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Football Quotes by Phil Jackson

50 Football quotes by Phil Jackson

All Football quotes Phil Jackson’s page

Phil Jackson says a team’s confidence rises when the spirit is right and players move as one. He believes a coach’s power lies in choosing the right people rather than giving speeches. He also calls coaching a spiritual quest and warns that trading big players can leave a team weaker.

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Basketball is sharing.

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I'm not going to coach again. I've done my coaching, and I think I can put that aside.

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The sign of a great player is how much he elevates his colleagues' performance.

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If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball.

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A coach's main job is to reawaken a spirit in which the players can blend together effortlessly.

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I'm a sports-watcher. I played football and baseball, coached baseball. So I watch those things.

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My job as a coach was to make something meaningful out of one of the most mundane activities on the planet: playing…

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Not only is there more to life than basketball, there's a lot more to basketball than basketball.

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I thrive on challenges, and there is no more imposing challenge for someone in my profession than winning an NBA title.

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Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing.

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Basketball is a simple game. Your goal is penetration, get the ball close to the basket, and there are three ways to…

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The greatness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive. The weakness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive

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I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you're doing.…

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I think the most rewarding part of the job, and I think most coaches would say it, is practice. If you have…

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An acrobatic dunk will make it onto Sports Center. A simple, unspectacular bounce pass in the rhythm of the offense will not.…

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Basketball, unlike football with its prescribed routes, is an improvisational game, similar to jazz. If someone drops a note, someone else must…

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I know what it takes to be a coach. I've gone through that. I think I came up short my last season.…

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Despite their tremendous talent, (NBA players) are still, by and large, young adults, seeking validation from an authority figure, and there is…

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People think I would never take on a team that has no legitimate chance to win a championship, This is one of…

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Like life, basketball is messy and unpredictable. It has its way with you, no matter how hard you try to control it.…

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The best part of basketball, for those people on the inside, is the bus going to the airport after you've won a…

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Basketball is a great mystery. You can do everything right. You can have the perfect mix of talent and the best system…

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I probably would have no capability of absorbing a 60-defeat season as a coach. It would be a foreign experience. My whole…

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Kobe was hell-bent on surpassing Jordan as the greatest player in the game. His obsession with Michael was striking. When we played…

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And yet as a coach, I know that being fixated on winning (or more likely, not losing) is counterproductive, especially when it…

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Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.

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Basketball is a sport that involves the subtle interweaving of players at full speed to the point where they are thinking and…

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Everybody has an opportunity to play a role, a playmaking role, so it makes it harder to coach. It takes a little…

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In basketball - as in life - true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when…

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“My confidence grew out of knowing that when the spirit was right and the players were attuned to one another, the game…

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Pau is one of the best big men in the game. I mean, Pau Gasol is going to be in the Hall…

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The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.

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The problem with trading dominant players of that size is you never get in return what you've bargained away.

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Yes, victory is sweet, but it doesn't necessarily make life any easier the next season or even the next day.

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No one plays this or any game perfectly. It's the guy who recovers from his mistakes who wins.

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Coaching is salesmanship. Coaching is winning players over and convincing them they have to play together. It takes a team conviction to…

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I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you're doing.

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The strength of the team lies within the individual. And the strength of the individual lies within the team

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It takes a number of critical factors to win an NBA championship, including the right mix of talent, creativity, intelligence, toughness, and…

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My philosophy is that you can't motivate players with speeches, you have motivated players that you draft. That's where they come in…

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More by Phil Jackson

My parents were, had a marriage of passion, and the passion was about their religious beliefs. They were both immigrant families that - well,…

“The unconscious mind is a terrific solver of complex problems when the conscious mind is busy elsewhere or, perhaps better yet, not overtaxed at…

There's a term, agape, you hear used a lot with charismatic religious groups, that it's this more pure love of caring, of sharing of…

“My confidence grew out of knowing that when the spirit was right and the players were attuned to one another, the game was likely…

I don't believe in curfews, because you can't treat men like they were boys without forfeiting a certain level of trust.

My philosophy is that you can't motivate players with speeches, you have motivated players that you draft. That's where they come in and those…

My philosophy is that you don't motivate players with speeches; you have motivated players that you draft. That's where they come in, and those…

Leadership is not about forcing your will on others. It's about mastering the art of letting go.

“As a leader your job is to do everything in your power to create the perfect conditions for success by benching your ego and…

If we can accept whatever hand we've been dealt - no matter how unwelcome - the way to proceed eventually becomes clear.

A coach's main job is to reawaken a spirit in which the players can blend together effortlessly.

“Zen teacher Lewis Richmond tells the story of hearing Shunryu Suzuki sum up Buddhism in two words. Suzuki had just finished giving a talk…

My mother's families were Mennonites or Anabaptists that came to Minnesota from Russia. They were actually moving around Europe doing diking and lowland reclamation…

The real value in everything you do is in the details. I just like that quote. A very similar way to say the same…

Coaching is about, "How do I get people to play at their peak level?" It is a spiritual quest. And if it's not that,…