Famous Basketball Quotes

The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.
By Bill Russell on Blcoking Shots

If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball.
By Phil Jackson on Buddha

If I weren't earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.
By Charles Barkley on Charles Barkley

I knew I was dog meat. Luckily, I'm the high-priced dog meat that everybody wants. I'm the good-quality dog meat. I'm the Alpo of the NBA.
By Shaquille O'Neal on Dog Meat

This is the second most exciting indoor sport, and the other one shouldn't have spectators.
By Dick Vertleib on Excitment

What is so fascinating about sitting around watching a bunch of pituitary cases stuff a ball through a hoop?
By Woody Allen on Fascination

Basketball is like photography, if you don't focus, all you have is the negative.
By Dan Frisby on Focus

I look at the NBA as a football game without the helmet.
By Tom Tolbert on Football

First master the fundamentals.
By Larry Bird on Fundamentals

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.
By Isiah Thomas on Life

What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player.
By John Wooden on Life

Basketball is the MTV of sports.
By Sara Levinson on MTV

You don't play against opponents. You play against the game of basketball.
By Bobby Knight on Opponents

There are really only two plays: Romeo and Juliet, and put the darn ball in the basket.
By Abe Lemons on Plays

I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place -- deep in the Wisconsin woods an old barrel hoop nailed to a tree, or a weather-beaten shed on the Mexican border with a rusty iron hoop nailed to one end.
By James Naismith on Pleasure

Magic Johnson, former basketball player, may run for mayor of LA in the next election. Remember the good 'ol days when only qualified people ran for office like actors and professional wrestlers.
By Jay Leno on Politics

These are my new shoes. They're good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only make you have shoes like me. That's it.
By Charles Barkley on Shoes

The first time I shot the hook, I was in fourth grade, and I was about five feet eight inches tall. I put the ball up and felt totally at ease with the shot. I was completely confident it would go in. I've been shooting it ever since.
By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Shooting

We're shooting 100 percent - 60 percent from the field and 40 percent from the free-throw line.
By Norm Stewart on Shooting

I haven't been able to slam-dunk the basketball for the past five years. Or, for the thirty-eight years before that, either.
By Dave Barry on Slam Dunking

When I dunk, I put something on it. I want the ball to hit the floor before I do.
By Darryl Dawkins on Slam Dunking

Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.
By Red Auerbach on War