Famous Quotes & Sayings

John Wooden

One of my constant reminders is, 'End practice on a happy note.' I want the boys to want to come out to practice; and I want them to get a certain amount of pleasure. ..lt's a game. It should be fun. So I always try to counterbalance my criticism in practice with a bit of praise. I want my players to feel that the worst punishment I can give them is to deny them the privilege of practicing. If they do not want to practice, I do not want them there.

John Wooden

Hustle makes up for many a mistake.

John Wooden

When everyone has good players, teaching will be a telling difference.

John Wooden

Whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not, the habits you are developing now will be with you for the rest of your life.

John Wooden

A player who makes a team great is better than a great player.

John Wooden

Decisions are more apt to be accepted when you've listened to suggestions first. I wanted them to see the reason behind what I asked of them, not to do things just because I said so.

John Wooden

An effective leader develops the ability to correctly identify the pertinent detail or details - incidentals in a market, industry or sport that might create an incremental advantage.

John Wooden

Many ... have tremendous God-given gifts, but they don't focus on the development of those gifts. Who are these individuals? You've never heard of them- and you never will .

John Wooden

Don't give up on your dreams, or your dreams will give up on you.

John Wooden

It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.

John Wooden

It takes time to create excellence. If it could be done quickly, more people would do it.

Matt Cullen

Courageous people are not afraid to fail. So often in life and in sports, we're afraid to fail. Instead, we should attack things with excitement and enthusiasm and think about the positives as opposed to the negatives.

Maxwell Maltz

Skill in any performance whether it be in sports in playing the piano in conversation or in selling merchandise consists not in painfully and consciously thinking out each action as it is performed but in relaxing and letting the job do itself through you. Creative performance is spontaneous and ‘natural’ as opposed to self-conscious and studied.

Max Walker

About 1998, when 'Wide World of Sports' and the 'Footy Show' came to an end for me, I couldn't type. When I started architecture, it was a very aesthetic, creative, an almost art process, where lettering and thick line were how you expressed yourself on the paper.

Max Schmeling

I received a letter from the Reich Ministry of Sports. They want me to split from Joe Jacobs, my manager since 1928.... I really need Joe Jacobs. I owe all my success in America to him.

Max Schmeling

Why did I want to win? because I didn't want to lose!

Matthew Perry

I have never really lived with anyone in my adult years. I just read my sports ticker. And 50 Shades of Grey.

Matthew McConaughey

I'm a football fan, a sports fan, a fan of competition.

Matthew Barney

A lot of these angles are really about trying to mimic broadcast sports angles in order to anchor the scene, to sort of normalize it before it becomes abstracted.

Mark Russell

I squirm when I see athletes praying before a game. Don't they realize that if God took sports seriously he never would have created George Steinbrenner.

Mark Shields

Politics is a contact sport - a question of accepting an elbow or two.

Mats Wilander

Sports is about balls and about heart and you don't find too many champions in any sport in the world without heart or balls. He might have them, but against Nadal they shrink to a very small size and it's not once, it's every time.

Patricia Heaton

It's a little bit in the genes because my brother is a journalist and my father was a sports writer.

Pat LaFontaine

A lot of people think that you have to specialize in one sport from an early age in order to turn pro. Most of my teammates played a lot of different sports when we were kids. I liked to golf, water ski and play baseball. That helped me develop other aspects of my game and made me WANT to be on the ice even more once hockey season started.

Pat Riley

Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle.

Pat Riley

Look for your choices, pick the best one, then go with it.

Pat Riley

You can never have enough talent.

Pat Riley

When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor.

Pat Riley

Commitment to the team - there is no such thing as in-between, you are either in our out.

Pat Riley

When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder.

Pat Riley

Management must speak with one voice. When it doesn't management itself becomes a peripheral opponent to the team's mission.

Pat Riley

We measure areas of performance that are often ignored: jumping in pursuit of every rebound even if you don't get it, swatting at every pass, diving for loose balls, letting someone smash into you in order to draw the foul. These 'effort' statistics are also stored on computer. Effort is what ultimately separates journeyman players from impact players. Knowing how well a player executes all these little things is the key to unlocking career-best performances.

Plautus

Not every age is fit for childish sports.