Here are great NBA quotes.

 “I see the beauty in getting up in the morning and being in pain because I know all the hard work that it took to get to this point. So, I’m not, I’m not sad about [retiring]. I’m very appreciative of what I’ve had.”- Kobe Bryant

“I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.”- Kobe Bryant

“I want to see if I can. I don’t know if I can. I want to find out. I want to see. I’m going to do what I always do: I’m going to break it down to its smallest form, smallest detail, and go after it. Day by day, one day at a time.”- Kobe Bryant

“Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change.”- Kobe Bryant

“When we are saying this cannot be accomplished, this cannot be done, then we are short-changing ourselves. My brain—it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I have to sit there and face myself and tell myself ‘You are a failure,’ I think that is almost worse than dying.”- Kobe Bryant

“The last time I was intimidated was when I was six years old in karate class. I was an orange belt and the instructor ordered me to fight a black belt who was a couple years older and a lot bigger. I was scared s**tless. I mean, I was terrified and he kicked my a**. But then I realized he didn’t kick my a** as bad as I thought he was going to and that there was nothing really to be afraid of.”- Kobe Bryant

“Slam dunk”- Chick Hearn

“Word’s-eye view”- Chick Hearn

“He faked him into the popcorn machine.”- Chick Hearn

“Dribble drive.”- Chick Hearn

“Yo-yoing up and down”- Chick Hearn

“The mustard came off the hot dog.”- Chick Hearn

“Bunny Hop in the Pea Patch”- Chick Hearn

“This Game Is in the Refrigerator”- Chick Hearn

My diet is mostly chicken and fish. I make sure I get a lot of vegetables, a lot of fruit. I am a big fruit man, I am a vegetable man anyway. And I also get a lot of rest. That’s the key I may be up early, but I’m in bed early too.- Magic Johnson

I wanted to do two things when I was growing up, about your age. I wanted to play in the NBA, and I wanted to be a businessman after my basketball career was over, and that is what I am doing now.- Magic Johnson

I tell people to look at me and understand that everybody first told me that I couldn’t be a 6-foot, 9-inch point guard, and I proved them wrong. Then they told me I couldn’t be a businessman and make money in urban America, and I proved them wrong. And they thought I couldn’t win all these championships, and I proved them wrong there as well.- Magic Johnson

You know I was a shy guy and people didn’t know that and still don’t know it today. I’m sure basketball brought my shyness out because of the fact that you have to do interviews, and that people are always talking to you in terms of the fans and everything.- Magic Johnson

Magic is crazy. He is that crazy wild guy on the basketball court that is very intense and very serious. He is the guy who lives and eats and breathes basketball.- Magic Johnson

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”- Michael Jordan

 “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

 “It’s heavy duty to try to do everything and please everybody. My job was to go out there and play the game of basketball as best I can. People may not agree with that. I can’t live with what everyone’s impression of what I should or what I shouldn’t do.”- Michael Jordan

“You have competition every day because you set such high standards for yourself that you have to go out every day and live up to that.”- Michael Jordan

“Be true to the game, because the game will be true to you. If you try to shortcut the game, then the game will shortcut you. If you put forth the effort, good things will be bestowed upon you. That’s truly about the game, and in some ways that’s about life too.”- Michael Jordan

 “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”- Michael Jordan

“I want to be known as ‘The Big Shakespeare.’ It was Shakespeare that said, ‘Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them.’” “All this heaviness does not mean that I’m a monk. I’m an unorthodox type of guy, a funny guy—at least I think I’m funny. And one of the things I like to do is come up with nicknames for myself. “’The Big Stock Exchange.’ I start off at one price. Every now and then I’ll go down, but eventually I’ll go back up.” “’The Big IPO.’ Put your money on me. Because when I go public, we all gonna make money.” “’The Big Aristotle’ was coined the day I won the MVP last year [2000]. I stole a quote from that Greek philosopher cat: “Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.” “Can’t forget ‘The Big Antarctica’ because I’m so cold.” “’The Big Havlicek,’ which is what I called myself after making a bunch of foul shots one night. And, of course, ‘The Almighty Conceitedness.’ That’s the highest level of arrogance. I made that up, too.” “In light of today, I am retiring all my nicknames. The Big Aristotle, Shaq-Fu, The Big Shamrock, The Big Cactus, The Diesel, and finally, the one and only, original, never to be duplicated or replicated … Superman. From now on, you can call me The Big AARP. Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons.”– Shaq

When I tweet, I try and accomplish three things. One, is to make you laugh. Two, is to inform you. Three, is to enlighten you. That’s all I do.- Shaq

And I want to do it the right way, like everybody else, not just a famous figurehead that gets a job because he is a famous basketball player. I want to really learn the business.- Shaq

My life had no meaning at all. I found only brief interludes of satisfaction. It was like my whole life had been about my whole basketball career.- Pete Maravich

Shooting is nothing. Anybody can shoot. The big charge is putting on a show for the crowd.- Pete Maravich

“I was never concerned with personal records. Playing to the best of my God-given ability was my attitude and motivation.”- Pete Maravich

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

Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It’s being able to take it as well as dish it out. That’s the only way you’re going to get respect from the players.- Larry Bird

Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you’re ready to play as tough as you’re able to, you’d better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you’re not giving it all you’ve got.- Larry Bird

I don’t know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody – somewhere – was practicing more than me.- Larry Bird

A lot of these teams really forget that part of success comes with having veteran leadership. You see a lot of teams forget that and start letting go of these old veterans. They don’t realize how important it is to have a veteran voice in your locker room or on the bench. It’s important to have guys who have been there before.- David Robinson

In the NBA, you’re taking a bunch of different talents, and you’re managing them. You have to give them a system; you have to give them a belief. That’s why coaches like Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich are so great: because they gave the team confidence in the system and in their ability to execute night in and night out.- David Robinson

My dad was enlisted in the Navy; my mother was a nurse. It just was never a thought process. It was just go to the best school you can go to, do the best you possibly can do, and be the best person you can possibly be, and I think our faith had a lot to do with that.- David Robinson

Largely in the beginning, I did a lot of extra work because I was lighter than all the other guys. I was at a massive disadvantage, so I had to put on weight. I started with eating. I had to really focus on my diet.- David Robinson

My philosophy is that you don’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 can not teach competitiveness.- 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

My father was the superintendent of the churches in the state of Montana. He was content in his beliefs. He befit the term ‘true Christian.’ He would turn the other cheek. He was truly a man of peace.- Phil Jackson

I think the most rewarding part of the job, and I think most coaches would say it, is practice. If you have it, a very good practice in which you have 12 guys participate, and they can really get something out of it, lose themselves in practice.- Phil Jackson