Quotes on Basketball

It was a blessing just to play one NBA basketball game.

Every time I see my life without basketball, I get a little scared, and I try to put a little more into it.

When I was drafted by the Colts, Indianapolis was a basketball and a car racing town, but it didn't take long for the Colts to convert the city and state of Indiana into football evangelists.

I remember teaching a clinic to other coaches, and a guy raised his hand and asked if I had any advice when it came to coaching women. I leveled him with a death-ray stare, and said, 'Go home and coach basketball.'

The last reason I want to be hired is because of my gender. I want to be hired because you trust me, because of my potential, because you believe that I know basketball, and we go and we build from there.

True basketball coaches are great teachers and you do not humiliate, you do not physically go after, you do not push or shove, you do not berate, if you are a true coach. If you humiliate or curse them, that won't do it. Coaches like that are not coaches.

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.

We can have no progress without change, whether it be basketball or anything else.

Young people need models, not critics.

The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.

What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.

You can't get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.

Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got.

Right up until the time I retired at age 37, I felt like there were still things that I could do better.

I keep both eyes on my man. The basket hasn't moved on me yet.

That was just my own personal program: I didn't want to get too high over the good moments because I didn't want to be saddened and depressed when things didn't go as I had planned.

We don't need no more rappers, we don't need no more basketball players, no more football players. We need more thinkers. We need more scientists. We need more managers. We need more mathematicians. We need more teachers. We need more people who care; you know what I'm saying? We need more women, mothers, fathers, we need more of that, we don't need any more entertainers

I always stress condition with my basketball players. I don’t mean physical condition only. You cannot attain and maintain physical condition unless you are morally and mentally conditioned.

Once you become a good person, then you have a chance of becoming a good basketball player.

I'm surrounded by nothing but great people. I've been blessed with that, so really, I've got no choice but to be an all-around good person.

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.