Basketball Quotes

If I would have listened to other people back in 2000 telling me I should have stopped playing basketball because of a kidney disease, I wouldn't have won a world championship.

In my first film, I was a basketball player. Like every good actor, I lied when they asked me if I could play.

There's so much that I want to do. I feel like I'm the Magic Johnson of rap. You know, Magic was great on the basketball court, but he's bigger as a businessman.

Don't get angry; get better.

All of the Chinese people, the Asian people say, "Oh Yao Ming, you are all the Chinese, all of Asia's hopes." That's a lot of pressure. I'm just a basketball player.

Sure, I like to win when I play basketball or board games or video games, but my day isnt ruined if I lose. Im always up for a rematch. In all seriousness, thats something thats nice about maturing.

The occasion is piled high with difficulty. We must rise to the occasion.

If they don't let me coach, they might as well take me to the Lexington cemetery.

I had my moment on the stage. The trick in life is to know when to leave.

God didn't miss any of us.

Scout yourself. Have a buddy who coaches scout you.

The players have to come and play. Today we did.

It's cool to actually have my own trading card.

The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game.

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.

My practices were not set up to be easy or enjoyed.

Basketball is a full court game, so every drill must be done full court.

I never think about missing a free throw. All that goes through my mind when I'm at the line is seeing the ball go through the bottom of the net.

There's only one direction you can coast-downhill.

I just don't want to get used to feeling this feeling, you know, losing basketball games.

It will work out, somehow. That's a hell of a duo right there, Marbury, Crawford and Houston.

Half Man, Half Sit-Out-The-Season.

I like to help poor people who got no chance. If rich people don't, who will? Not other poor people, that's for sure.

I can be bought. If they paid me enough, I'd work for the Klan.

All I know is, as long as I led the Southeastern Conference in scoring, my grades would be fine.

He's got to bring something stronger than that. That's like bringing milk to a bar, it's not strong enough

If you go out with a girl and they say she has a great personality, she's ugly. If they tell you a guy works hard, he can't play a lick. Same thing.

All athletic accomplishments begin with volition; that is, the desire and willpower necessary to succeed. Volition affects more than thoughts and feelings - it affects physical performance.

If you're going to have to beg them to play, it's not going to work.

There is generally not any conscious thought; it's all instinct, and practice takes over.

I don't pay attention to what others are doing. I feel strongly that if I have correct goals and the determination to keep pursuing them the best way I know how, everything else falls into line.

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.

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

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

I only weigh 220, so I have to do something to keep from being tossed around by all the guys who weigh 250 and more. I train hard, but I don't try to get too big.

It's all about what they can get out of me.

When I was 3, my father stopped coming home.

These people didn't know anything about black people, so the only thing they could imagine was the worst thing.

I don't feel like basketball is the only way to make a living.

What you specifically teach is what your players will do best.

I always stayed on before and after practice. I just think that if you want to excel at anything, be it basketball, dance or the piano, you need to practice a lot.

Most people forget that Danny Biasone was the Wilbur Wright of basketball. Because he invented the 24-second clock, the game took off. Yet he was a man who never played the game.

In practice, don't just run basketball drills, teach the players how to play basketball.

Every day you teach attitude.

Anytime you get an award as a coach, you've got to be the ultimate fool to think it wasn't your assistant coaches and all the players responsible for the award.

The ability to rebound is in inverse proportion to the distance your house is from the nearest railroad tracks.

For example, Michael Jordan earns $100million a year but continues to play basketball and remains a modest human being.

When your best player puts it on the line every day, the other guys can't cut corners

If America is the pursuit of happiness, the best way to pursue happiness is to help other people.

Everybody in the world is talking about Canada…outside of the US, there is probably no country in the world that is producing more blue-chip young basketball talent than Canada.