MOTIVATION

Michael Jordan
Ex-NBA-Spieler, Team-Owner

• I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.
• Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen.
• Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
• Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
• You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.
• I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.
• My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.
• I’ve never lost a game I just ran out of time.
• Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.
• There is no “I”in team but there is in win.
• If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.
• Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.

Kobe Bryant †
Ex-NBA-Spieler

• 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.
• The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.
• People just don’t understand how obsessed I am with winning.
• Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.
• I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. No matter what the injury – unless it’s completely debilitating – I’m going to be the same player I’ve always been. I’ll figure it out. I’ll make some tweaks, some changes, but I’m still coming.

LeBron James
NBA-Spieler

• Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.
• Ask me to steal, block out, sacrifice, lead, dominate, anything. But it’s not what you ask of me it’s what I ask of myself.
• I like criticism. It makes you strong.
• People will hate you, rate you, shake you, and break you. But how strong you stand is what makes you.
• Nothing is given. Everything is earned.
• Success isn’t owned, it’s leased. And the rent is due every day.
• Greatness is defined by how much you want to put into what you do.

Kevin Durant
NBA-Spieler

• Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.
• With everything I do, I just try to be myself.
• Everything in my life, I had to take it. They are not going to give it to you out of sympathy. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
• Work harder than your opponent.
• It’s hard to play well, but it’s easy to work hard.
• My style has changed and evolved mainly because I’ve grown to have more confidence in myself.
• Our best years are only ahead of us, so we got to continue to keep pushing.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Ex-NBA-Spieler

• One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
• Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.
• You cant win unless you learn how to lose.
• It’s OK to make mistakes. That’s how we learn. When we compete, we make mistakes.
• You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go. Don’t ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.
• Don't hope. Hope is for people who aren't prepared.

Larry Bird
Ex-NBA-Spieler, -Trainer, Manager

• A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.
• When you think you have done enough, do a little more, because someone out there is working harder than you.
• Push yourself again and again. Don’t give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.
• I’ve got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.
• It doesn’t matter who scores the points, it’s who can get the ball to the scorer.

Bob Knight
Ex-NCAA-Coach

• The key is not the ‘will to win’. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.
• The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game.
• Coaches shouldn’t have to push you to work hard, you should push yourself to work hard because you want to be a great player.
• You don't play against opponents; you play against the game of basketball.
• Your biggest opponent isn't the other guy. It's human nature.

Julius Erving a.k.a. Dr. J
Ex-ABA/NBA-Spieler

• Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like doing them.
• I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity.
• The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical.
• I keep both eyes on my man. The basket hasn't moved on me yet.
• It's better to stay too long than to leave too soon.
• To be an innovator, you can't be worried about making mistakes.

Bill Russell †
Ex-NBA-Spieler

• Remember that basketball is a game of habits. If you make the other guy deviate from his habits, you’ve got him.
• The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.
• The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.
• The only important statistic is the final score.
• Commitment separates those who live their dreams from those who live their lives regretting the opportunities they have squandered.

John Wooden †
Ex-NCAA-Coach

• Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
• Don’t mistake activity with achievement.
• Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
• It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
• Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.

Phil Jackson
Ex-NBA-Spieler & -Coach

• The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.
• Approach the game with no preset agendas and you’ll probably come away surprised at your overall efforts.
• The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome. The ride is a lot more fun that way.
• As a leader, your job is to do everything in your power to create the perfect conditions for success by benching your ego and inspiring your team to play the game the right way. But at some point, you need to let go and turn yourself over to the basketball gods. The soul of success is surrendering to what is.
• That’s why at the start of every season I always encouraged players to focus on the journey rather than the goal. What matters most is playing the game the right way and having the courage to grow, as human beings as well as basketball players. When you do that, the ring takes care of itself.