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My advice to teens is to try and do something that scares you every day because it's the only way you can test how far you can really go. Whether it's going out and auditioning for the play or trying out for the basketball team, you have to explore your boundaries and see where you really want to go and the only way you can do that is to break out of your shell.
Sep 10, 2025
Nobody's cooler than my two girls. They just seem to take whatever comes with, you know - happiness and - steadiness. And they're loving school. They're making friends... and - they've already joined some clubs. And Sasha, you know - I think maybe to endear - myself to her, she - she decided she wanted to join a basketball team. So - what more could I want?
Winning teams at the NBA level, the college level, and the high school level all play team basketball. Championship teams have five players on the same page at all times.
In sixth grade, my basketball team made it to the league championships. In double overtime, with three seconds left, I rebounded the ball and passed it - to the wrong team! They scored at the buzzer and we lost the game. To this day, I still have nightmares!
Basketball teams, after the perfunctory lay-up drill, fall into the crowded isolation and personal style of 10 city kids shooting at the same basket or playing one-on-one.
College coaches measure success in championships. High School coaches measure success to titles. Youth coaches measure success in smiles.
The great thing about [Michael] Jordan was that he made them want it just like he wanted it. And a lot of times like a lot of the basketball players, not to be getting on basketball, but, with a lot of the basketball players you might have one superstar on the team, and they're not willing to play up to par with the way he is, so they don't make it. But then you have some celebrities on the basketball team, and they don't know how to get along with each other!
It doesn't matter who scores the points, it's who can get the ball to the scorer.
Great players and great teams want to be driven. They want to be pushed to the edge. They don't want to be cheated. Ordinary players and average teams want it to be easy
Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.
They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds.
I continually stress to my players that all I expect from them at practice and in the games is their maximum effort.
Players who are late say that their time is more important than the team.
Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you.
Play and practice like you are trying to make the team.
If you get tough mentally, you can get tough physically and overcome fatigue.
Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
All really successful coaches have a system.
The better conditioned team will probably win in the long run.
Recognize and reward players who put the team first, not just the gifted ones.
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust em.
It's what you get from games you lose that is extremely important.
In all the research you do as a coach, studying other coaches and championship-type situations, you find that all those teams combined talent with great defense. You've got to stop other teams to win.
The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy.
Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.
What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.
The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.
Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers.
Nobody's more important than the team.
You don't play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.
The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.
In his sophomore year Wilbanks tried out for the high school basketball team and made it. On the first day of practice his coach had him play one-on-one while the team observed. When he missed an easy shot, he became angry and stomped and whined. The coach walked over to him and said, "You pull a stunt like that again and you'll never play for my team." For the next three years he never lost control again. Years later, as he reflected back on this incident, he realized that the coach had taught him a life-changing principle that day: anger can be controlled.
The 1992 US Olympic basketball team is the best sports team ever, the equivalent of rounding up the greatest American writers of the last century or so and watching them collaborate: 'OK, Twain, you do the dialogue and hand off to Faulkner. He'll do the interior monologue. Hemingway will edit - no, don't make that face, you know you overwrite. And be nice to Cheever. He's young, but he's got a good ear. Wharton and Cather can't play - they're girls.'
I've always felt that, you know, the Almighty has a lot of things to do other than help my basketball team.
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
Damian Lillard is having a better year than Chris Paul. Lillard got snubbed when he was left off of the USA Men’s Basketball team, and now the All-Star team.
I was in the right place at the right time.
It is foolish to expect a young man to follow your advice and to ignore your example.
Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.
Simplify the game as much as possible. When you add, you must subtract.
Always acknowledge hustle plays in practice.
It is not the critic who counts...The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
The coach should be the absolute boss, but he still should maintain an open mind.
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
Your ability to communicate to your young people will determine your success.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.