Famous Quotes & Sayings

Pat Riley

It's what you get from games you lose that is extremely important.

Pat Riley

When you face a fork in the road, step on the exhilarator!

Pat Riley

The true warrior understands and seizes that moment by giving an effort so intense and so intuitive that it could only be called one from the heart.

Pat Riley

You have to defeat a great players aura more than his game.

Pat Riley

No rebounds - no rings.

Pat Riley

A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.

Pat Riley

Great effort springs naturally from great attitude.

Pat Riley

You have no choices about how you lose, but you do have a choice about how you come back and prepare to win again.

Pat Riley

Giving yourself permission to lose guarantees a loss.

Pat Riley

There's no such thing as coulda, shoulda, or woulda. If you shoulda and coulda, you woulda done it.

Pat Riley

Never be ready to play yesterday. Being ready to play today is what's important

Pat Riley

Each Warrior wants to leave the mark of his will, his signature, on important acts he touches. This is not the voice of ego but of the human spirit, rising up and declaring that it has something to contribute to the solution of the hardest problems, no matter how vexing!

Pat Riley

There are only two options regarding commitment; you’re either in or you’re out.

Phil Jackson

Basketball, unlike football with its prescribed routes, is an improvisational game, similar to jazz. If someone drops a note, someone else must step into the vacuum and drive the beat that sustains the team.

Phil Jackson

I probably would have no capability of absorbing a 60-defeat season as a coach. It would be a foreign experience. My whole career, even as a player, has been on winning basketball clubs and it just seems to have been a part of the make-up of what’s been given me. That’s what I’ve been given and that’s what I’ve had to deal with. Some people can make fun of it or some people can have a good time with it, or some people can resent it. It’s just what it is.

Phil Jackson

The ideal way to win a championship is step by step.

Phil Jackson

I gave it my body and mind, but I have kept my soul.

Phil Jackson

The best part of basketball, for those people on the inside, is the bus going to the airport after you've won a game on an opponent's floor. It's been a very tough battle. And preferably, in the playoffs. And that feeling that you have, together as a group, having gone to an opponent's floor and won a very good victory, is as about as high as you can get.

Phil Jackson

Basketball is a sport that involves the subtle interweaving of players at full speed to the point where they are thinking and moving as one.

Phil Jackson

If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball.

Phil Jackson

My philosophy is that you can't motivate players with speeches, you have motivated players that you draft. That's where they come in and those are the guys that are competitive. You cannot teach competitiveness.

Phil Jackson

Basketball is sharing.

Phil Jackson

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

Love is the force that ignites the spirit and binds teams together.

Phil Jackson

I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you're doing. You have to be a salesman and you have to get your players, particularly your leaders, to believe in what you're trying to accomplish on the basketball floor.

Phil Jackson

The greatness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive. The weakness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive

Phil Jackson

An acrobatic dunk will make it onto Sports Center. A simple, unspectacular bounce pass in the rhythm of the offense will not. System basketball has been replaced by players who want to be the system.

Phil Jackson

Your problems never cease, they just change.

Phil Jackson

Approach the game with no preset agendas and you'll probably come away surprised at your overall efforts.

Phil Jackson

In basketball - as in life - true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way.

Phil Jackson

Basketball is a great mystery. You can do everything right. You can have the perfect mix of talent and the best system of offense in the game. You can devise a foolproof defensive strategy and prepare your players for every possible eventuality. But if the players don’t have a sense of oneness as a group, your efforts won’t pay off. And the bond that unites a team can be so fragile, so elusive.

Phil Jackson

Once you've done the mental work, there comes a point you have to throw yourself into the action and put your heart on the line. That means not only being brave, but being compassionate towards yourself, your teammates and your opponents.

Phil Jackson

My dad always had this little sign on his desk: 'The bigger your head is, the easier your shoes are to fill'. He really drilled that in.