Basketball Player Quotes

Dear Basketball, From the moment I started rolling my dad's tube socks and shooting imaginary game-winning shots ... I fell in love with you.

Basketball isn't just about the bright lights, packed arenas and highlight reels. Basketball is a way of life. Basketball is a relationship between you and the ball, you and your teammates. If you love the game, nobody can take that from you.

My parents are my backbone. Still are. They're the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.

Only an idiot would doubt my return

You can't go and anticipate what it is that you want to see. You just have to be present. Be where you are.

When I step onto the court, I'm ready to play. If you're going up against me, you'd better be ready. If you're not going to compete, I will dominate you.

I grew up in front of these people, and now they are seeing me as an 'older' young man.

You have to rely on others to have success as a group.

Ultimately, if you can say that I'm a bad owner and we're winning championships, I can live with that. But if we're not making the playoffs and we're spending and losing money, then I have to look in the mirror and say maybe I'm not taking the necessary steps to doing what it takes to run an organization.

It's wonderful for the players. It's a huge challenge and a huge responsibility for us to get our act together, get our butts in gear. Phil isn't going to bail us out because of our mental lapses.

There are no shortcuts. I approached practices the same way I approached games. You can't turn it on and off like a faucet. I couldn't dog it during practice and then, when I needed that extra push late in the game, expect it to be there. Very few people get anywhere by taking shortcuts.

If I have an agenda or a goal, no one is going to deter me from what I want to do.

If I panic, everyone else panics.

Sometimes I wonder what it will be like to look back on all this. Whether it will seem real.

I was an idiot when I was a kid.

I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it... I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it's an illusion to me.

Great players never look in the mirror and think I'm a great basketball player. You ask yourself, Am I the best player I can be?

Winning isn't always championships.

If I have something and move forward, it is only my weakness, which I hate and turn into my strength. You are not lost as long as you do not give up!

When I play against someone that's new in the league, I make him respect me. They may have heard about me, but now you get to see me actually in front of you. That drives me.

learning 's a gift, even when "pain" ,s your teacher!

The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

I will not quit this game because of what the media has done to me.

Enjoy every minute of life. Never second-guess life.

Everything has a purpose. And that purpose has a story that goes along with it. It just depends on what your passion is.

At the end of 2003, my game was complete. Shooting, defense, using the dribble, transition, midrange stuff was all there. Then it was about fine-tuning and trying to improve in each area.

You have competition every day because you set such high standards for yourself that you have to go out every day and live up to that.

In reality, I never want to grow up.

The greatest people that ever lived were also the greatest failures. They just didn’t let those failures affect them like they do most.

I don't talk trash often, but when I do, I go for the jugular.

I missed 9000 shots in my career, lost almost 300 games and missed the shot to win the game 26 times.

I can remember a game, we were down with about 5 to 10 points, I go off about 25 points, we come back and win the game, we're walking off the floor. Tex (Winter) looks at me and says "There's no "I" in team!" I looked at Tex and say, "There's not, but there's an 'I' in win!

Confidence allows you to progress in something you're attempting to accomplish, whether it's playing basketball or baseball or whether it's trying to succeed in business.

It's not about the number of hours you practice, it's about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice

I'm playing against great players, playing against the best in the world. The competition-that's what I've always wanted.

For a competitive junkie like me, golf is a great solution because it smacks you in the face every time you think you have accomplished something. That to me has taken over a lot of the energy and competitiveness for basketball.

I failed so therefore I succeed.

We're grown ass men, you don't need to be falling all over the place.

There's a much bigger world out there.

Drugs have been in the game for a long time. They were there when I was in college, and even in high school. It's in life. It's in business. It's everywhere.

My most memorable dunk, that I think about very, very often, is the Patrick Ewing dunk.

Failure makes me work even harder.

The guy said NBA players are one in a million, ... I said, 'Man, look, I'm going to be that one in a million.

Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.

I hate being out there with those garbage men. They don't get you the ball.

He [Phil Jackson] is such a basketball genius in terms of the details of the game, the little nuances of the game and the rhythm of the game.

Difficulty is a nurse of greatness-a harsh nurse, who rocks her foster children roughly, but rocks them in strength and athletic proportion. The mind, grappling with great aims and wrestling with mighty impediments, grows by a certain necessity to the stature of greatness.

I'm patient.

When you love something, you'll always come back to it. You'll always keep asking questions, and finding answers.

The people who truly know me know what I'm like. There have been people who try to say things that aren't fair, and I check them. And then they don't like me because I checked them.

I heave the basketball; I know it sails in a parabola, exhibiting perfect symmetry, which is interrupted by the basket. It's funny, but it is always interrupted by the basket.

I love going one-on-one with someone. That's what I do. I've never lost. It's a whole different game, just to have them right in front of you and be able to do whatever you want.

I know the signs of scaredness.

One day, you might look up and see me playing the game at 50. Don't laugh. Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.

I don't just try to score. The challenge is elevating my teammates to be able to win a championship.

I've never lost a game I just ran out of time.

You have to be able to separate business from the love of the game. There were a lot of decisions made business-wise that I wasn't happy with, and I took a lot of blame over the years. But you have to be able to separate that from the love you have for the game.

I'll quit competing when my heart quits beating

One thing you gotta know about me is I have absolutely no filter. I have no problem saying what the hell I think of someone.

I've known for a long time that they're a bunch of idiots.