Love me or hate me, it's one or the other. Always has been. Hate my game, my swagger. Hate my fadeaway, my hunger. Hate that I'm a veteran. A champion. Hate that. Hate it with all your heart. And hate that I'm loved, for the exact same reasons.
I've succeeded at something that at times I've hated, and that's relevant to the person who goes down to the auto repair shop and puts in his time. We all have to do things we don't like.
One big lesson: Always look forward. Once a game or a set is done, you focus on what's next.
Practice makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
Perhaps there is no better laboratory to observe the sin of pride than the world of sports. I have always loved participating in and attending sporting events. But I confess there are times when the lack of civility in sports is embarrassing. How is it that normally kind and compassionate human beings can be so intolerant and filled with hatred toward an opposing team and its fans? I have watched sports fans vilify and demonize their rivals. They look for any flaw and magnify it. They justify their hatred with broad generalizations and apply them to everyone associated with the other team. When ill fortune afflicts their rival, they rejoice.
To me, Jordan is the god of Basketball, and I think he will always be.
You don't hesitate with Michael [Jordan], or you'll end up on some poster in a gift shop someplace.
...your best bet is best practices.
I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success.
If you're afraid to fail, then you're probably going to fail.
Once you know what it is in life that you want to do, then the world basically becomes your library. Everything you view, you can view from that perspective, which makes everything a learning asset for you.
I don't talk trash often, but when I do, I go for the jugular.
Dear Basketball, From the moment I started rolling my dad's tube socks and shooting imaginary game-winning shots ... I fell in love with you.
Teach players the game at an early age and stop treating them like cash cows for everyone to profit off of.
We all know what flopping is when we see it. The stuff that you see is where guys aren't really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water.
I've reached the pinnacle of my career. I just feel that I don't have anything else to prove. When I lose the sense of motivation and the sense of 'to prove something' as a basketball player, it's time for me to move away from the game of basketball.
To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you
I was an emotional manipulator of fighters . . . You have to know how to be cold, you know? Just have no -emotions, no feelings. It takes time, though, to develop that. I'd been working on that since I was 12 years old. It doesn't happen overnight.
I'm the biggest fighter in the history of the sport. If you don't believe it, check the cash register.
He didn't miss games. He played hurt, with pain, when he was sick. He came out and performed at an intense level. I don't think anybody ever went away disappointed after watching Michael.
You've got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn't going to work.
...the eagerness to win at all costs is self-defeating, depriving us of the very recognition we crave...
You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.
Failure is not getting knocked down. Failure is not getting back up.
It taught me this is never over. You gotta compete every single day. You gotta produce; it's a production business. That's what the head coach told me when I was getting released. That was a big learning experience for me.
Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.
It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.
Just one (superstition). Whenever I hit a home run, I make certain I touch all four bases.
I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.
Never change a winning game; always change a losing one.
It's not about the number of hours you practice. It's about the number of hours your mind is present during the practice.
The most important thing, the thing that unites all of us, is that we can inspire and challenge one another TO be better.
Everyting negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise.
I never tried to prove anything to someone else. I wanted to prove something to myself.
If you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will.
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.
These young guys are playing checkers. I'm out there playing chess.
Listen to how everyone is talking about you. You have to use it as fuel for motivation.
People just don't understand how obsessed I am with winning.
The motivation for me is just the game itself, just playing the game the right way and trying to win, compete every time I step out there on the floor. That's motivation enough for me to go out there and play well.
Winning takes precedence over all. There's no gray area. No almosts.
Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they've taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.
Can I jump over two or three guys like I used to? No. Am I as fast as I used to be? No, but I still have the fundamentals and smarts. That's what enables me to still be a dominant player. As a kid growing up, I never skipped steps. I always worked on fundamentals because I know athleticism is fleeting.
Difficulty is a nurse of greatness-a harsh nurse, who rocks her foster children roughly, but rocks them in strength and athletic proportion. The mind, grappling with great aims and wrestling with mighty impediments, grows by a certain necessity to the stature of greatness.
What does perfection look like to me? Championship rings.
If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.
There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don't believe there is only one greatest player either.
You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you still have to know the fundamentals.
Even when I'm old and grey, I won't be able to play it, but I'll still love the game.
I wasn't really a work-conscious type of person. I was a player. I loved to play sports.
Success isn't something you chase. It's something you have to put forth the effort for constantly. Then maybe it'll come when you least expect it. Most people don't understand that.
Let me win, and if I can't win let me be brave in the attempt.
You don't win silver. You lose gold.
You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
I cannot outplay my opponent in a tournament... unless I outwork him in practice.
I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.
We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time.
Love me or hate me, it's one or the other. Always has been. Hate my game, my swagger. Hate my fadeaway, my hunger. Hate that I'm a veteran. A champion. Hate that. Hate it with all your heart. And hate that I'm loved, for the exact same reasons.
Missing Reference