Basketball is the most simple game in the world. You work to get good shots and you limit your opponent's good ones and you win the game. Nothing very complex about that.

You want to know what the biggest difficulty in getting to the top of the ladder is? The biggest difficulty in getting to the top of the ladder is getting through the crowd at the bottom.

You can win and still not succeed, still not achieve what you should. And you can lose without really failing at all.

When my time on earth is done and my activities here are past, I want them to bury me upside down and my critics can kiss my ass.

Basketball is the All-American and the All-Pro: it's a ragtag kid shooting a worn out ball through a broken rim; it's the guy who plays 40 minutes and the guy who just hopes to get in the game. Basketball...is long hours of practice before empty stands. It's adulation and recognition; it's a coach hollering after every mistake. It's joy, ecstasy and triumph, but it can also be sadness sorrow and rejection. Basketball is America. It's national championships and three-on-three in the school yards. It's rich people and poor people; it's black people and white people; it's big people and little people.

Even people at West Point would say, "He's too tough on the cadets." But why the hell shouldn't we be? I mean, you're watching Army playing in Madison Square Garden, you ought to think these guys are going to be able to get out and protect the country too.

I don't like people very well because most of them lack intestinal fortitude or integrity.

I think all all alumni should be canonized. That way the coach would only have to kiss their rings

Human nature is that thing that prevents us from reaching our potential. Try to beat human nature. That's your opponent.