Best Pat Riley Quotes About Success, Leadership, Basketball, and Life

Top quotes from Pat Riley, 9x NBA Champion

Pat Riley is a former professional basketball player and coach who now serves as the team president of the Miami Heat.

Riley is best known for his success, having won a total of 9 NBA championships as a player, coach, and executive. 

As a coach, Riley won a total of five NBA championships. He won four championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980's (1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988) and one with the Miami Heat in 2006.

After coaching, Riley transitioned into an executive role where he continued his successful ways. As the President of the Miami Heat, he helped assemble the "Big Three" - LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh - which led to multiple NBA Finals appearances and two championships in 2012 and 2013.

Overall, Pat Riley is known for his exceptional leadership skills, ability to create a winning culture, and his emphasis of discipline, teamwork, and a strong work ethic.

You also might like:

• 60 Inspirational Phil Jackson Quotes | The Zen Master >>

• Dwyane Wade Quotes On Basketball, Work Ethic, Confidence & Success  >>

• 109 Jimmy Butler Quotes On Work Ethic, Heart, Competition & Basketball >>

Pat Riley On Winning, Success And Greatness

"Great players and great teams want to be driven, to be pushed to the edge. They don't want to be cheated. Ordinary players want it to be easy."

"Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better."

"Whatever it takes to win."

"There's always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning."

"Being a part of success is more important than being personally indispensable."

 "The key to success is to learn to do something right and then do it right every time."

"Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle."

"Great players crave instruction on their weaknesses."

"When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor."

"In every contest, there comes a moment that separates winning from losing. The true warrior understands and seizes that moment." 

"Excellence happens when you try each day to both do and be, a little better than you were yesterday."

"Giving yourself permission to lose guarantees a loss."

"It's what you get from games you lose that is extremely important."

"When a milestone is conquered, the subtle erosion called entitlement begins its consuming grind. The team regards its greatness as a trait and a right. Half hearted effort becomes habit and saps a champion."

More quotes: The 24 Best Kobe Bryant Mamba Mentality Quotes  >>

Best Pat Riley Quotes On Leadership And Coaching

"Discipline is not a nasty word."

"Management must speak with one voice. When it doesn't management itself becomes a peripheral opponent to the team's mission."

"To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way."

"All I did from day-to-day is coach. That's what my job was, that's what my passion was, and the fact that now it's something I'm being considered for is just mind-blowing to me, that I would ever be in that kind of company."

"From nobody to upstart. From upstart to contender. From contender to winner. From winner to champion. From champion to dynasty."

"Am I a control freak? No. Do I believe in organization? You bet. In discipline? In being on time and making sure everything at the hotel is ready and right? Definitely. I don't control players. I try to control the environment around the players so they can flourish."

"In all the research you do as a coach, studying other coaches and championship-type situations, you find that all those teams combined talent with great defense. You've got to stop other teams to win."

"Coaches who let a championship team back off from becoming a dynasty are cowards."

You might like: 24 Motivational Basketball Quotes To Build Confidence >>

Pat Riley Basketball Quotes

"A particular shot or way of moving the ball can be a player's personal signature, but efficiency of performance is what wins the game for the team."

"You can never have enough talent."

"You have to defeat a great players aura more than his game."

"Complacency is the last hurdle standing between any team and its potential greatness."

"No rebounds, no rings."

"When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly search for new and more intricate explanations to explain away defeat."

"We measure areas of performance that are often ignored: jumping in pursuit of every rebound even if you don't get it, swatting at every pass, diving for loose balls, letting someone smash into you in order to draw the foul. These 'effort' statistics are also stored on computer. Effort is what ultimately separates journeyman players from impact players. Knowing how well a player executes all these little things is the key to unlocking career-best performances."

"Basketball is a game of conditioning and fatigue. That's why I believe in practicing a team to train when it's exhausted."

"Basketball is a business. Pure and simple. If you want to have fun, go to the YMCA."

"I'd like my reputation to stay as it is and to be remembered for a wonderful decade."

 Guided Meditation: Pregame Guided Meditation For Basketball Players >> 

Pat Riley Quotes About Teamwork

"Commitment to the team - there is no such thing as in-between, you are either in our out."

"The key to teamwork is to learn a role, accept a role, and strive to become excellent playing it."

"Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers."

"The most difficult thing for individuals to do when they become part of a team is to sacrifice. It is much easier to be selfish."

"Teamwork requires that everyone's efforts flow in a single direction. Feelings of significance happen when a team's energy takes on a life of its own."

"When a gifted team dedicates itself to unselfish trust and combines instinct with boldness and effort, it's ready to climb."

You might like: How to Mentally Prepare For a Basketball Game (5-Step Routine) >>

Quotes From Pat Riley About Life

"There can only be one state of mind as you approach any profound test; total concentration, a spirit of togetherness, and strength."

"Look for your choices, pick the best one, then go with it."

"Don't let other people tell you what you want."

"Shoulda, coulda, and woulda won't get it done. In attacking adversity, only a positive attitude, alertness, and regrouping to basics can launch a comeback."

"We sometimes need adversity to fathom our true depths."

"You can only receive what you're willing to give."

"The changes in your life aren't always what you hoped for. But they usually help you grow."

"When you face a fork in the road, step on the exhilarator!"

"In every adversity, there is a seed of equivalent benefit."

"There's no such thing as coulda, shoulda, or woulda. If you shoulda and coulda, you woulda done it."

 "You’re either in or out. There’s no such thing as a life in between."

More quotes: Famous LeBron James Quotes >> 

Inspirational Pat Riley Quotes About Work Ethic And Preparation

"Being ready isn't enough; you have to be prepared for a promotion or any other significant change."

"You have no choices about how you lose, but you do have a choice about how you come back and prepare to win again."

 "Anytime you stop striving to get better, you're bound to get worse."

"Never be ready to play yesterday. Being ready to play today is what's important."

"People who create 20% of the results will begin believing they deserve 80% of the rewards."

 "When you leave it to chance, then all of a sudden you don't have any more luck."

You might like: How to Mentally Train for Basketball >>

Pat Riley On Mental Toughness, Attitude, And Positivity 

"Great effort springs naturally from great attitude."

"All of us have at least one great voice deep inside. People are products of their environment. A lucky few are born into situations in which positive messages abound. Others grow up hearing messages of fear and failure, which they must block out so the positive can be heard. But the positive and courageous voice will always emerge, somewhere, sometime, for all of us. Listen for it, and your breakthroughs will come."

"If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges."

"If you get tough mentally, you can get tough physically and overcome fatigue."

Read also: What Is The Mamba Mentality? >>

Other Motivational Pat Riley Quotes

"Each Warrior wants to leave the mark of his will, his signature, on important acts he touches. This is not the voice of ego but of the human spirit, rising up and declaring that it has something to contribute to the solution of the hardest problems, no matter how vexing!"

"There are only two options regarding commitment; you’re either in or you’re out."

"The true warrior understands and seizes that moment by giving an effort so intense and so intuitive that it could only be called one from the heart."

"I've learned to keep things simple. Look at your choices, pick the best one, then go to work with all your heart."

More motivational basketball quotes:

• Kobe Bryant | Michael Jordan | Steph Curry | LeBron James | Kyrie Irving | Kevin Durant | Allen Iverson | Shaq | Larry Bird | Phil Jackson | John Wooden | Coach Pat Summitt | Coach Jim Valvano | All