Quotes on Coaching

I'm looking for players who make their teammates better. You do that with enthusiasm and passion.

The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.

If a Coach is determined to stay in the coaching profession, he will develop from year to year. This much is true, no coach has a monopoly on the knowledge of basketball. There are no secrets in the game. The only secrets, if there are any, are good teaching of sound fundamentals, intelligent handling of men, a sound system of play, and the ability to instill in the boys a desire to win.

Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

If one is true to one's inner self, and follows its wisdom, who is without a teacher?

People want to be on a team. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be in a situation where they feel that they are doing something for the greater good.

Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. If you can shrug off a loss, you can never be a winner!

Teaching players during practices was what coaching was all about to me.

Over-coaching can be more harmful than under-coaching. Keep it simple!

The trick is growing up without growing old.

When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly search for new and more intricate explanations to explain away defeat.

After a while, your coaching development ceases to be about finding newer ways to organize practice. In other words, you soon stop collecting drills. Your development as a coach shifts to observing how great coaches teach, motivate, lead, and drive players to performances at higher and higher levels

Don't ever give up on ability. Don't give up on a player who has it.

Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don't forget them when they leave.

Praise your kids. Inspire and motivate your players with praise. Ten years from now it won't matter what your record was. Will your kids love you or hate you?

Sometimes you learn more from losing than winning. Losing forces you to reexamine.

Coaches have to watch for what they don't want to see and listen to what they don't want to hear.

Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone's knowing how to bring about a better condition of things than existed earlier.

Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.