32 Famous Basketball Quotes

NBA All-Star Game 2016

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Some say it is just another ball game. However, basketball enthusiasts swear that the game is the purpose of life. While both views are extreme, you cannot help being intrigued by the genuine fanaticism of the fans. Read these famous basketball quotes. Maybe, in these famous basketball quotes, you will find the purpose of life. You can read inspirational basketball quotes to take you forward in the game of life.

Jason Kidd

A lot of late nights in the gym, a lot of early mornings, especially when your friends are going out, you're going to the gym, those are the sacrifices that you have to make if you want to be an NBA basketball player.

Magic Johnson

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

Elgin Baylor

Coaching is easy. Winning is the hard part.

Michael Jordan

Even when I'm old and grey, I won't be able to play it, but I'll still love the game.
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.
Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
The game is my wife. It demands loyalty and responsibility, and it gives me back fulfillment and peace.
I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
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.

Wilt Chamberlain

Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.

Kobe Bryant

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

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.
I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying.
I think someone should explain to the child that it's ok to make mistakes. That's how we learn. When we compete, we make mistakes.
I've had enough success for two lifetimes, my success is talent put together with hard work and luck.

Dennis Rodman

I couldn't care less if the guy I'm guarding has HIV. I'm going to slam him anyway.

Julius Erving

I think that my God-given physical attributes, big hands, and big feet, the way that I'm built, proportion-wise, just made basketball the most inviting sport for me to play.
If you don't do what's best for your body, you're the one who comes up on the short end.

Larry Bird

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.
Push yourself again and again. Don't give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.
I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.
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.

James Naismith

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

Jerry West

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

Charles Barkley

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

Elgin Baylor

If you look up the definition of greatness in the dictionary, it will say Michael Jordan.

Isiah Thomas

If you want consistency, then you perform. This is a performance job. You get paid to perform. Your money is guaranteed, but your minutes are not.
My greatest gift that I have in life is basketball.

Pete Maravich

Love never fails. Character never quits. And with patience and persistence, dreams do come true.

Shaquille O'Neal

Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God's way to say nobody's perfect.

Kevin Johnson

No matter what you say, you can have as many receivers as you want; there are enough balls to go around.
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Khurana, Simran. "32 Famous Basketball Quotes." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/know-your-favorite-basketball-players-2832291. Khurana, Simran. (2023, April 5). 32 Famous Basketball Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/know-your-favorite-basketball-players-2832291 Khurana, Simran. "32 Famous Basketball Quotes." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/know-your-favorite-basketball-players-2832291 (accessed March 28, 2024).