Best Inspirational Basketball Quotes from Players to Inspire And Motivate You
Champions never complain, they are too busy getting better.
― John Wooden
I’ve never lost a game, I just ran out of time.
― Michael Jordan
Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.
― Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
In order to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them.
― Bob Knight
All the successful teams I’ve ever seen have three characteristics: they play unselfish, they play together, and they play hard.
― Larry Brown
He who controlleth the backboard, controlleth the game.
― Adolph Rupp
Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.
― Larry Bird
You don’t play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.
― Bob Knight
Everything negative — pressure, challenges — are all an opportunity for me to rise.
― Kobe Bryant
The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.
― Kobe Bryant
Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for them.
― Magic Johnson
Winning is about having the whole team on the same page.
― Bill Walton
A team will always appreciate a great individual if he’s willing to sacrifice for the group.
― Kareem Abdul Jabbar
Sometimes a player’s greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.
― Scottie Pippen
When you’re not practicing, someone else is getting better.
— Allen Iverson
Winning is more related to good defense than good offense.
― Dr. Jack Ramsay
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
― Michael Jordan
Confidence is a lot of this game or any game. If you don’t think you can, you won’t.
― Jerry West
Champions play as they practice. Create a consistency of excellence in all your habits.
― Mike Krzyzewski
Once you are labeled the best you want to stay up there, and you can’t do it by loafing around. If I don’t keep changing, I’m history.
― Larry Bird
The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.
― Bill Russell
Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.
― Wilt Chamberlain
The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy.
― Jerry Tarkanian
Never give up. Failure and rejection are just the first steps to succeeding.
― Jim Valvano
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
The invention of basketball was not an accident. It was developed to meet a need. Those boys simply would not play ‘drop the handkerchief’.
― James Naismith
Every memory I had growing up was involving a basketball. I didn’t go to the prom and stuff like that. It was always basketball for me.
― Kevin Durant
Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.
― Kevin Durant
I can’t stand a ballplayer who plays in fear. Any fellow who has a good shot has got to take it and keep taking it. So he misses – so what?
― Red Auerbach
I’ve never been afraid of big moments. I get butterflies… I get nervous and anxious, but I think those are all good signs that I’m ready for the moment.
― Stephen Curry
The basketball court for me, during a game, is the most peaceful place I can imagine. On the basketball court, I worry about nothing. When I’m out there, no one can bother me.
― Michael Jordan
I always laugh when people ask me about rebounding techniques. I’ve got a technique. It’s called just go get ball.
― Charles Barkley
Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God’s way to say nobody’s perfect.
― Shaquille O’Neal
As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you – but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals.
― LeBron James
Don’t let winning make you soft. Don’t let losing make you quit. Don’t let your teammates down in any situation.
― Larry Bird
The eight laws of learning are explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition.
― John Wooden
Every time I feel tired while I am exercising and training, I close my eyes to see that picture, to see that list with my name. This usually motivates me to work again.
― Michael Jordan
Discipline is doing what has to be done, when it has to be done, as well as it can be done, and doing it that way all the time.
― Bob Knight
I really get motivated when I have doubters.
— Shaquille O’Neal
I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
― Michael Jordan
You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.
― Jerry West
Ask me to steal, block out, sacrifice, lead, dominate, anything. But it’s not what you ask of me it’s what I ask of myself.
― LeBron James
A strong leader accepts blame and gives the credit. A weak leader gives blame and accepts the credit.
― John Wooden
Success is a result of consistent practice of winning skills and actions. There is nothing miraculous about the process. There is no luck involved.
― Bill Russell
The game has its ups and downs, but you can never lose focus of your individual goals and you can’t let yourself be beat because of lack of effort.
― Michael Jordan
The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.
― Kobe Bryant
It’s ok to make mistakes. That’s how we learn. When we compete, we make mistakes.
― Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I believe you win games by what you do from your first practice until your first game.
― Dr. Jack Ramsay
Be a dreamer. If you don’t know how to dream, you’re dead.
― Jim Valvano
There are only two options regarding commitment… you’re either in or you’re out. There’s no such thing as life in-between.
―Pat Riley
Good players want to be coached… Great players want to be told the truth.
― Doc Rivers
There is a lot of basketball beyond our control, but a player should never let anyone try harder than he does.
― Dean Smith
‘Play the right way’ means play unselfishly, respect each other’s achievements, play hard, fulfill your role.
― Gregg Popovich
Your best player has to set a tone of intolerance for anything that gets in the way of winning.
― Jeff Van Gundy
It takes three things to be a ‘special’ player: talent, character, and competitive fire.
― Kevin Eastman
Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.
― Phil Jackson
Coaches shouldn’t have to push you to work hard, you should push yourself because you want to be a great player.
― Bob Knight
No one is bigger than the team. If you can’t do things our way, you’re not getting time here and we don’t care who you are.
― Gregg Popovich
No one plays this or any game perfectly. It’s the guy who recovers from his mistakes who wins.
― Phil Jackson
Some say you have to use your five best players, but I found out you win with the five that fit together best as a team.
― Red Auerbach
There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don’t believe there is only one greatest player either.
— Michael Jordan
Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
— Michael Jordan
I would tell players to relax and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you’ve lost your focus.
— Michael Jordan
Basketball is a lifelong game. You continue to learn from the game day in and day out, and all along the way, you get better.
— Scottie Pippen
When I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it’s time for me to move away from the game.
— Michael Jordan
Team work is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one.
— Mike Krzyzewski
If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!
― Charles Barkley
Winning is overemphasized. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.
― Al McGuire
A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.
― Larry Bird
My whole life, people have doubted me. My mom did. People told me in high school I’m too short and not fast enough to play basketball. They didn’t know my story. Because if they did, they’d know that anything is possible.
― Jimmy Butler
If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.
— John Wooden
Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute.
— Bill Russell
What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.
― Dean Smith
You have a choice to make when you’re not playing. Either you’re invested and a great teammate or you’re not.
― Brad Stevens
Defense is one man guarding the ball and four others helping him.
― Mike Krzyzewski
The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.
― Phil Jackson
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
― Michael Jordan
The game is my wife. It demands loyalty and responsibility, and it gives me back fulfillment and peace.
― Michael Jordan
You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
― Michael Jordan
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.
― Michael Jordan
I don’t know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody—somewhere—was practicing more than me.
― Larry Bird
One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
― Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The only difference between a good shot and a bad shot is if it goes in or not.
― Charles Barkley
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