quotations about basketball
Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat. Passing, screening, cutting, and movement away from the ball: The game can be almost balletic in its grace and simplicity.
DEAN SMITH
The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching
At any point during practice, call a timeout. Huddle the players and give them 4 or 5 specific instructions. Then send them back on the court. Wait 15 seconds and then ask them to write down the 4 or 5 things you asked them to do. It is scary how little they will recall.
BOB KNIGHT
"33 Basketball Coaching Points from Bob Knight", The Coaching Toolbox
I was all about resurrecting the lost art of the midrange jumper, but then one day I was shooting free throws--just standing at the foul line at the North Central gym shooting from a rack of balls. All at once, I couldn't figure out why I was methodically tossing a spherical object through a toroidal object. It seemed like the stupidest thing I could possibly be doing. I started thinking about little kids putting a cylindrical peg through a circular hole, and how they do it over and over again for months when they figure it out, and how basketball was basically just a slightly more aerobic version of the same exercise. Anyway, for the longest time, I just kept sinking free throws. I hit eighty in a row, my all-time best, but as I kept going, I felt more and more like a two-year-old.
JOHN GREEN
The Fault in Our Stars
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
attributed, The Best Things Anybody Ever Said about Sports, Management and Marketing
I always thought the whole idea of being paid to play pro basketball is ridiculous. I mean, think about it. You are taking that ball, running down the court, and you've got somebody on you. You've got four guys out there on your team, and five from the other team, and some people on the bench, and you look up and the place is packed, and all you are trying to do is make that ball go through the hole. It's just crazy to me. After all these years, it still doesn't make sense.
LARRY BIRD
Bird Watching
I decided one day early on in high school that I wanted to be great at basketball, not just a good basketball player. I would go to the elementary school by my house and shoot thousands of shots all day, every day.
GILBERT ARENAS
Daily Texan, Mar. 29, 2001
She played the game the way that it was meant to be played--as if her life depended on it. And she seemed driven by some need, or struggle, or fundamental resolve, that preceded the basketball and made it possible.
NINA REVOYR
The Necessary Hunger
You learn quickly that basketball is a team game. You must be unselfish and accept the role that helps the team the most.
TOM CREAM
foreword, Winning Basketball: Techniques and Drills for Playing Better Offensive Basketball
Sometimes you learn more from losing than winning. Losing forces you to reexamine.
PAT SUMMITT
Reach for the Summit
Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.
SCOTTIE PIPPEN
attributed, Team Work: Rediscovering the Essence of Basketball