Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
We've changed a lot of things to help certain groups of people. We widened the lane from 6 feet to 12 feet to 16 feet to make it so the big guys aren't as dominant. Well, why didn't we just say, 'You've got to learn to play against them in the post?'
The real value in everything you do is in the details. I just like that quote. A very similar way to say the same thing. If you're washing dishes you pay attention to washing dishes. If you're driving a car, you're paying attention to driving the car.
People think I would never take on a team that has no legitimate chance to win a championship, This is one of the major misconceptions about me. Success can be measured in many different ways. . . . Either way, I would find the challenge invigorating.
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.
If we want the best pitcher, let's get Bobby Feller. If want the best football player, let's get Jimmy Brown; the best basketball player, let's get Bill Russell. If we want the guy who can do the best job for the United States - let's get Donald Trump.
Once you win a National Championship, how do you do that again? How do you get the passion to do that again? We won it again right away, the next year. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I didn't give myself an opportunity to enjoy the first one.
Probably the most important aspect of individual defensive play is the 'close-out.' This approach to the ball should be made in a 'step-drag action' with advanced foot moving forward first and then the back foot in a boxer's type shuffling of the feet.
Manu Ginobili - I like to watch him. I would pay to watch him play the game. He will try things that will drive a coach crazy, like a full-court bounce pass, but he has such a flair for the game. I love his energy and his spirit and his unpredictability.
Against our zone, even really good offensive teams take longer than usual to get into their patterns, maybe 30 seconds. So we're locked into playing defense for that long... it's hard to run on offense after you've been hunkering down on D for that long.
...Basketball doesn't care what color your skin is. It doesn't care what language you speak or what religion you practice. It doesn't care if you're big or small, fast or slow. It just asks you to play, to complete, to lose with dignity, to win humility.
While day by day the overzealous student stores up facts for future use, he who has learned to trust nature finds need for ever fewer external directions. He will discard formula after formula, until he reaches the conclusion: Let nature take its course.
A player's ability to rebound is inversely proportional to the distance between where he was born and the nearest railroad tracks. The greater distance you live from the poor side of the railroad tracks, the less likely that you will be a good rebounder.
I believe this with all my heart: The greatest coach of all time in my eyes is my mom. She's instilled in me a toughness and a perseverance and just a never-quit mentality, and I thank her every day for providing me, for what she sacrificed her life for.
The good thing about competing at the NCAA Division I Level is that identifying recruits is usually a pretty easy thing for us to do. Most of the time, the type of kids we recruit are identified early in their high school careers by many college programs.
True basketball coaches are great teachers and you do not humiliate, you do not physically go after, you do not push or shove, you do not berate, if you are a true coach. If you humiliate or curse them, that won't do it. Coaches like that are not coaches.
There is always someone better than you. Whatever it is that you do for a living, chances are, you will run into a situation in which you are not as talented as the person next to you. That's when being a competitor can make a difference in your fortunes.
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.
What I've found in my life with our children is that often you can give them advice and tell them to eat the right things, stay in shape and wear sunscreen, and they don't really want to listen. But then they hear it from someone else, and they do listen.
No one is bigger than the team. You're going to be on time, you're going play hard, you're going to know your job and you're going to know when to pass and shoot. If you can't do those four things you're not getting time here and we don't care who you are.
At Boston University, I motivated negatively, and I found that although it can work at first, by the end of the year everyone is dying for the year to end and you have lost them. The last two years at BU, I motivated positively and got much better results.
It is hard for an athlete to standout through an email, especially when his email gets mixed in with the emails coming from recruits that think they can play somewhere they really can't. That makes filtering through recruit emails an almost impossible task.
I spent 50 years in the NBA. Can you imagine doing something that you love the most in the entire world and doing it for your entire life and, besides that, getting a pile of money for it? It's unbelievable. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. And I know it.
You'd better make sure that you know you can make a difference, and if it's a difference you want to make, is there another way to do the same thing, and what's the down side? What's the repercussions if I do this? To my career, to my family, whatever else.
Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got.
People with advantages don't tend to want to give them up. If you see it as a zero-sum game, then it will never change. If only the people who are disadvantaged speak out, then it's not enough. I don't want to overshadow their voices, but I want to support.
I'm sick of people who supported Trump saying, 'Get over it. You lost.' That's not how America works. We get to critique him the same way they constantly fought Obama. As long as I have a platform, I will continue to speak up because it's my responsibility.
It's just the way we've chosen to deal with it. What's there to talk about The reality is that we're undermanned in a lot of areas. We're in the best league in the country. We don't have to read the paper to know that all the teams we play are quality teams.
I'm not sure what a conservative is. I don't know whether a conservative is a guy that goes to bed too early or maybe doesn't sleep long enough or just what the hell he might be. I don't know. Maybe he's a guy that - you know, he just wants to be real quiet.
Jimmy Butler embodies those qualities just like the Heat players of our great past have done before. Alonzo Mourning, Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem. He just embodies these qualities of professionalism, of work, of accountability, of being reliable. And he leads.
Sometimes, when life moves along, you're presented with situations where you find it necessary to speak because so many people either seem to be afraid to or, more sinister, are unwilling to face things and let things go and worry about their own situations.
This is the first time since I've been coaching that I gave them off on Christmas Day. Sometimes when you lose a game you want to get right back at it. But in reality I thank God we had an opportunity for our guys to be home with their families on Christmas.
When you are passionate, you always have your destination in sight and you are not distracted by obstacles. Because you love what you are pursuing, things like rejection and setbacks will not hinder you in your pursuit. You believe that nothing can stop you!
There's a lot of chatter in basketball and, rightfully, you want players to be talking to each other... But sometimes in practice, it gets too verbose... so I tried to take things out of the ordinary and make them special so they'd understand the difference.
Everything that UCLA stands for, it's top of the food chain. So you either look at those things as burdens or you look at them as blessings. From day one, I've told my staff we're going to look at it as a blessing and do everything we can to build champions.
Several of our players at Stanford have used the J-Glove and J-Strap with excellent results. It is a very useful training tool for the player looking to improve both their shot and their percentage. I would recommend it to anyone looking for that extra edge.
It is a tremendous honor to be a No. 2 seed, and to get to play so close to home in Dayton. It is an incredible feeling, and it will be interesting to start preparing. But right now we need some rest and then we'll get our guys going for the NCAA Tournament.
No head coach does it by himself. I don't care who the coach is or how great he might be. Mike Krzyzewski is is a great friend of mine and he's a great coach but he has great, great assistant coaches and they bring a lot to the table and that's what it takes.
Let's not have a postseason tournament. Let's have a preseason tournament where you're guaranteed three games: we go somewhere, and all the fans come in, and we celebrate our league. We'll have great games to start the year, and we'll do it prior to the year.
That's the beauty of coaching. You get to touch lives, you get to make a difference. You get to do things for people who will never pay you back and they say you never have had a perfect day until you've done something for someone who will never pay you back.
Players who are committed to the team first will find a way to help when things are going bad, they will do whatever it takes. Kids that are more into themselves will not do that. They will take care of themselves and get more individual when things are tough.
Unless we are prepared to search our souls to discover what to say, and then how to say it effectively, we cannot expect to deal successfully with today's domestic and personal problems, not to mention those international issues on which our very lives depend.
Kevin McHale was a master communicator and knows how to coach stars, and that's a unique gift because you take an old-school guy that's used to coaching his way, he'd have a hard time coaching them cats now, but Kevin knows how, and he has the patience of Job.
Tim is old school. He plays that way. That's why a lot of fans identify more with a Tim Heskett than with someone who is more dynamic. The more dynamic guy might be more pleasing to the eye, but he doesn't contribute any more to his team winning than Tim does.
When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor.
It takes a number of critical factors to win an NBA championship, including the right mix of talent, creativity, intelligence, toughness, and of course, luck. But if a team doesn’t have the most essential ingredient - love - none of those other factors matter.
In my dealings with the press, I was like the guy who goes into the cathouse and the madam gets him prepared and looks at him and says, "Who are you going to satisfy with that?" And he looks back at her and says, "Me." That's kind of my sense of humor at times.
I refuse to go in a home and paint a picture saying things like, 'If you come with us, you'll be taken care of for the rest of your life by the program and by our alums,' even though you may only be in school for a year or two. How preposterous does that sound?
I don't get into these petty things, Kentucky-Louisville. To me, it's nonsense... There will be people at Kentucky that will have a nervous breakdown if they lose to us... They've got to put the fences up on bridges. There will be people consumed by Louisville.
We feel that the 2-2-1 press is a very effective means of controlling tempo and providing us with opportunities to capitalize on the mistakes of our opponents. At the same time we feel it is a very safe press because we work very hard at the necessary rotations.
I've tried to handle winning well, so that maybe we'll win again, but I've also tried to handle failure well. If those serve as good examples for teachers and kids, then I hope that would be a contribution I have made to sport. Not just basketball, but to sport.