Larry Bird Basketball Quotations

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.

The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson.

I really don't like talking about money. All I can say is that the Good Lord must have wanted me to have it.

What's better? Dogs or broomsticks? I mean will the world really ever know?

I wasn't real quick, and I wasn't real strong. Some guys will just take off and it's like, whoa. So I beat them with my mind and my fundamentals.

It doesn't matter who scores the points, it's who can get the ball to the scorer.

If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she'd get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don't mean she wouldn't pay the bank, but the children always came first.

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.

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.

I've got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.

As far as playing, I didn't care who guarded me - red, yellow, black. I just didn't want a white guy guarding me, because it's disrespect to my game.

When it gets down to it, basketball is basketball.

But it is a black man's game, and it will be forever.

Once you are labeled 'the best' you want to stay up there, and you can't do it by loafing around.

The one thing that always bothered me when I played in the NBA was I really got irritated when they put a white guy on me.

Push yourself again and again. Don't give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.

While day by day the overzealous student stores up facts for future use, he who has learned to trust nature finds need for ever fewer external directions. He will discard formula after formula, until he reaches the conclusion: Let nature take its course.

The best players will play. That's the way it will always be.

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.

I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-American.

I've been around a while. I kinda know these things.

I don't know if this is the right wording, but I felt betrayed. We're disappointed. Things happen, maybe it's a good thing. He's a very talented player. I always liked working with him and how he went about things on the basketball court. He's a top-12 player in the league, but we're in a situation where we have to move on.

Basketball was always a game to me. One of the greatest things in life for me was to be able to play what I loved dearly and get paid for it. So it was always a game to me and that's how I perceived everything.

In the closing seconds of every game, I want the ball in my hands for the last shot - not in anybody else's, not in anybody else's in the world.

Basketball has been my life and I worked at it so hard because I enjoyed it so much.

Coaches can talk and talk and talk about something, but if you get it on tape and show it to them, it is so much more effective.

The best basketball announcer is one who allows you to close your eyes.

You never make any of the shots you never take. 87% of the ones you do take, you'll miss too. I make 110% of my shots.

I like being by myself.

I'm a firm believer in that you play the way you practice.

I can see why fans don't like to watch pro basketball. I don't, either. It's not exciting.

I was always making decisions and they were easier decisions because I had control of the game, I had control of the ball. As a coach you sort of put the ball in other player's hands and let them make decisions for you. But I still get a kick out of winning basketball games and that's what I'm in this for.

I always know what's happening on the court. I see a situation occur, and I respond.

You can make all the excuses you want, but if you're not mentally tough and you're not prepared to play every night, you're not going to win.

My goal was just to try and be the best player on my high school team, and look where I am now. And that was still my goal as a young kid, just to try and be a little better than my brother was.

My name's been on this check for a week now.

You know when I played, you had me and Kevin (McHale) and some others throughout the league. I think it's good for a fan base because as we all know the majority of the fans are white America. And if you just had a couple of white guys in there, you might get them a little excited.

My opinion about basketball, the way I was taught, was when you step on the court, you play to win.

When I was young, I never wanted to leave the court until I got things exactly correct. My dream was to become a pro.

When I go to the line I'm thinking 'All net.' When I don't think that, I'm likely to miss.

I hate to lose more than I like to win.

Practice habits were crucial to my development in basketball. I didn't play against the toughest competition in high school, but one reason I was able to do well in college was that I mastered the fundamentals. You've got to have them down before you can even think about playing.

Michael Jordan is God disguised as a basketball player.

There are many times when you are better off practicing than playing; but most people just don't understand that