Great Throughts Treasury

"I’ve never been afraid to fail."

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 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."

"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."

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships."

"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen."

"My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength."

"You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them."

"I Own the guy guarding me."

"Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation. "

"Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work."

"If you quit ONCE it becomes a habit.Never quit!!!"

"I've never lost a game I just ran out of time."

"Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again."

"What is love? Love is playing every game as if it's your last!"

"My mother is my root, my foundation. She planted the seed that I base my life on, and that is the belief that the ability to achieve starts in your mind."

"The minute you get away from fundamentals – whether its proper technique, work ethic or mental preparation – the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing."

"If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life."

"Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion."

"Failure is acceptable. but not trying is a whole different ball park."

"The basketball court for me, during a game, is the most peaceful place I can imagine. On the basketball court, I worry about nothing. When I'm out there, no one can bother me."

"I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win."

"As athletes, we're used to reacting quickly. Here, it's 'come, stop, come, stop.' There's a lot of downtime. That's the toughest part of the day."

"There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time, those players aren't willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end, their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve. One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."

"There is no "I" in team but there is in win."

"Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game."

"If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome."

"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."

"Live the moment for the moment."

"The game is my wife. It demands loyalty and responsibility, and it gives me back fulfillment and peace."

"Enjoy every minute of life. Never second-guess life."

"When I step onto the court, I don't have to think about anything. If I have a problem off the court, I find that after I play, my mind is clearer and I can come up with a better solution. It's like therapy. It relaxes me and allows me to solve problems."

"Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion."

"If it turns out that my best wasn't good enough, at least I won't look back and say that I was afraid to try; failure makes me work even harder."

"I would tell players to relax and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you’ve lost your focus."

"I never thought a role model should be negative."

"You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise."

"Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best."

"My advice is find fuel in failure. Sometimes failure gets you closer to where you want to be."

"Never giving up. Always willing to take the ball at the most critical time, always willing to give up the ball so a teammate could score. Playing (the far less glamorous) aggressive defense. Giving more effort while sick with the flu than most people do on days when they feel their best."

"Champions do not become champions when they win an event, but in the hours, weeks, and months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely a demonstration of their championship character."

"My body could stand the crutches but my mind couldn’t stand the sideline."

"I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot... when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result."

"I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don't do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results."

"There was never any fear for me, no fear of failure. If I miss a shot, so what?"