Larry Bird Quotes

I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me.

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.

Basketball was always a game to me. One of the greatest things in life for me was to be able to play what I loved dearly and get paid for it. So it was always a game to me and that's how I perceived everything.

Don't let winning make you soft. Don't let losing make you quit. Don't let your teammates down in any situation.

I think a lot of blue collar people related to me because a lot of people work for their money.

I wanted to compete at the highest level again - and that's the NBA.

First master the fundamentals.

In the closing seconds of every game, I want the ball in my hands for the last shot - not in anybody else's, not in anybody else's in the world.

The best players will play. That's the way it will always be.

I have always been confident in my skills and once the game got going I knew I was probably the best player on the floor most of the time whether it was junior high, high school or college. I knew I had control of the game.

I don't think that once you get to one level, you can relax. You've got to keep pushing.

You never make any of the shots you never take. 87% of the ones you do take, you'll miss too. I make 110% of my shots.

If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she'd get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don't mean she wouldn't pay the bank, but the children always came first.

I've always been interested in jobs in the NBA. But I've been in this for 20 years and it might be time to do something else.

There are many times when you are better off practicing than playing; but most people just don't understand that

When I was a kid, like 14 or 15, I played with the waiters from the hotel, 'cause that was the best game. And these guys, they'd let me play. And they were black guys.

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.

The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson.

My goal was just to try and be the best player on my high school team, and look where I am now. And that was still my goal as a young kid, just to try and be a little better than my brother was.

Practice habits were crucial to my development in basketball. I didn't play against the toughest competition in high school, but one reason I was able to do well in college was that I mastered the fundamentals. You've got to have them down before you can even think about playing.

I knew I was as good as anybody. That's not really bragging; it's just that I'd put the time in.

The nature of competition is such that any number of people invariably have their eyes on the same prize you do. Recognize your assets and employ them to the best of your ability.

While day by day the overzealous student stores up facts for future use, he who has learned to trust nature finds need for ever fewer external directions. He will discard formula after formula, until he reaches the conclusion: Let nature take its course.

I just shoot until I feel good.

Coaches can talk and talk and talk about something, but if you get it on tape and show it to them, it is so much more effective.

Eminem. My son was listening to that and I was like, "What is that junk?" Then I started listening and I thought, You know, that kid is pretty good. It's the storytelling.

When I was a kid, I never thought about anything. Never had to think about where I was going to school or what I was going to do. I just lived minute to minute.

I've got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.

It makes me sick when I see a guy just stare at a loose ball and watch it go out of bounds.

Push yourself again and again. Don't give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.

Guys like Larry Bird
he played so hard, he wants everybody else to play hard. That's not unreasonable. Any coach would want that and demand that.

I can see why fans don't like to watch pro basketball. I don't, either. It's not exciting.

I hate to lose more than I like to win.

This is a silly place. Half the world has no clean water. The other half has so much that they pooh in it.

I always know what's happening on the court. I see a situation occur, and I respond.

Michael Jordan is God disguised as a basketball player.

It's been a journey, the NBA. It's taken me a lot farther than I ever expected.

The best basketball announcer is one who allows you to close your eyes.

Once you are labeled 'the best' you want to stay up there, and you can't do it by loafing around.

Before every game I used to go out and shot the same shots over and over and over. In the summer time I spent a lot of time just shooting. So really it just came natural. Whether it's a tie game or down by 1 or up by five, it was always the same shot. So I always felt comfortable with the ball in my hands because it was in there a million times before.

Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It's being able to take it as well as dish it out. That's the only way you're going to get respect from the players.

Anytime you've got an opportunity to play for your country and win a gold medal, I think that takes it all. That's the greatest thing you could ever achieve in your sport. So, I have been very fortunate to play on great teams, but the gold medal was probably the best.

I'm a firm believer in that you play the way you practice.

You know when I played, you had me and Kevin (McHale) and some others throughout the league. I think it's good for a fan base because as we all know the majority of the fans are white America. And if you just had a couple of white guys in there, you might get them a little excited.

When I go to the line I'm thinking 'All net.' When I don't think that, I'm likely to miss.

But it is a black man's game, and it will be forever.

What's better? Dogs or broomsticks? I mean will the world really ever know?

The more you win, the better you're gonna get. It grows on itself.