Mike Krzyzewski Quotes

You can see and you can listen, but you have to have moments in which you feel.

When I had troubles, I'd go out with basketball - you can do it by yourself, too. So you'd go out and shoot, and you'd fantasize.

With accomplishments comes confidence and with confidence comes belief. It has to be in that order.

I'm still not a great reader, but my wife is and my daughters are, and I envy them. I think I got into a bad habit of trying to do something all the time, instead of trying to sit down and take my time a little bit.

During the season, your team should be led with exuberance and excitement. You should live the journey. You should live it right. You should live it together. You should live it shared. You should try to make one another better. You should get on one another if somebody's not doing their part. You should hug one another when they are. You should be disappointed in a loss and exhilarated in a win. It's all about the journey.

In our program, the truth is the basis of all we do. There is nothing more important than the truth because there's nothing more powerful than the truth. Consequently, on our team, we always tell each other the truth. We must be honest with one another. There is no other way.

I've been so fortunate in my life that my family has never been jealous of my success. They have shown true love and commitment to me by being supportive. They shared in it.

It's simply doing what you're supposed to do as well as you can when you're supposed to do it.

Always get back to your core principles.

Are you going to show integrity only when someone is watching you - or are you going to show it all the time?

You don't just be a team. You become a team. Through tough games you find that you need each other

Parents can really help, but they can also really hinder the development of their youngsters.

When you first assemble a group, it's not a team right off the bat. It's only a collection of individuals

I don't look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball.

Discipline is doing what you are supposed to do in the best possible manner at the time you are supposed to do it.

I always wanted to teach.

The best teams are team in any sport that lose themselves in the team. The individuals lose their identity. And their identities come about as a result of being in the team first.

That's what I do now: I lead and I teach. If we win basketball games from doing that, then that's great, but I lead and teach. Those are the two things I concentrate on.

I don't think you play for other people's expectations, you know. You don't go and become a lawyer because your mother or father want you to, you don't become a coach because somebody wants you to.

I think leadership is never singular. In a good organization, it's plural.

I believe work is good. There is dignity in work. I also believe that a hard-work ethic forges strong leaders.

Even though we want huge individual egos, our collective ego is unbelievable.

You develop a team to achieve what one person cannot accomplish alone. All of us alone are weaker, by far, than if all of us are together.

Whatever a leader does now sets up what he does later. And there's always a later.

In order to be a winner, you have to look for ways of getting things done and not for reasons why things can't be done. People who live with excuses have things that can't be done hovering around them all the time.

I love practice. It is when a coach exercises the most control over the improvement of his or her team.

When you are passionate, you always have your destination in sight and you are not distracted by obstacles. Because you love what you are pursuing, things like rejection and setbacks will not hinder you in your pursuit. You believe that nothing can stop you!

Two are better than one if two act as one.

Throughout my life, my mom has been the person that I've always looked up to.

Turning down the Lakers was tough, but it is always good to renew your vows to the loves of your life.

If you set up an atmosphere of community and trust, it becomes a tradition. Older team members will establish your credibility with newer ones. Even if they don't like everything about you, they'll say, 'He's trustworthy, committed to us as a team.'

When you are speaking to your team after a game, never talk about the kid who was the star of the game. Talk about what your other players did to help the team win. Be sure to spread the wealth ... Then have individual meetings with one to three players to praise and reinforce. Make sure you touch them.

Basketball was not my main sport in grade school, or even the first year of high school.

You can't play any defense if the other team is on the foul line.

A common mistake among those who work in sport is spending a disproportional amount of time on "x's and o's" as compared to time spent learning about people.

In all forms of leadership, whether you are a coach, a CEO, or a parent, there are four words that, when said, can bring out the best in your team, your employees, and your family. I BELIEVE IN YOU. Those four words can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try.

Imagination has a great deal to do with winning.

In developing teams, I don't believe in rules. I believe in standards. Rules don't promote teamwork, standards do

Actually, the Kentucky moment was better than winning the two National Championships, because it was the epitome of what I try to get from a team in a crisis situation.

My ambition in high school was to be a high school coach and teacher, and that's still what I do: teach.

Friendships, along with love, make life worth living.

Pete Newell told me 'get as much information and learn as much about the game as you can, but use your own personality to teach it.'

Mutual commitment helps overcome the fear of failure - especially when people are part of a team sharing and achieving goals. It also sets the stage for open dialogue and honest conversation.

When a leader takes responsibility for his own actions and mistakes, he not only sets a good example, he shows a healthy respect for people on his team

I don't think we surprise people. We try to out-execute them.

A leader is someone who puts their people in position to be successful all the time

I was very pleased with the entire selection process. The manner in which it was conducted included all parts of United States' basketball, from the professional level to the colleges and high schools. Everyone was considered.

Every season is a journey. Every journey is a lifetime.

Great rivalries don't have to be built on hatred. They're built on respect, on a respect for excellence.

The other thing I knew I had was a high level of competitiveness.

Our goal is not to win. It's to play together and play hard. Then, winning takes care of itself.

Footwork is one of the primary prerequisites to becoming a great player

Every leader needs to remember that a healthy respect for authority takes time to develop. It's like building trust. You don't instantly have trust, it has to be earned.

Almost everything in leadership comes back to relationships.

When you cleanse yourself of a big victory, you may open yourself up to the opportunity for an even bigger victory

The life expectancy of a team is about eight months. Then the next year, it's a whole new team.

We travel in Duke stuff ... They can have a hat, but it must be a Duke hat.

Champions play as they practice. Create a consistency of excellence in all your habits.

Never let a person's weakness get in the way of their strength.

If the only reason I coached was to win basketball games, my life would be pretty shallow

I never want to lead a team that is not allowed the freedom to pursue what's in their hearts. If you want your team to be fully committed, then you'd better be fully committed

It's funny what happens when you become a grandparent. You start to act all goofy and do things you never thought you'd do. It's terrific.

You should do things because of what your expectations are of yourself.

When I was growing up, there weren't any Little Leagues in the city. Parents worked all the time. They didn't have time to take their kids out to play baseball and football.

Throughout the season, I look into my players eyes to gauge feelings, confidence levels, and to establish instant trust.

My hunger is not for success, it is for excellence. Because when you attain excellence, success just naturally follows.

One of the worst things anybody can do is assume. I think fools assume. If people have really got it together, they never assume anything. They believe, they work hard, and they prepare- but they don't assume.

I think coaching is confused at times as being an arrow that only goes to a player. Those players send arrows back to you, and that's where a relationship is developed. I don't make a player, and a player doesn't make me a coach. We make each other.

The team that trusts-their leader and each other-is more likely to be successful.

The thing I loved the most - and still love the most about teaching - is that you can connect with an individual or a group, and see that individual or group exceed their limits.

Communication does not always occur naturally, even among a tight-knit group of individuals. Communication must be taught and practiced in order to bring everyone together as one

Once you win a National Championship, how do you do that again? How do you get the passion to do that again? We won it again right away, the next year. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I didn't give myself an opportunity to enjoy the first one.

Fun is to experience things you would not have been able to experience in any other setting.

There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride. I like to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important. But all of them together are unbeatable

If you win a National Championship, or you win two, people think you have not only seen the Holy Grail, but you've embraced it. Basically, I do what a lot of people do, but I've been able to win.

Confrontation simply means meeting the truth head-on.

Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.

The only way you're going to grow is to be in difficult situations.

Don't worry about losing. Think about winning.

I'm fortunate now that I coach at Duke University and we've won a lot. I have some kids who haven't failed that much. But when they get to college, they're going to fail some time. That's a thing that I can help them the most with.

The person who has inspired me my whole life is my Mom, because she taught me commitment. She sacrificed.

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

A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play.

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.

Courage gives a leader the ability to stand straight and not sway, no matter which way the wind blows.

Goals should be realistic, attainable, and shared among all members of the team

Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.

Confidence shared is better than confidence only in yourself.

Leadership is an ever-evolving position.

To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.

A leader's responsibility to his team is paramount. It overshadows even his own personal feelings at any given time.

Why do you play a game? I play a game to see how good we can be.

Effort is fully replenishable. There is no need to save any of it. Leave every bit you have on the playing field

Defense is one man guarding the ball and four others helping him

Playing sport was somewhat frivolous, but I liked it. I rebelled a little bit, and wouldn't go to music lessons and things like that, but I would go and play ball. My parents learned to love it because they saw how much I got out of it.

I didn't miss any games, but Coach Knight came out and spent three days with my family in Chicago when my dad passed away. I came back and played and it was good therapy for me. Having a basketball family and a coach who understood and actually became like a father figure for that time was comforting to me, and I'm sure that will be comforting to Coleman.

Sometimes it's not bad to hurt. Sometimes you don't want things until you get hurt. We got hurt today, let's see what we do.