200 Inspirational Basketball Quotes for Self Motivation

| March 19, 2017 | Best Inspirational Quotes | No Comments

Looking for some motivation for your basketball game or life? Here is our collection of inspirational basketball quotes, sayings (with images and pictures)  gathered from your favorite coaches and professional players.

Inspirational Basketball Quotes are great for encouraging and inspiring players, coaches, and athletes. These quotes always work in a positive way and give you an adrenaline rush to work harder for your goals.

Best Basketball Quotes and Sayings

    1. “Nothing is given. Everything is earned.”- LeBron James
    2. “If you quit ONCE it becomes a habit. Never quit!”- Michael Jordan
    3. “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.”- Bill Russell
    4. “If every basketball player worked as hard as I did, I’d be out of a job.”- Steve Nash
    5. “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.”- Michael Jordan
    6. “But that’s the thing about basketball: you don’t play games on paper.”- Bill Simmons
    7. “Good players want to be coached… Great players want to be told the truth.”- Doc Rivers
    8. “How good can we expect to be if our best player is not our best teammate.”- Brad Stevens
    9. “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”- John Wooden
    10. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”- Michael Jordan
    11. “What do you do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.”- Dean Smith
    12. “Recognize and reward players who put the team first, not just the gifted ones.”- Don Meyer
    13. “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”- Michael Jordan
    14. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”- Michael Jordan
    15. “Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”- Shaquille O’Neal
    16. “Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God’s way of saying nobody’s perfect.”- Shaquille O’Neal
    17. “It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.”- John Wooden
    18. “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.”- Tim Duncan
    19. “It takes three things to be a ‘special’ player: talent, character, and competitive fire.”- Kevin Eastman
    20. “Sometimes a player’s greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.”- Scottie Pippen
    21. “Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat.”- Dean Smith
    22. “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”- Phil Jackson
    23. “The key is not the ‘will to win’… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”- Bob Knight
    24. “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
    25. “Remember that basketball is a game of habits. If you make the other guy deviate from his habits, you’ve got him.”- Bill Russell
    26. “You don’t need great skill to be a tough rebounder; being a rebounder is all about effort, determination, and physicality.”- Mike Malone
    27. “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
    28. “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
    29. “Leadership is diving for a loose ball. It’s about being able to take it as well as dish it out. That’s the only way your going to get respect from other players”- Larry Bird
    30. “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

Girl Basketball Quotes Inspirational 

    1. “Hoop like a GIRL!”
    2. “Daddy’s little angel athlete.”
    3. “She believed she could and so she did.”
    4. “Basketball : Boys invented it, Girls perfected it.”
    5. “Yes I do play basketball like a GIRL try to keep up.”
    6. “Forget the glass slippers, the princess wears cleats.”
    7. “I was too cute to be a cheerleader so I play basketball.”
    8. “Yeah I play like a girl. Some things are better that way.”
    9. “Play the game with a smile.”- Earl “The Pearl” Monroe
    10. “Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.”- James Naismith
    11. “Forget about it princess ’cause not even Cinderella is getting to this ball.”
    12. “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” – Kevin Durant
    13. “I want you to come watch my game, not the uniforms.” – Brittney Griner
    14. “Sometimes a player’s greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.”- Scottie Pippen
    15. “Teams that play together beat those with superior players who play more as individuals.”- Jack Ramsay
    16. “Ask not what your teammates can do for you…ask what you can do for your teammates.” – Magic Johnson
    17. “The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.”- Bill Russell
    18. “Your team becomes your family, the ball becomes your best friend, the field becomes your home, the game becomes your life.”
    19. “Some people believe you win with your five best players, but I found out that you win with the five who fit together best.” – Red Auerbach
    20. “I’m tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.”- Shaquille O’Neal
    21. “I learned at a young age to dribble with both hands, and that allows me to be more creative when I go against bigger and stronger opponents.”- Steve Nash
    22. “I’d rather be called strong than pretty, I’d rather be called muscular than a skinny, I’d rather be called athletic than beautiful, I’d rather be called a basketball player than a girl.”
    23. “I don’t wear a crown, I wear a head band. I don’t wear heels, I wear sneakers. I don’t dance on a dance floor, I run on a basketball court. I’m not a princess, I’m a basketball beast.”
    24. “Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become, the coaches who pushed you and the hours of practice, is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back…play for her tonight.”
    25. “I’m the queen of this basket  court. Think you’re better than me? That’s cute. All I need is a ball and a hoop and I’ll be set for life. If at first you don’t succeed, it’s because of me. I’m the GIRL your coach warned you about. Basketball is my favorite season.”

Short Basketball Quotes to Motivate You

    1. “I’m chasing perfection.”- Kobe Bryant”
    2. “Basketball is basketball.”- Oscar Robertson
    3. “Every day you teach attitude.”– Don Meyer
    4. “The key to success is failure.”- Michael Jordan
    5. “To be a team, you must be a family.”– Don Meyer
    6. “The team is an extension of the coach.”– Don Meyer
    7. “Don’t mistake activity with achievement.”- John Wooden
    8. “I’ve never lost a game I just ran out of time.”- Michael Jordan
    9. “Discipline and demand without being demeaning.”– Don Meyer
    10. “Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.”- Michael Jordan
    11. “Some times your best effort just isn’t good enough.”- LeBron James
    12. “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”- Michael Jordan
    13. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” –John Wooden
    14. “When the legs go, the heart and the head follow quickly behind.”– Don Meyer
    15. “There’s only one thing we can control, and that is how hard we play.”- Don Meyer
    16. “If every basketball player worked as hard as I did, I’d be out of a job.”- Steve Nash
    17. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”- Michael Jordan
    18. “The day I stopped worrying about stats is the day I started winning.”- Shaquille O’Neal
    19. “What to do with a mistake – recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.”- Dean Smith
    20. “Simplify the game as much as possible. When you add, you must subtract.”– Don Meyer
    21. “The key to any game is to use your strengths and hide your weaknesses.”- Paul Westphal
    22. “Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.”- Larry Bird
    23. “Recognize and reward players who put the team first, not just the gifted ones.”– Don Meyer
    24. “In order to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them.”- Bob Knight
    25. “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.”- Jerry West
    26. “Confidence is a lot of this game or any game. If you don’t think you can, you won’t.”- Jerry West
    27. “It is foolish to expect a young man to follow your advice and to ignore your example.”– Don Meyer
    28. “I’m playing; I’m here. I’m going to fight until they tell me they don’t want me anymore.”- Steve Nash
    29. “Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat.”- Dean Smith
    30. “The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.”- Bill Russell

Basket Quotes on Teamwork and Self-Motivation

  1. “Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.”- Michael Jordan
  2. “Teamwork doesn’t come naturally. It must be taught.”- Pat Summitt
  3. “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success.”- Babe Ruth
  4. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”- Helen Keller
  5. “Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute.”- Bill Russell
  6. “The better conditioned team will probably win in the long run.”– John Wooden
  7. “The secret of winning is working more as a team, less as individuals.”- Knute Rockne
  8. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”- Michael Jordan
  9. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”- Michael Jordan
  10. “If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it.”- Michael Jordan
  11. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”- Michael Jordan
  12. “Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat.”- Dean Smith
  13. “Teams that play together beat those with superior players who play more as individuals.”- Jack Ramsay
  14. “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”- Henry Ford
  15. “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.”- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  16. “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”- Phil Jackson
  17. “People have been known to achieve more as a result of working with others than against them.”- Allan Fromme
  18. “Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.”- Phil Jackson
  19. “I continually stress to my players that all I expect from them at practice and in the games is their maximum effort” – John Wooden
  20. “You’d like to see your team reasonably happy, but that’s not your job. Gain their respect and get them to accept their roles”– John Wooden
  21. “The best teams have chemistry. They communicate with each other and they sacrifice personal glory for a common goal.”- Dave DeBusschere
  22. “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”- Vince Lombardi
  23. “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
  24. “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
  25. “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”- Andrew Carnegie

Famous Michael Jordan Basketball Quotes

    1. “Success doesn’t stop when you get there.” – Michael Jordan
    2. “Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan
    3. “Heart is what separates the good from the great.” – Michael Jordan
    4. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan
    5. “Being afraid on the court means you’re not confident of your skills.” – Michael Jordan
    6. “Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.” – Michael Jordan
    7. “I’m not out there sweating for 3 hrs just to find out what it’s like to sweat.” – Michael Jordan
    8. “Accept a loss as a learning experience, and never point fingers at your teammates.” – Michael Jordan
    9. “If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them.” – Michael Jordan
    10. “Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.” – Michael Jordan
    11. “I’m a firm believer in goal setting. Step by step. I can’t see any other way of accomplishing anything.”– Michael Jordan
    12. “I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.” – Michael Jordan
    13. “There have been times when I have failed. But there have never been times when I thought I would fail.” – Michael Jordan
    14. “If it turns out that my best wasn’t good enough, at least I wont look back and say that I was afraid to try.” – Michael Jordan
    15. “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

 

Greatest John Calipari Quotes about Basketball

    1. “A successful person never loses…they either win or learn!”- John Calipari
    2. “You’ve gotta learn to love the grind. Because life is the grind.”- John Calipari
    3. “What do you do to help us win when you’re not scoring baskets?”- John Calipari
    4. “What do you do to help us win when you’re not scoring baskets?”- John Calipari
    5. “You can be the seventh scorer or the first scorer, just be your best version.”- John Calipari
    6. “What type of teammates do you want to play with? Be that teammate yourself.”- John Calipari
    7. “I’m a teacher, a motivator. That’s what I do. And I’m a protector on top of that.”- John Calipari
    8. “You have to lose yourself in the team and you have to lose yourself in the game.”- John Calipari
    9. “I need people who look at adversity as a challenge and failure as a learning opportunity.”- John Calipari
    10. “I’m playing the guys who are going to fight. If you’re not into this, I’m going to someone else.”- John Calipari
    11. “If I walk in a home and a kid disrespects a woman, his mother or grandmother, then I am out… I wont recruit them.”- John Calipari
    12. “You understand, you do not invent stuff on this team. Guys that invent stuff will not play for me. Make the easy play.”- John Calipari
    13. “Practice gotta be harder than the games and it never is unless you want it to be as a player. The coach can’t drive that.”- John Calipari
    14. “It’s not just about working hard, it’s about working together. You have to care more about the team than you do about yourself.”- John Calipari
    15. “When you’re trying to build or change a culture, what do you do? I always say to take players from state championship teams because they only know one thing — winning.”- John Calipari

Inspiring Basketball Quotes by Coach Jim Valvano

    1. “All really successful coaches have a system.”- Jim Valvano
    2. “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day.”- Jim Valvano
    3. “Be a dreamer. If you don’t know how to dream, you’re dead.”- Jim Valvano
    4. “Other people go to the office. I get to coach. I know I’ve been blessed.”- Jim Valvano
    5. “Other people go to the office. I get to coach. I know I’ve been blessed.”- Jim Valvano
    6. “Never give up. Failure and rejection are just the first steps to succeeding.”- Jim Valvano
    7. “There are 86,400 seconds in a day. It’s up to you to decide what to do with them.”- Jim Valvano
    8. “A person really doesn’t become whole, until he becomes a part of something that’s bigger than himself.”- Jim Valvano
    9. “My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”- Jim Valvano
    10. “To go from where you are to where you want to be: you have to have a dream, a goal, and you have to be willing to work for it.”- Jim Valvano
    11. “Nothing has ever been accomplished in any walk of life without enthusiasm, without motivation, and without perseverance.”- Jim Valvano
    12. “Life changes when you least expect it to. The future is uncertain. So, seize this day, seize this moment, and make the most of it.”- Jim Valvano
    13. “Coaches are basically schizophrenic. We are pessimistic to the press and among fellow coaches, but to our team, we are the eternal optimists.”- Jim Valvano
    14. “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”- Jim Valvano
    15. “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.”- Jim Valvano

John Wooden Basketball Quotes

    1. “Confidence comes from being prepared.”- John Wooden
    2. “When the legs go, the heart soon follows.”- John Wooden
    3. “Young men need more models, not critics.”- John Wooden
    4. “Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you.”- John Wooden
    5. “The better-conditioned team will probably win in the long run.”- John Wooden
    6. “1. Be on time. 2. Never criticize a teammate. 3. Never use profanity.”- John Wooden
    7. “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”- John Wooden
    8. “A coach must never forget that he is a leader and not merely a person with authority.”- John Wooden
    9. “What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player.”- John Wooden
    10. “You discipline those under your supervision to correct, to help, and to improve. Not to punish.”- John Wooden
    11. “My philosophy of defense is to keep the pressure on an opponent until you get to his emotions.”- John Wooden
    12. “I do not judge success based on championships; rather, I judge it on how close we came to realizing our potential.”- John Wooden
    13. “The more concerned we become over the things we can’t control, the less we will do with the things we can control.”- John Wooden
    14. “It’s important to keep trying to do what you think is right no matter how hard it is or how often you fail. Never stop trying.”- John Wooden
    15. “The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move.”- John Wooden

Inspirational Basketball Quotes by Kobe Bryant

  1. “If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.” – Kobe Bryant
  2. “The moment you give up, is the moment you let someone else win.” – Kobe Bryant
  3. “Winning takes precedence over all. There’s no gray area. No almosts.” – Kobe Bryant
  4. “Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success.” – Kobe Bryant
  5. “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.” – Kobe Bryant
  6. “I realized that intimidation didn’t really exist if you’re in the right frame of mind.” – Kobe Bryant
  7. “We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.” – Kobe Bryant
  8. “A lot of leaders fail because they don’t have the bravery to touch that nerve or strike that chord.” – Kobe Bryant
  9. “This is the moment I accept the most challenging times will always be behind me and in front of me.” – Kobe Bryant
  10. “You always have to be on edge. You always have to take every practice, every game, like it is your last.” – Kobe Bryant
  11. “The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great at whatever they want to do.” – Kobe Bryant
  12. “It’s not about the number of hours you practice, it’s about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice.” – Kobe Bryant
  13. “Use your success, wealth and influence to put them in the best position to realize their own dreams and find their true purpose.” – Kobe Bryant
  14. “I’m extremely willful to win, and I respond to challenges. It’s not a challenge to me to win the scoring title, because I know I can.” – Kobe Bryant
  15. “I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.” – Kobe Bryant

Great Basketball Quotes by Pat Summit

    1. “Teamwork doesn’t come naturally. It must be taught.” – Pat Summitt
    2. “Success is a project that’s always under construction.”- Pat Summitt
    3. “Losing strengthens you. It reveals your weaknesses so you can fix them.”- Pat Summitt
    4. “Teamwork is what makes common people capable of uncommon results.”- Pat Summitt
    5. “Discipline is the only sure way I know to convince people to believe in themselves.” – Pat Summitt
    6. “Sometimes you learn more from losing than winning. Losing forces you to reexamine.” – Pat Summitt
    7. “We communicate all the time, even when we don’t realize it. Be aware of body language.” – Pat Summitt
    8. “You can’t always be the most talented person in the room. But you can be the most competitive.” – Pat Summitt.
    9. “Confidence is what happens when you’ve done the hard work that entitles you to succeed.” – Pat Summitt
    10. “Admit to and make yourself accountable for mistakes. How can you improve if you’re never wrong?” – Pat Summitt
    11. “Attitude is a choice. What you think you can do, whether positive or negative, confident or scared, will most likely happen.”- Pat Summitt
    12. “I want to continue to do is to help these young women be successful. You don’t just say goodbye at the end of their playing careers and end it there.” – Pat Summitt
    13. “The greatest strength any human being an have is to recognize his or her own weaknesses. When you identify your weaknesses, you can begin to remedy them – or at least figure out how to work around them.”- Pat Summitt
    14. “The absolute heart of loyalty is to value those people who tell you the truth, not just those people who tell you what you want to hear. In fact, you should value them most. Because they have paid you the compliment of leveling with you and assuming you can handle it.” – Pat Summitt

Inspirational Basketball Quotes Lebron James

    1. “I like criticism. It makes you strong.”- LeBron James
    2. “I make impact plays. I make game-changing plays.”- LeBron James
    3. “I treated it like every day was my last day with a basketball.”- LeBron James.
    4. “I think, team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed.”- LeBron James
    5. “You know, God gave me a gift to do other things besides play the game of basketball.”- LeBron James
    6. “When you have that respect from your teammates, it makes it a lot more comfortable.”- LeBron James
    7. “Every night on the court I give my all, and if I’m not giving 100 percent, I criticize myself.”- LeBron James
    8. “Your teammates give you the confidence. They give me the confidence all year, all postseason.”- LeBron James
    9. “I love seeing my teammates succeed. That’s what I get more excited about than anything.” – LeBron James
    10. “But sports carried me away from being in a gang, or being associated with drugs. Sports was my way out.”- LeBron James
    11. “I don’t know how tall I am or how much I weigh. Because I don’t want anybody to know my identity. I’m like a superhero. Call me Basketball Man.”- LeBron James
    12. “You know, when I have a bad game, it continues to humble me and know that, you know, you still have work to do and you still have a lot of people to impress.”- LeBron James
    13. “I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There’s always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them.”- LeBron James
    14. “Basketball is my passion, I love it. But my family and friends mean everything to me. That’s what’s important. I need my phone so I can keep in contact with them at all times.”- LeBron James
    15. “Once you get on the playing field it’s not about whether you’re liked or not liked. All that matters is to play at a high level and do whatever it takes to help your team win. That’s what it’s about.”- LeBron James

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Ananya Bhatt

I am Ananya, a professional speaker and I love motivating people and inspiring them to pursue their dreams. Sharing quotes, proverbs, and sayings of great authors to touch people's lives to make it better.

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