Basketball Winning Quotes

A lot of guys go through their whole careers and don't win a championship, but are still great coaches. ~ Chuck Daly

I just like to win basketball games. That's what motivates me. ~ Chamique Holdsclaw

Why would I want to help them (the T -Wolves) win a title? They're not doing anything for me. I'm at risk. I have a lot of risk here. I got my family to feed. ~ Latrell Sprewell

I probably should've listened to Michael a year ago when he said that Charles will never win a championship because he doesn't show any dedication. ~ Scottie Pippen

That dude scored 8 points in the last 19 seconds, pulled out a miracle win at the Garden. He made me choke on a chicken bone that day. I'm serious. ~ Shaquille O'Neal

Some clubs want to win so much they'll do anything to get it. Our approach has been just the opposite. We've tried to do things the right way. And the right way is [abiding by] the rules and regulations ... I may not like all of them, but once they are [official], we play by them. ~ Don Shula

Your program must have an overriding purpose which is clearly visible and which teaches lessons beyond winning. ~ Don Meyer

I do not want players who do not have a keen desire to win and do not play hard and aggressively to accomplish that objective. ~ John Wooden

If they want to win right now, I'm all for it. That's all I said the whole time. If you want to wait five years, let me know. My legs aren't as young as they used to be. ~ Kobe Bryant

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

I don't just try to score. The challenge is elevating my teammates to be able to win a championship. ~ Kobe Bryant

For me, it always goes back to something I learned in basketball. There's winning and there's losing, and in life you have to know they both will happen. But what's never been acceptable to me is quitting. ~ Magic Johnson

In 1948, I began coaching basketball at UCLA. Each hour of practice we worked very hard. Each day we worked very hard. Each week we worked very hard. Each season we worked very hard. Four fourteen years we worked very hard and didn't win a national championship. However, a national championship was won in the fifteenth year. Another in the sixteenth. And eight more in the following ten years. ~ John Wooden

We win because we play together as a team. ~ John Havlicek

My goal is to win the next game one possession at a time. That's it. I don't have any other goals ~ Brad Stevens

Eddie Robinson is about one word: winning and losing. ~ Paul Collier

The only thing even in this world is the number of hours in a day. The difference in winning or losing is what you do with those hours. ~ Woody Hayes

If winning weren't important nobody would keep score. ~ Al McGuire

I don't want to shoot my mouth in my foot, but those are games we can win. ~ Sherman Douglas

Winning is more related to good defense than good offense ~ Jack Ramsay

You gotta win. That's all it takes. ~ Kevin Durant

The ideal way to win a championship is step by step. ~ Phil Jackson

I would tell players to relax and never think about what's at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you've lost your focus. ~ Michael Jordan

You have to make shots to win basketball games and we didn't do that. You also have to get back on defense, so it was a double-whammy. ~ Gregg Popovich

Can't win without talent, you know. ~ Al McGuire

They said you have to use your five best players but I found you win with the five who fit together the best. ~ Red Auerbach

Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, rebounding wins championships. ~ Pat Summitt

If I don't get five [titles], I won't be happy with myself as a basketball player. I don't know how you guys will feel about me. ~ Shaquille O'Neal

Bottom line, you're either a risk taker, or your not, and if you don't take risks, you'll never win big. ~ Geno Auriemma

Personally I just want to win a championship. ~ Allen Iverson

If you quit ONCE it becomes a habit.Never quit!!! ~ Michael Jordan

When players are used to winning, they put out a little more. Basketball 3rd winningest coach (regular season and playoffs) in NBA history; won 1,037 times in 20 years; ~ Red Auerbach

You aren't going to win championships unless you make layups and free throws. ~ Don Meyer

If we win, I'm happy. The rest of it is just stuff. ~ Tim Duncan

Generally speaking, individual performances don't win basketball games ~ John Wooden

I don't let individual statistics make me a focus or more of a focus. I just tried to come out and attack early and get a big lead. We were able to take it in overtime and win. ~ LeBron James

The only thing on my mind right now is trying to win the whole thing. ~ LeBron James

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

It feels good to come here and be a winning program. ~ Kevin Durant

Winning is like deodorant - it comes up and a lot of things don't stink. ~ Doc Rivers

I've given these guys the blueprint on how to win a premiership, now I just have to be patient until they're ready. ~ LeBron James

I don't think Michael had to retire for us to get the spotlight, because when you win, it commands attention. ~ Hakeem Olajuwon

You cant win unless you learn how to lose. ~ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The Bible never tells us what Jesus looked like, and in the earliest surviving paintings of him, he is sometimes depicted as short-haired, sometimes as beardless, with no authoritative version winning out over the others. Yet around 400 A.D., all of the other competing images were replaced by the long-haired, bearded Jesus we know today. ~ Ian Caldwell

Don't believe everything you hear - even in your own mind. ~ Daniel Amen

You can't have Rosie on The View and Elton John packing Mom and Pop in at Caesars Palace and gay people all over television, and then have these politicians run out there with a straight face and say that gay and lesbian relationships are a threat to the family. We are winning in the culture - which is why we'll ultimately win the political war. ~ Dan Savage

Love is winning the war without starting the war. (L'amour, c'est gagner la guerre - Sans commencer la guerre) ~ Charles De Leusse

Between Clive Owen winning at the Golden Globes and the British Academy announcing its nominations, of which Sideways received only one, I'm feeling pretty humbled these days. ~ Thomas Haden Church

But that's the beauty of life: time if yours to keep and to change. Just a few minutes can be sufficient to carve a new road, a new track. Just a few minutes, and the void is kept at bay. You will live forever with that new road inside of you, stretching away to a place suggested, barely, on the horizon. For the shortest time, shorter than the shortest second's breath, you get to stand up to infinity. But eventually, and always, infinity wins. ~ Lauren Oliver

Lose this battle so we can win the war. ~ Olivia

When you win an award from the Grammys, it means a lot 'cause it's voted on by 100% by the people. It's not like some old guy sitting at a desk picking. It's doesn't work like that. It's voted on by your peers in the music industry. ~ Paul Wall

Why shouldn't I milk it? We're an agricultural institution. ~ Jim Valvano

I learned it doesn't matter how you win. You play to your team's strength. ~ Tony Dungy

When you don't win I think you have to evaluate everybody. ~ David Wright

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. ~ Mike Krzyzewski

By making the surface highly crenellated and wiggly we can make the area enclosing a given volume larger and larger. This is a winning strategy that living systems have adapted to exploit. ~ Anonymous

History offers no evidence for the proposition that the assignment of women to military combat jobs is the way to win wars, improve combat readiness, or promote national security. ~ Phyllis Schlafly

I didn't want you to apply just because I'm going to be in New York. Or hell, even worse, not apply because I'm going to be there. I was going to tell you in person. And then the scout shows up at the game tonight, and what was I supposed to do? My mom is freaking out; you're freaking out." He throws his hands in the air in frustration. "I've totally fucked this up."
It hits me then, the truth of the situation. He made his decision about Columbia on his own, and he wanted me to be able to do the same. Of course.
Hell, if it hadn't been for the storm bringing us together like it did, I probably would have turned down NYU rather than risk going off to New York with him, and that's the truth.
I drop my gaze to the ground and take a deep breath, cursing myself for being such an idiot.
"No, you haven't," I say at last, raising my eyes to meet his confused ones.
"Haven't what?"
"Fucked it up." I take a tentative step toward him. "I get it now. God, Ryder. Why do you have to be so perfect?"
"Perfect? I've been in love with you for so long now, and I've never managed to get it right, not once."
I have to bite my lip to keep from grinning. "News flash--I think you've finally got it this time."
His smile makes my heart leap. "Do you have any idea what was going through my head when you first told me about NYU? I couldn't believe it. It was like…like a gift fell right into my lap. Like winning the lottery. All this time I thought going off to ~ Kristi Cook

I didn't come to play. I came to win. ~ Kamahl

I compare the pressure of a golf shot with making an extra point in basketball. The player starts from a full stop, and that rim doesn't move. ~ Harvey Penick

I never knew what Amazon was. I've never seen any of those series, even on cable. I've never seen The Sopranos, or Mad Men. I'm out every night and when I come home, I watch the end of the baseball or basketball game, and there's Charlie Rose and I go to sleep. ~ Woody Allen

I don't think it's any fun, even if you are one of the most respected authors in the world like Margaret Atwood, to keep being nominated and not win. ~ Kazuo Ishiguro

In this life, you have winners and losers. the more you win, the higher you go. ~ Daniel Nayeri

In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten then he who continues the attack wins. ~ Ulysses S. Grant

It's unfair because the people booing, I believe, wouldn't want to have their child booed. Fans don't understand our lives and what we go through. They don't look at us as humans. We love the fans because they support and love the game, but at the same time it hurts when they turn their back on us. ~ Allen Iverson

We don't need to win all the time. We should embrace losing. Losing weight, bad employees, disloyal friends...These aren't bad things @ all! ~ Assegid Habtewold

Those who are skilled in combat do not become angered, those who are skilled at winning do not become afraid. Thus the wise win before they fight, while the ignorant fight to win. ~ Sun Tzu

My interactions with Sorkin were agonisingly weird. He is by far the weirdest person I have ever met. I had dinner with him and a few hours before I got an e-mail from his assistant saying, 'Sean, this does not need to be a long conversation. Aaron is only going to use it to win your trust.' ~ Sean Parker

You can only win the 'war' with ideas, not with spending cuts ~ Klaus Kleinfeld

I don't ever want to grow up. I guess I'm like Peter Pan. Grown-ups have problems. I want to stay happy. ~ Shaquille O'Neal

Praise is well, compliment is well, but affection-that is the last and most precious reward that any man can win, whether by character or achievement. ~ Mark Twain

Jose DeLeon
on his career has seventy-three wins and one-hundred and five RBIs. ~ Ralph Kiner

It was probably not an appropriate term, but we support the war effort and believe we should be supporting our troops and our allies and be there with them doing everything necessary to win. ~ Stephen Harper

When the monster struck a blow, Conor felt the sting of it in his own fist. When the monster held Harry's arm behind his back, Conor had felt Harry's muscles resisting.
Resisting, but not winning.
Because how could a boy beat a monster? ~ Patrick Ness

I take it personal when people don't double me. It's against my religion not to double me. It upsets me. It makes me think they're saying to themselves I don't have it anymore. ~ Shaquille O'Neal

Are you any relation to your brother Marv? ~ Leon Wood

It's better to let God fight your battles. Besides, He has something greater for you than meaningless issues & people. #WINNING ~ LaNina King

I think your goal is to win every single game you play ... I'm not a guy that just puts a number on it and says we're going to do this, or makes a bravado statement like, "We're going to the playoffs and I guarantee it." I'm not a guy that talks about what we're going to do. I'm just, "Let's do it." And what it is is, we need to work extremely hard. ~ Chip Kelly