The Best Basketball Quotes For Basketball Fans

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Whether you love playing or watching basketball, I’m super excited to share with you these basketball quotes! From quotes by players to trainers, I’m sure you’ll find a basketball quote you’ll love.

1. “No one knows how big your potential is, how big your heart is, when you start.” – Muggsy Bogues
2. “Remember that basketball is a game of habits. If you make the other guy deviate from his habits, you’ve got him” – Bill Russell
3. “You have to go through good times and bad times to get where you’re trying to go.” – Allen Iverson
4. “Excellence is a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.” – Shaquille O’Neal
5. “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
6. “The key is not the ‘will to win’… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important” – Bob Knight
7. “You are responsible for how people remember you—or don’t. So don’t take it lightly.” – Kobe Bryant
8. “Shooting percentage is just as much about decision making as it is about technique”– Jeff Van Gundy
9. “Whatever I try to do, I always try to give it my best and try to be a killer because, at the end of the day, if you don’t work hard, you are not going to get food on your table.” – Giannis Antetokoumbo
10. “If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.” — Kobe Bryant
11. “What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player” – John Wooden
12. “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
13. “It doesn’t matter if you fall down, it’s whether you get back up.” — Michael Jordan
14. “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
15. “For me, when I get knocked down, I really try to get back up and go at it again. I don’t like to give up.” – Jeremy Lin
16. “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.” — Unknown
17. “Winners are not people who do not fail, but people who never quit“-Anonymous
18. “If all I’m remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I’ve done a bad job with the rest of my life.” –Isiah Thomas
19. “A lot of people told me I couldn’t do it because of my size. I was determined to prove those people wrong.” – Ben Wallace
20. “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.” — Kobe Bryant
21. “I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win.“-Michael Jordan
22. “Teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one” – Mike Krzyzewski
23. “Basketball isn’t just a sport. It is an art, one that must be mastered to succeed.” – Steph Curry
24. “I treated it like every day was my last day with a basketball.” – LeBron James
25. “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.” — Michael Jordan
26. “Basketball doesn’t build character, it reveals it.” – James Naismith
27. “Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and chase them.” – Carmelo Anthony
28. “When a gifted team dedicates itself to unselfish trust and combines instinct with boldness and effort–it is ready to climb“-Pat Riley
29. “All the successful teams I’ve ever seen have three characteristics: They play unselfish, they play together, and they play hard.“-Larry Brown
30. “Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It’s about being able to take it as well as dish it out. That’s the only way you’re going to get respect from other players.” – Larry Bird
31. “Everyone is born with a certain potential. You may never achieve your full potential, but how close you come depends on how much you want to pay the price.“-Red Auerbach
32. “Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.” — Larry Bird
33. “Winning teams at the NBA level, the college level, and the high school level all play team basketball. Championship teams have five players on the same page at all times.“-Hubie Brown
34. “Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.“-Magic Johnson
35. “The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.” – Bill Russell
36. “Whatever your goal is: dedicate yourself to it. And it’s going to be a lot of sacrifice, but if you love what you want to do, it shouldn’t be a problem.” – Derrick Rose
37. “The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment.” — William Arthur Ward
38. “Everything negative — pressure, challenges — are all an opportunity for me to rise.“-Kobe Bryant
39. “If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!“-Charles Barkley
40. “If you love the game and you love playing, just have fun and enjoy it. Work hard and don’t get bogged down by it.” – Blake Griffin
41. “What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
42. “I’ve got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.“-Larry Bird
43. “Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.” – John Wooden
44. “To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.” — Michael Jordan
45. “We believe in people executing their role and caring about the team more than anything individually” – Gregg Popovich
46. “Keep practicing. Never let someone tell you you’re too small or too slow.” – Chris Paul
47. “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” — John F. Kennedy
48. “A key basketball skill is imagery. The best players “see” situations before they happen so they can be prepared” – Dr. Jack Ramsay
49. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan
50. “Making the big shot wouldn’t feel so good if missing it didn’t feel so awful.” – Paul Pierce
51. “There’s no reason to hold yourself back and say you can’t do something in life unless you go for it and try to do it.” – Russell Westbrook
52. “People ask me if I could fly, I said, ‘yeah… for a little while.’” — Michael Jordan
53. “The one thing I learned about myself going back and watching tapes of all the losses that we’ve had is that I’m physically capable of doing this and dominating the game, but the mental part was not there. I don’t know if it comes with age, but I had to learn to be mentally tough.” – Lisa Leslie
54. “Be led by your dreams not by your problems.” – Roy Williams
55. “You can’t stop people from trying to limit your dreams, but you can stop it from becoming a reality. Your dreams are up to you. I encourage you to always be curious, always seek out things you love and always work hard once you find it.” – Kobe Bryant
56. “You don’t play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.”—Bobby Knight
57. “He knew I enjoyed the relationships of college basketball. All along, he was the wise one.”— Rick Pitino
58. “Courage means being afraid to do something, but still doing it.” —Knute Rockne
59. “The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.” ― Bill Russell.
60. “Winning is overemphasized. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.” ― Al McGuire
61. “Every time you compete, try harder to improve on your last performance. Give nothing short of your very best effort.” – Elgin Baylor
62. “There are going to be a number of people all of the time telling you that you’re too small. They still tell me that, but I just make them eat their words.” – Isaiah Thomas
63. “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
64. “Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.” ― Wilt Chamberlain.
65. “Everything is habit-forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing.” – Wilt Chamberlain
66. “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
67. “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.
68. “If you are afraid of failure, you don’t deserve to be successful!” ― Charles Barkley
69. “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
70. “Nothing is given; nothing is handed to you. You have to take what you deserve.” – Marcus Keene
71. “I think, team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed.“- Lebron James
72. “A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That’s how I want you to play.” – Mike Krzyzewski
73. “Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.”— Magic Johnson
74. “Every time I’m on the court, every time a fan cheers for me, I just want to go out and make a play for them to cheer even more.” – Joel Embiid
75. “Young men need more models, not critics”– John Wooden
76. “Haters are a good problem to have. Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones.” – Kobe Bryant
77. “Michael Jordan may have been the best basketball player in history, but he couldn’t have won six NBA titles without a team.” – Mark E. Hyman
78. “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.
79. “Hard work isn’t enough. You gotta believe.” – Derrick Rose
80. “Be a dreamer. If you don’t know how to dream, you’re dead.” ― Jim Valvano
81. “Champions never complain, they are too busy getting better.” ― John Wooden.
82. “If you do the work, you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.” – Michael Jordan
83. “Sometimes a player’s greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.” ― Scottie Pippen.
84. “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan
85. “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” ― Kevin Durant.
86. “If nobody will help you, do it alone.” — Michael Jordan
87. “It’s OK to make mistakes. That’s how we learn. When we compete, we make mistakes.” ― Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
88. “Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.” — Michael Jordan
89. “I know that I’m never as good or bad as any single performance. I’ve never believed my critics or my worshippers, and I’ve always been able to leave the game at the arena” – Charles Barkley
90. “Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.” – Knute Rockne
91. “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” ― Phil Jackson
92. “My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” — Jim Valvano
93. “Winning is more related to good defense than good offense.” ― Dr. Jack Ramsay.
94. “Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God’s way to say nobody’s perfect.” ― Shaquille O’Neal.
95. “Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat.” – Dean Smith
96. “Not only is there more to life than basketball, there’s a lot more to basketball than basketball” – Phil Jackson
97. “Bad shooters are always open” – Pete Carril
98. “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
99. “Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.” ― Phil Jackson
100. “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
101. “There is no ‘i’ in team but there is in win.” — Michael Jordan
102. “The best teams have chemistry. They communicate with each other and they sacrifice personal glory for the common goal.” — Dave DeBusschere
103. “In fact, it is the success of the entire team that brings home a championship title.” — Johnny Osaki
104. “We’d taken up our positions on the benches between the school hall and a newly-installed outdoor basketball court. Being hip-hoppers, we were obliged to be obsessed with basketball. None of us had a ball.” ― Nikesh Shukla
105. “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.” ― Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
106. “The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy.” ― Jerry Tarkanian.
107. “Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.” ― Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
108. “It’s harder to stay on top than it is to climb. Continue to seek new goals.” ― Pat Summitt.
109. “There’s a lot of room to grow, and the women who believe they’re worth it are the ones who are going to make good things happen during the next period of WNBA growth.” ― Sue Wicks.
110. “Keep practicing. Never let anyone tell you’re too small or too slow.” ― Chris Paul.
111. “Your best player has to set a tone of intolerance for anything that gets in the way of winning.” ― Jeff Van Gundy
112. “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” — Jackie Robinson
113. “Winning is about having the whole team on the same page.” ― Bill Walton
114. “The star player must slay his ego and learn teamwork and communication skills before he can achieve the ultimate in sport” ― Walt Frazier
115. “No team works out teamwork.” — Dwyane Wade
116. “I’m still waiting for perfection. In the meantime, I’ll settle for persistence” – Bo Ryan
117. “It takes three things to be a ‘special’ player: talent, character, and competitive fire.” ― Kevin Eastman
118. “Those to whom defense is not important will have the best seat in the game” – Rick Majerus
119. “The two ingredients in success in basketball are playing hard and playing intelligently.” ― Pete Carroll.
120. “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” ― Henry Ford.
121. “Coaches shouldn’t have to push you to work hard. You should push yourself because you want to be a great player.” ― Bob Knight
122. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” — John C. Maxwell
123. “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.” ― Tim Duncan.
124. “In order to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them.” ― Bob Knight
125. “The greatness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive. The weakness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive” – Phil Jackson
126. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” ― Michael Jordan
127. “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” — Stephen R. Covey
128. “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
129. “Bottom line – if you want success of any kind; you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.” ― Tim Grover.
130. “You can’t always be the most talented or gifted person in the room, but you can be the most competitive.“-Pat Summit
131. “Everything happens for a reason. I’m used to it, I prepare for it. Like I say, at the end of the day, those in charge of their own destiny are going to do what’s right for them and their family.” — Shaquille O’Neal
132. “No one plays this or any game perfectly. It’s the guy who recovers from his mistakes who wins.” ― Phil Jackson
133. “Evaluate wins and losses objectively, focusing more on effort and execution than on the outcome of the game.” ― Morgan Wootten.
134. “With the absence of pressure, it’s hard to do great things.” ― Geno Auriemma.
135. “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
136. “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” — Jim Valvano
137. “If you’re going to have to beg them to play, it’s not going to work.” ― Chuck Daly
138. “Admit to and make yourself accountable for mistakes. How can you improve if you’re never wrong?” – Pat Summitt
139. “Excellence is a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.” ― Shaquille O’Neal
140. “You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.” — Michael Jordan
141. “Discover your gift, develop your gift, and then give it away every day.” ― Don Meyer.
142. “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.” — John Wooden
143. “If it turns out that my best wasn’t good enough, at least I wont look back and say that I was afraid to try.” ― Michael Jordan
144. “In developing teams, I don’t believe in rules. I believe in standards. Rules don’t promote teamwork, standards do” – Mike Krzyzewski
145. “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.
146. “A key basketball skill is imagery. The best players “see” situations before they happen so they can be prepared.” ― Dr. Jack Ramsay
147. “Everyone is born with a certain potential. You may never achieve your full potential, but how close you come depends on how much you want to pay the price.” ― Red Auerbach
148. “There is a lot of pressure put on me, but I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself. I feel if I play my game, it will take care of itself.”-Lebron James
149. “I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you.”-Kobe Bryant
150. “When I walked into the gym, I fell in love with the game. I didn’t fall in love with it just because it was me playing. I fell in love with it because I’ve got guys like this – like these guys every single day that push me to be the best that I can be.”-Kevin Durant
151. “If you’re going to have to beg them to play, it’s not going to work.”-Chuck Daly
152. “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
153. “I think, team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed.“-Lebron James
154. “Basketball isn’t just a sport. It is an art, one that must be mastered to succeed.” ― Steph Curry
155. “Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise” – Michael Jordan
156. “Don’t think about winning. Think about dominating!” ― Pierre Pryor
157. “The superior man blames himself. An inferior man blames others.” ― Don Shula
158. “The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” ― Denis Watley
159. “The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. ” ― William James
160. “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” ― Norman Vincent Peale
161. “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. ” ― Lou Holtz
162. “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise. ” ―Kobe Bryant
163. “I believe that good things come to those who work.” ― Wilt Chamberlain
164. “Act quickly, but don’t hurry.” –John Wooden
165. “Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart.” – Phil Jackson
166. “To me it’s a serious game. Don’t expect me to be having all kinds of fun when the score’s tied, two seconds left, and the other guys have the ball.” – Larry Bird
167. “Any game we’re down even 10 points going into the fourth quarter we can still win.” – Willis Reed
168. “Obviously there have been times when I’ve failed. But there have never been times when I thought I would fail.” – Michael Jordan
169. “There’s no one else in the world I want to have the ball for the last shot but me.” – Larry Bird
170. “You can’t afford negative thinking, so you always believe you will win. You build an image of yourself that has nothing to do with ego, but is has to be satisfied.” –Adolph Rupp
171. “Never fear, E.J. is here.” – Magic Johnson

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