Navigation

Powerful Basketball Sayings and Quotes

Basketball Sayings and Quotes.

There have been many inspiring, motivating, stupid, and humorous quotes within the basketball world over the years.

We’ve decided to lay down a few of these basketball quotes and sayings here so you can find them easily. Enjoy funny basketball quotes. Enjoy stupid basketball quotes. Enjoy great basketball quotes that inspire and motivate.

Enjoy them all today and bookmark this page for further use. Additionally, don’t forget to visit our Great Basketball Quotes page for links to hundreds more basketball sayings and quotes.

Now, on to the basketball sayings and quotes!

Basketball Sayings and Quotes (1-5)

    • “If I weren’t earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.” – Charles Barkley

 

  • “When I dunk, I put something on it. I want the ball to hit the floor before I do.” – Philadelphia 76ers center Darryl Dawkins

 

 

  • “Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.” – Wilt Chamberlain

 

 

  • “Many athletes have tremendous God-given gifts, but they don’t focus on the development of those gifts. Who are these individuals? You’ve never heard of them– and you never will. It’s true in sports and it’s true everywhere in life. Hard work is the difference. Very hard work.” – John Wooden

 

 

  • “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

 

Basketball Sayings and Quotes (6-10)

    • “If my primary purpose here at Indiana is to go out and win ballgames, I can probably do that as well as anybody can. I would just cheat, get some money from alot of people around Indianapolis who want to run the operation that way, and just go out and get the best basketball players I can. Then we’d beat everybody.” – Bobby Knight

 

  • “Those guys today don’t like to bang. It’s something you had to be good starting out doing. I started out as a football player. I liked to inflict pain. In basketball, it was the same thing.” – Shaquille O’Neal

 

 

  • “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

 

 

  • “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” – John Wooden

 

 

  • “I can’t coach, but it’s ok, it’s my players fault, they’re just not producing. I can’t get on the court for them, they have to get it done, there’s nothing that I can do for them. Coaching is done in practice. Plays just don’t matter when it comes to game time if your players cannot complete them and I can ot draw them up. Why should a team trust in me when I cannot coach?” – John Swickrath

 

Basketball Sayings and Quotes (11-15)

    • “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

 

  • “Shout praise and whisper criticism.” – Don Meyer

 

 

  • “I keep both eyes on my man. The basket hasn’t moved on me yet.” – Julius Erving

 

 

  • “Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.” – James Naismith

 

 

  • “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.” – Ted Solotaroff

 

Basketball Sayings and Quotes (16-20)

    • “If the NBA were on channel 5 and a bunch of frogs making love was on channel 4, I’d watch the frogs even if they were coming in fuzzy.” – Bobby Knight

 

  • “I knew I was dog meat. Luckily, I’m the high-priced dog meat that everybody wants. I’m the good-quality dog meat. I’m the Alpo of the NBA.” – Shaquille O’Neal

 

 

  • “The rule was ‘No autopsy, no foul’.” – Stewart Granger, on childhood pickup games

 

 

  • “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.” – Tim Duncan

 

 

  • “I look at the NBA as a football game without the helmet.” – Tom Tolbert

 

Basketball Sayings and Quotes: Bonus

Hall of Fame Coach Pete Newell’s basketball sayings and quotes list regarding success on the court:

  • Get better shots than your opponent and get more of those better shots.
  • Look to run every possession.
  • Handle the ball with sureness.
  • Be hard to guard. Help each other get open.
  • Get fouled. Make more than your opponent attempts.
  • Offensive board coverage.
  • Transition and talk; defensive fast break.
  • Know who you are guarding, his number, & his game.
  • Ball Pressure; early help and quick recovery. Ubiquitous.
  • Shut down a scorer in the post; “No Threes to a Three”.
  • Shot pressure; change or alter.
  • Smart fouls only.
  • B.O.P.C.R.O. – Block out, Pursue, Chin, Rebound, Outlet