we won,' and the losing is like just the most brutal thing ever.
Strength is never a negative. The stronger you are, the more you're able to defend. The more physical you are, the better you are. The top teams in the NBA are the most physical teams, too.
People want to see how we get teams to come together so quickly. They want to see how we get young guys to play so hard and so unselfish. I'm fine with that. I have no problem sharing that.
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.
Mutual commitment helps overcome the fear of failure—especially when people are part of a team sharing and achieving goals. It also sets the stage for open dialogue and honest conversation.
I really think the people I run into in the NBA, whether it's the front office side or in coaching, everybody wants to work in an atmosphere where everybody's pulling in the same direction.
I've been around a lot of great coaches in college and the NBA, and I knew Erik Spoelstra three months, and I told my wife, father, and brother that this guy is going to be a helluva coach.
When you've worked in the same place for 13 years, when things go well, you know how to keep it going well. When things go bad, you know how to fix it. The biggest thing is that familiarity.
You've got to understand, every kid in college basketball, if you ask them where they want to play a game, in the NBA or college, they will tell you Madison Square Garden, a huge percentage.
I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust em.
From a common-sense standpoint, you're probably on the right road. The problem is, you're opening a can of worms you might not be able to shut. That might cause more problems than it solves.
The experience she gained should be invaluable to her continued growth and contribution to our team. In reality, compared to American players, she would just be finishing her college career.
My first act after being named head coach of the Bulls was to formulate a vision for the team. I had to take into account not only what I wanted to achieve, but how I was going to get there.
The best thing that I think happened to me was I got the opportunity to have really good players and we were able to meet the demand of the competition. And I think that's what I value most.
The hardest thing to do in this league is to get a proven star. It's just very hard to do. It's hard to do in free agency; it's hard to do in trades. You get very few opportunities to do it.
I've never felt my job was to win basketball games - rather, that the essence of my job as a coach was to do everything I could to give my players the background necessary to succeed in life.
The best player's responsibility is to unite and inspire your teammates to play up to their full maximum ability, and that never occurs if you try to separate yourself as part of the problem.
If I walk in a home, and a young man disrespects his mother or grandfather, grandmother in front of me, I'm out. Because if that's the case, he respects no one. He is not going to respect me.
This is not the beginning of American civilization where we need guns because it's the Wild, Wild West... There should not be guns in our society, and we all know that; politicians know that.
I recognize that I have a problem with my temper. For those times it has ever caused me to do anything that gave anyone understandable and justifiable reason to be upset, I am sincerely sorry.
There are as many guys in coaching who do a lousy job as there are in the media. Those are two professions that are a lot alike. There aren't a hell of a lot of really good coaches or writers.
I don't think that political history is full of a whole lot of tremendously honest people. I have never found any fault about that as far as Mr. Trump is concerned in my relationship with him.
I love Courtney Lee. He's a very good player. I know that sounds very simple, but it's true. He does things well. He's a good defender, a great team defender, and he shoots the ball very well.
Freedom of movement, which is a great rule, doesn't mean freedom to go to the rim for a layup or freedom to take any shot you want to take or me going in there and not playing through contact.
Most every day — if not every day — for the rest of your life, you will be reminded or think of this night. And I want to thank you in advance right now for the great memories it’s going to be.
Cancer is the ugliest, scariest, most dreaded word in the English language. My credentials for saying so? Head-to-head, firsthand close encounters with different versions of the fiendish devil.
Goaltending was brought in because of Mikan and Chamberlain. So rules do change for specific players, in concert with a need to stay up to date on how coaches are taking advantage of the rules.
I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going.
I'm saying when young men get to the NCAA Tournament, let's find a way to get their parents and their brothers and sisters a plane ticket and a hotel room. I don't think that's asking too much.
I'm at the stage of my career when it's not only about winning and developing players, it's about having fun. That's a void in your life right now, but it's something you're going to have here.
Athletes have the same rights everybody else does. If there is a strength in our democracy, it's that we are encouraged to exercise those rights and speak out and hold people in power in check.
I don't understand the NBA in that, each time they bring in a one-and-done kid, they have to release a veteran player on a roster. I don't understand why their players association condones that.
My goal was just to try and be the best player on my high school team, and look where I am now. And that was still my goal as a young kid, just to try and be a little better than my brother was.
I never ask Candace Parker if she was thinking about leaving because I never had any reason to believe she would. I just kept the focus on the team and on Candace and the role she played for us.
You have to have core values. What do you believe in? Do you believe in hard work? Do you believe in discipline? Do you believe in conditioning? Because those are the things I know that do work.
If you win a National Championship, or you win two, people think you have not only seen the Holy Grail, but you've embraced it. Basically, I do what a lot of people do, but I've been able to win.
My parents were, had a marriage of passion, and the passion was about their religious beliefs. They were both immigrant families that - well, my father's family came as Puritans to Massachusetts.
You've got to avoid overcoaching. You've got to avoid talking too much. You've got to avoid showing players that you're the boss every time. You don't have to do that. They know you're in charge.
If I didn't have a recruiting engagement, I was going to be here. I did everything possible to change the recruiting thing. I'm a very small part of this night, but I did want to be a part of it.
In this business, if you lose, you're gonna get fired. Now, if you win, you still may get fired. That's the hard part. You see guys having success and getting fired. That's really tough to watch.
You have to learn things in every game because you are not going to be able to practice two-and-a-half to three hours (during the season), so the games have to be the ultimate learning experience.
If they're out of high school, and they can go directly to the NBA and get drafted and get millions of dollars, I'm for it 100 percent. Just let's not devalue education. Let's just not devalue it.
When you choose to be a competitor you choose to be a survivor. When you choose to compete, you make the conscious decision to find out what your real limits are, not just what you think they are.
I'm not sure that an athlete is prepared to be a role model. He has a lot of attention paid to him that he shouldn't have, and then the athletes tend to think of themselves as better than they are.
The best players I have seen and known have confidence in their teammates. They know that basketball's not a one-man game. That confidence brings out the best in everybody, because it's contagious.
One of the first things people think of when they think of Native Americans is reservations. We didn't have any idea what that was. We were just young kids growing up in normal blue-collar America.
It's fun to play defense. It's fun to watch the opponent sweat on offense, start complaining to the officials, and eventually be taken out of the game because he's making so many offensive mistakes
I don't think you play for other people's expectations, you know. You don't go and become a lawyer because your mother or father want you to, you don't become a coach because somebody wants you to.
The only way to get people to like working hard is to motivate them. Today, people must understand why they're working hard. Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different.