Top 135 Best Basketball Quotes & Sayings 2023

Basketball Quotes

To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

Nervous means you want to play. Scared means you don’t want to play.

All at once, I couldn’t figure out why I was methodically tossing a spherical object through a toroidal object. It seemed like the stupidest thing I could possibly be doing.

They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds.

Everyone has the fire, but the champions know when to ignite the spark.

I am more than just a Serious basketball fan. I am a life-long Addict. I was addicted from birth, in fact, because I was born in Kentucky.

We learn to make a shell for ourselves when we are young and then spend the rest of our lives hoping for someone to reach inside and touch us. Just touch us—anything more than that would be too much for us to bear.

Sometimes a player’s greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.

One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.

 Inspirational Basketball Quotes

The invention of basketball was not an accident. It was developed to meet a need. Those boys simply would not play ‘Drop the Handkerchief.’

— James Naismith

Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.

— Magic Johnson

There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don’t believe there is only one greatest player either.

— Michael Jordan

Everything negative — pressure, challenges — are all an opportunity for me to rise.

— Kobe Bryant

Discipline is doing what has to be done, when it has to be done, as well as it can be done, and doing it that way all the time

– Bob Knight

Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

— Michael Jordan

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

Once you are labeled the best you want to stay up there, and you can’t do it by loafing around. If I don’t keep changing, I’m history.

– Larry Bird

Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute

– Bill Russell

Motivational Basketball Quotes

Basketball is a lifelong game. You continue to learn from the game day in and day out, and all along the way, you get better.

— Scottie Pippen

There is a lot of basketball beyond our control, but a player should never let anyone try harder than he does

– Dean Smith

When I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it’s time for me to move away from the game.

— Michael Jordan

I really get motivated when I have doubters.

— Shaquille O’Neal

You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.

– Jerry West

Team work is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one.

— Mike Krzyzewski

If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!

— Charles Barkley

When you’re not practicing, someone else is getting better.

— Allen Iverson

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

— Larry Bird

Discover your gift, develop your gift, and then give it away every day.  – Don Meyer

Funny Basketball Quotes

Winning is like deodorant – it comes up and a lot of things don’t stink.

Doc Rivers

I haven’t been able to slam-dunk the basketball for the past five years. Or, for the thirty-eight years before that, either.

Dave Barry

There are really only two plays: Romeo and Juliet, and put the darn ball in the basket.

Abe Lemmons

Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.

Al McGuire

“The Gold Standard”

I hate it. It looks like a stickup at 7-Eleven. Five guys standing there with their hands in the air.

Norm Sloan

We’re shooting 100 percent – 60 percent from the field and 40 percent from the free-throw line.

Norm Stewart

When I dunk, I put something on it. I want the ball to hit the floor before I do.

Darryl Dawkins

The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy.

Jerry Tarkanian

When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team.

George Raveling

Fans never fall asleep at our games, because they’re afraid they might get hit by a pass.

George Raveling

 Famous Basketball Quotes

People ask me if I could fly, I said, “yeah…. for a little while. – Michael Jordan

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. – Michael Jordan

Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen. – Michael Jordan

A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals. – Larry Bird.

When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win. – Ed Macauley

You can’t win if you don’t play as a unit. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

A team will always appreciate a great individual if he’s willing to sacrifice for the group. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

All kids need is a little help, a little hope and somebody who believes in them. -Magic Johnson

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. – John Wooden

Never underestimate the heart of a champion. – Rudy Tomjanovich

Basketball Quotes And Sayings

Basketball doesn’t build character it reveals it.

Author Unknown

Basketball is like photography, if you don’t focus, all you have is the negative.

Dan Frisby

Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.

Red Auerbach

Basketball is a full court game, so every drill must be done full court.

Bobby Knight

Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat.

Dean Smith

Basketball isn’t a game; It’s an art form. You master the fundamentals so you can forget ’em, so you can improvise and just concentrate on what really matters: getting buckets.

Kyrie Irving

Basketball is a simple game. Your goal is penetration, get the ball close to the basket, and there are three ways to do that. Pass, dribble and offensive rebound.

Phil Jackson

Basketball is the second most exciting indoor sport , and the other one shouldn’t have spectators.

Dick Vertlieb

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.

Mike Krzyzewski

Basketball is a game that gives you every chance to be great, and puts every pressure on you to prove that you haven’t got what it takes. It never takes away the chance, and it never eases up on the pressure.

Bob Sundvold

Basketball Quotes About Life

“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”

Kevin Durant

“No matter how hard you work at your craft and no matter how successful you become, people just have to find something negative to hang on you. […] The bar is always being raised as you go. The rules are always being rewritten. There’s aggravation that comes with that, but that’s part of what makes triumph so sweet.”

Charles Barkley

“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.”

Larry Bird

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen.”

Michael Jordan

“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. you are what you repeatedly do.”

Shaquille O’Neal

“I gave everything I had to basketball. The passion is still there, but the desire to play is not. It was a great ride.”

Allen Iverson

“There’s a great quote by Julius Irving that went, ‘Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like doing them.’„

David Halberstam

“Nothing is given. Everything is earned.”

LeBron James

“What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.”

Dean Smith

“Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.”

Bill Russell