-- Whatever you emphasize and to the degree that you do, you get better at it.
-- As a player, you want to be good at those things that happen a lot -- that cannot be overstated. What happens a lot? You dribble, you pass, and you shoot -- you want to be good at those skills.
-- I tell my guys that if they work hard every day, then they don't have to worry about game plans, or where they play, or whom they play, or about rankings and so on. The quality of their work habits can overcome anything: praise, criticism, good or bad coaching. They have their daily behavior to fall back on.
-- I can check the level of your honesty and commitment by the quality of your effort on the court. You cannot separate sports from your life, no matter how hard you try. Your personality shows up on the court: greed, indifference, whatever, it all shows up. You cannot hide it.
-- If a guy cannot pass, the ball stops moving. If he cannot shoot, he will always be open. If he cannot dribble, he cuts his value to the team by one third. Furthermore, if he cannot dribble, the defense will attack him. If you want to become a better dribbler, dribble. Dribble on a court, with a man guarding you. It's one of those skills we are not paying enough attention to.
-- If you want to learn how to shoot a specific shot in basketball, get the mechanics straight, then go out and practice hard. Once you have the right basics, you can teach yourself how to shoot.
-- When a player is told what he has to do to become a better player, does he get mad at the coach, or at himself? If he gets made at the coach, he'll never get better as a player. If he gets mad at himself, he will get better.
-- There's a difference between the guys who play to win and those who play not to lose. A big difference. When you play to win, you do all of the extra things that maybe aren't visible, but the results is that you come out on top. Playing to win [means] subordinating [your] needs to those of the team. Remember, some guys walk out of a losing game having scored 25 points and are perfectly content. If you have guys like that on your team, you're not going to win too many games. You cannot ever forget the human equation in sports.
-- The essence of character is what I call mental and physical courage. Everybody has the potential for courage, but some people -- because they have had to demonstrate it all their lives -- are good at it, whereas others are not until the need suddenly arises and they have to learn to react. Basketball brings out the need for courage.
-- Everybody makes such a big deal today about team play because there's such a scarcity of it. Greed is a reason. You have to understand the influence of greed. A player has to be selfish in the pursuit of the development of his skills, but he cannot be selfish when it comes time to blend them in with what's good for his team.
-- Defense is the heart of our game. Good defense is recognizable even when you're losing. The object of my defensive strategy is to contest every pass and shot, to force the opponent to move the ball under continuous pressure. I want the other team to play offense longer than they're used to. Defense is not a variable. It's a constant. Defense has to be deeply embedded in your attitude. It's something you can do well every time -- both the individual and the team. Skill is a variable. Work is not a variable. It's an attitude. Defense is head, heart, and legs.
-- Nothing is more intimidating than deflecting passes. It makes a passer very tentative. I say that if you don't use your hands, you're committing a bigger sin and aren't as effective defensively.
-- The truth is, you can take whatever defensive philosophy you want and reverse it and a forceful coach will make it work. It's mostly attitude and effort that make a defense successful. But one thing -- putting pressure on the ball -- has more of an impact than any philosophical discussion of how to guard a man. If each player, when he guards his man, can press him, put pressure on him, you'll disturb passes and intimidate your opponents.
-- Good players are always moving their legs.
-- Players who do not compete hard against each other because they're afraid it will affect their friendship have trouble getting better.
-- I don't like to see a guy get patted on the back for doing simple things, for doing the things he should do. You have to be able to tell a player or coach when he does a bad job that it is a bad job. You show respect by praising them when they do the things that deserve praise. They must learn the difference between what is done right and what is done wrong, and if you try to make them similar with easy praise, you'll never succeed in teaching them the difference.
-- When you demand a lot, my experience has been that you get more. If you insist on less, you get that, too. Self-esteem comes from accomplishment, not the other way around. The more you demand, the more they give, the stronger the sense of satisfaction.
-- Every little thing you do on offense counts. That means every pass, every cut, every screen, every dribble is part of the end result and therefore require care and concern. We try to make it simple and we work hard to make things easy.
-- Cut with credibility. What I like my guys to do on offense to start a game is pass and cut through the defense. The minute you do, you start to move the defense, a main goal. It also helps to identify the defense, whether it's a zone, a combo, or a man-to-man. It is essential that when a cutter cuts through, he look for the ball. There will be no credibility to the cut unless the player executes it with authenticity, i.e., believes he might receive the ball.
-- Size is not the most important thing about rebounding. Knowing how to use your body, seeing where the ball is going, that's what counts. It is not the guy who jumps the highest. The guy who jumps the highest is all alone. Jumping in a crowd is another story. Just watch guys like Larry Bird. A good rebounder plays for position, but is always attentive to the ball. You cannot lose sight of the ball. You've got to have some idea where the ball is going and how to prevent your man from getting it.
-- Pivoting is one of the most underrated techniques and skills, and when you go to teach it, someone always asks, "Why bother?" We have to teach the player to disregard the feeling that it's not essential, that it's not necessary in today's game. One reason some players disregard its importance is that they do it so easily.
-- Fakes are like lies. The first thing I tell anyone about faking is that if you're going to fake, your move has to look like the real thing. When you go to tell a lie, it has to be close enough to the truth to be believable. Same thing. So often, guys fake so strenuously that they telegraph the fake: Their fake looks like a fake. Young kids have to be actors and develop cunning. They shouldn't work only on one fake; you always want to have more than one weapon. Also, if you're wide open, don't fake -- shoot!
-- Conditioning: I tell my players if you play hard every time you play, you'll be in good enough shape. Once practice starts, we work hard and that's the best conditioning there is. Everything counts. Run hard, play hard, go after the ball hard, guard hard. Everything we do is game-condition because how you play in practice is how you'll play in a game.
-- How do you know if your team has camaraderie? I can tell by the way they walk off the floor at the end of practice. You can feel their happiness vibrating; you can see how they work out together; you can watch it in the shower room -- what they're talking about, the level of excitement. There are many ways you can feel it, and it's better to feel it than to hear it. The camaraderie practically comes out of their bodies. And you don't feel that way when you're losing. Losing reveals things.
-- A good high school coach is the salt of the earth. And when his teams are well coached, a college coach is the direct beneficiary of all his work. When players who have had good high school coaching walk on the floor in college, there isn't much that a coach has to do. I cannot emphasize enough what it means to start with that great coach at the sixth or seventh grade who tries to get kids to do things better. Grade school coaches are the unsung heroes of this country and they're disappearing because it takes a lot of work and constant attention. Sometimes it is too much of a sacrifice.
-- I don't recruit players who are nasty to their parents. That shows they are giving less than they can give and can't forge the bonds essential for a good team. I look for players who understand that the world does not revolve around them.
-- There are so many things that don't show up on the stat sheet, or in the win and loss column, that no one can explain, but you see them and they affect the outcome of games. There are hundreds of them: Players who learn how to do something just by watching compared to those who watch the same demonstration and can't do it; who go after loose balls and come up with every one of them as opposed to someone who tries just as hard and comes up with none. How is it that one guy can deflect a pass over and over again and another cannot? Many times I ask myself the question, "Am I trying to teach this player instinct, or am I teaching him a skill?" Whether you're trying to teach a college player or a seven-year-old, you are looking for instinct.
-- The most important thing that you can do is DO what you are doing well. The most important thing you can do on or off the court is to focus on what you are doing when you are doing it. When you play, PLAY. When you study, STUDY.
