Discover this collection of basketball quotes that will help you ignite within you the insatiable desire to become a successful basketball player.
Since its invention in 1891, basketball has become one of the most popular sports in the world. Although you can quickly pick up the basic skills to play basketball, becoming a truly skilled player takes a lot of exercise and dedication. Therefore having the right motivation is a key ingredient to continually improving your basketball skills.
But sometimes things get really difficult. When you’re struggling to get to the next level, it can be helpful to have a few quotes about basketball for motivation. These quotes will inspire you to keep pushing your limits. They will encourage you to train harder and never give up on your dreams.
Table of Contents
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I have failed over and over again in my life and that is why I am successful.”
Michael Jordan
What sets successful basketball players apart from everyone else is their insatiable drive to succeed.
Their passion for the game helps them train harder, with more intensity and with excellence than 99.9% of the rest. That is what makes them so successful. By learning from these exceptional players you can be inspired and motivated for your own life. To help you do that, I’ve created an inspiring collection of basketball quotes.
Phrases about basketball
The following quotes about basketball will help you ignite within you the insatiable desire to become a successful basketball player. They will motivate you to overcome all the obstacles that prevent you from reaching the next level. Even more, these motivational basketball quotes will help you develop the inner drive that is necessary to succeed.
Here are these inspiring basketball quotes:
1. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can not accept not trying it.”
Michael Jordan
2. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work well.”
Tim Notke
3. “Small details are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
John Wooden
4. “A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works to help him develop his abilities, and uses these abilities to accomplish his goals.”
Larry Bird
5. “Some people want it to happen, some want it to happen, and some make it happen.”
Michael Jordan
6. “Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”
Shaquille O’Neal
7. “I gave everything I had to basketball. The passion is still there. It was a great adventure.”
Allen Iverson
8. “Never make excuses. Your friends don’t need them and your enemies won’t believe them.”
John Wooden
9. “Nothing is given, everything is earned. Work for what you have.”
Lebron James
10. “What to do when you make a mistake? Acknowledge it, admit it and forget it.”
Dean Smith
11. “Focus and mental toughness are the margins of victory.”
bill russell
12. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
Michael Jordan
13. “Basketball is a beautiful game when all five players on the court play as one heartbeat.”
Dean Smith
14. “You always have to be on the edge. You have to train and every match as if it were the last.”
Kobe Bryant
15. “ Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you hit a wall, don’t go back and give up. Find out how to climb it, go through it or go around it.”
Michael Jordan
16. “Skill can get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.”
John Wooden
17. “ Leadership is fighting for a loose ball. It is being able to assume and delegate to others. That is the only way you can get the respect of your peers.”
Larry Bird
18. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”
Michael Jordan
19. “Good players want to be coached and they want to be told the truth.”
Doc Rivers
20. “Do your best when no one is looking. If you do that, you can be successful at anything you set your mind to.”
Bob Cousy
21. “I have failed over and over again in my life and that is why I am successful.”
Michael Jordan
22. “You have to give 125 percent. Put your heart and soul into it; learn to have a positive and winning attitude. Don’t accept defeat, but learn from it.”
magic johnson
23. “In order to inspire the players, I adapted a quote from Walt Whitman and taped it to their locker doors before the first playoff game against the Miami Heat. “From now on we do not seek good fortune, we ourselves are good fortune.”
Phil Jackson
24. “I have had enough success for two lifetimes together, my success is talent coupled with hard work and a good dose of luck.”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
25. “The strength of the team is in each individual member. The strength of each member is in the team.”
Phil Jackson
26. “It takes three things to be a ‘special’ player: talent, character and competitive fire.”
Kevin Eastman
27. “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”
John Wooden
28. “Getting good players is easy. Getting them to play together is the hardest part.”
Casey Stengel
29. “It’s amazing what can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.”
John Wooden
More Of The Best Basketball Quotes
Basketball quotes are a fantastic way to increase your motivation and that of your teammates. It doesn’t matter if you’re an athlete looking to improve your game or a coach looking for inspiration for your team, these words about basketball will help you get the job done.
30. I will do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a teammate a glass of water, or hitting the game-winning shot.
kobe bryan
31. “Goals determine what you are going to be.”
Julius Ervin
32. “My attitude is such that if you push me into something you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.”
Michael Jordan
33. “Care more about your character than your reputation, because your character is who you really are, while your reputation is only what others think of you.”
John Wooden
34. “The key lies in consistency: if you want to be a great shooter, you must always shoot the same.”
Ray Allen
35. “Sometimes a player’s biggest challenge comes in relation to his role on the team.”
scottie pippen
36. “All children need is a little help, a little hope, and someone who believes in them.”
magic johnson
37. “Good teams become great teams when their members trust their teammates so much that the ‘we’ prevails over the ‘me’.”
Phil Jackson
38. “The key is not the will to win… everyone has that. It is the willingness to prepare to win that is important.”
Bob Knight
39. “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”
Michael Jordan
40. “I think the reason I am the person I am today is because I went through some tough times when I was younger.”
Lebron James
41. “There is only one thing we can control and that is the force with which we play.”
Don Mayer
42. “Every hour I’m not in the gym, I know there’s someone training to take me down.”
Karl Malone
43. “When you think you’ve done enough, do a little more because someone is working harder than you.”
Larry Bird
44. “I am playing; I’m here. I’m going to fight until they tell me they don’t love me anymore.”
Steve Nash
45. “Who you are as a person is much more important than who you are as a basketball player.”
John Wooden
46. “Do not confuse activity with achievement.”
John Wooden
47. “Everyone has talent, but skill requires hard work.”
Michael Jordan
48. “Most of us spend most of our time caught up in thoughts of the past or future, which can be dangerous if your job is to win basketball games. Basketball takes place at such speed that it’s easy to make mistakes and obsess over what just happened or what might happen next, distracting you from the only thing that really matters right now.”
Phil Jackson
49. “If you look up the definition of greatness in the dictionary, it will say Michael Jordan.”
Elgin Baylor
50. “I am chasing perfection.”
Kobe Bryant
51. “I don’t know if I practiced more than anyone, but I’m sure I practiced enough. I still wonder if someone somewhere was practicing more than me.”
Larry Bird
52. “Approach the game without any set agenda and you’ll probably be surprised by your overall efforts.”
Phil Jackson
53. “I want to do it the right way. I really want to learn the business.”
Shaquille O’Neal
54. “The day I stopped caring about stats is the day I started winning.”
Shaquille O’Neal
55. “You can’t win unless you learn to lose.”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
56. “Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”
Michael Jordan
57. “The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome. The ride is so much more fun that way.”
Phil Jackson
58. “If all basketball players worked as hard as I do, I’d be out of a job.”
Steve Nash
59. “You can’t get much in life if you only work on days when you feel good.”
jerry west
60. “A person can be a crucial ingredient within a team, but a single person does not constitute a team.”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
61. “They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you that practice makes perfect. I wish they would make up their minds.”
Wilt Chamberlin
62. “If all you remember about me is that I’ve been a good basketball player, then I’ve done a bad job with the rest of my life.”
isiah thomas
63. “Basketball is in my blood. It is my obligation to try.”
Hakeem Olajuwon
64. “As a leader, your job is to do everything in your power to create the perfect conditions for success, by testing your ego and inspiring your team to play the game the right way. But at some point you have to let it go and give yourself over to the basketball gods. The soul of success is to surrender to what is.”
Phil Jackson
65. “Don’t let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do.”
John Wooden
I hope you have enjoyed this collection of basketball phrases . Do not forget to share this page to all those who love this fabulous sport.