I never took a position we were going to be a good ball club. I took the position we were going to be a winning ball club.
Interpretation
The focus should be on achieving victories rather than merely having potential.
Red Auerbach's quote emphasizes the importance of a winning mindset. Simply being classified as a good team is not enough; true success lies in the ability to achieve victories on the field, which requires dedication, strategy, and a commitment to excellence.
In practice
Use this quote in a motivational speech for a sports team to encourage them to focus on winning.
To be a successful coach you should be and look prepared. You must be a man of integrity. Never break your word. Don't have two sets of standards. Remember you don't handle players-you handle pets. You deal with players. Stand up for your players. Show them you care-on and off the court. Very important-it's not 'how' or 'what' you say but what they absorb.
If you want to be a Champion, you've got to feel like one, you've got to act like one, you've got to look like one.
I don't believe in statistics. There are too many factors that can't be measured. You can't measure a ballplayer's heart.
They said you have to use your five best players but I found you win with the five who fit together the best.
It's not what you tell your players that counts. It's what they hear.
To a father, when a child dies, the future dies; to a child when a parent dies, the past dies.
There is no greater glory that can befall a man that what he achieves with the speed of his feet or the strength of his hands.
Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it.
Nobody is an overnight success. Most overnight successes you see have been working at it for ten years.
He who by an exertion of mind or body, adds to the aggregate of enjoyable wealth, increases the sum of human knowledge, or gives to human life higher elevation or greater fullness - he is, in the larger meaning of the words, a " producer," a " working man," a " laborer," and is honestly earning honest wages.
I think money is a wonderful thing because it enables you to do things. It enables you to invest in ideas that don't have a short-term payback.
Failure is not the opposite of success; it's part of success.
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