Dean Smith Quotes

You should never be proud of doing the right thing. You should just do it.

Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat.

What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.

If you make every game a life and death proposition, you're going to have problems. For one thing, you'll be dead a lot.

A leader's job is to develop committed followers. Bad leaders destroy their followers' sense of commitment.

Good people are happy when something good happens to someone else.

A lion never roars after a kill.

Basketball is a team game. But that doesn't mean all five players should have the same amount of shots.

There is a lot of basketball beyond our control, but a player should never let anyone try harder than he does

The truly free person in society is a disciplined person.

You should sub a player out when you see a player not going full-speed or playing selfish basketball.

The coach's job is to be part servant in helping each player reach his goals within the team concept.

Michael, if you can't pass, you can't play.

One player's selfish attitude can poison a locker room and make it hard, if not impossible, to establish team work

I wasn't as critical during games as I was at practice. Players needed confidence during games more than criticism.

I always mean what I say, but I don't always say what I'm thinking.

I only use statistics to reinforce what I already think, or if it's something unusual.

I would never recruit a player who yells at his teammates, disrespected his high school coach, or scores 33 points a game and his team goes 10-10.

I enjoy basketball. I enjoy coaching basketball. It's the out-of-season stuff I didn't handle well.

I think the real free person in society is one that's disciplined. It's the one that can choose; that is the free one.

You can't teach court savvy

There is a point in every contest when sitting on the sidelines is not an option.

Over coaching is the worst thing you can do to a player.

The most important thing in good leadership is truly caring.

The best way to stop the problem of agents would be for the NCAA to come down hard and suspend a school for two years if it finds players with agents on campus.

I've always believed in quickness over strength and size.

As soon as you try to describe a close friendship, it loses something.

Everyone on the bench stands for the man coming out of the game.

The most important thing is team morale.

The key statistic is still to get to the foul line.

If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you'll die a lot of times.

Praise behaviour that you want repeated

You should just do the right thing.

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.

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

Any old coach will say the game was meant for finesse. It's a beautiful game, especially on television.

Motor cut. Forced landing. Hit cow. Cow died. Scared me.

I know a lawyer who'd love to retire and be an assistant coach. I mean, it's fun.

Our teachers at the public school level are the most underpaid for the importance of their job in America.

Only praise behavior that you want to be repeated. Never use false praise.

I do believe in praising that which deserves to be praised.

Always have your players go and pick-up the guy who draws the charge.

The presidents of colleges have to have some courage to step forward. You can't limit alcohol in college sports, you have to get rid of it.

I just think we shouldn't get into counting coaches' records. I've never been for that but I know that's just American society.

The focus should be on the players. I'm here a long time. You can call me in the summer. Our seniors will be gone.

The real issue is not if a crossing is put in, but when. It would be negligent on the part of Union Pacific and the California Public Utilities Commission to not address the problem.

The death penalty makes us all murderers.

I'd like to see the high schools put in a rule that limits recruitable athletes from playing on teams outside a 100-mile radius from their home or school.

I'd never get elected if people in North Carolina realized how liberal I am.

If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times.