43 Rick Pitino Quotes On Basketball, Leadership, Success & Hard Work

motivational quotes Dec 26, 2024

The best quotes from Coach Rick Pitino:

Rick Pitino is a highly successful basketball coach who has coached across various levels of competition.

Over his career, Pitino has coached many prestigious programs like the University of Louisville, the University of Kentucky, the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Panathinaikos and more.

Coach Pitino has won two NCAA championships, multiple conference titles, two Greek league championships, the John Wooden National Coach of the Year award and more. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.

Pitino is not just known for his awards and accolades, he is also known for his leadership, motivation, and emphasis on hard work, humility, and self-discipline.

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Rick Pitino Basketball Quotes

1. "It's better to have a good player with the basketball in late game situations than to have plays."

2. "The basic premise of my system is to fatigue your opponents with constant pressure defensively and constant movement offensively."

3. "I’m a true basketball junkie. For two years, when I was without basketball, I played golf and it told me to get back in the game. I have come full circle."

4. "A good shooter taking a great shot is better than a great shooter taking a bad one."

5. "Basketball is my passion, and I love it, and I love to see my players succeed. I'm here for them and my children. That's my passion."

6. "I loved going to the Knicks because we won the Atlantic Division championship. We went from winning 21 games or 19 games to winning 52 games in a short period of time. I loved coaching Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley and all those guys."

7. "I'm at the stage of my career when it's not only about winning and developing players, it's about having fun. That's a void in your life right now, but it's something you're going to have here."

8. "I give myself 24 hours after a loss. After that, I'm totally on to the next game. But for 24 hours, I'm not a happy man."

9. "Basketball has consumed me since the age of 7 or 8. I don't know what I would do without it."

10. "I think one of the keys of coaching, it’s not only a strategy or motivation, it is really getting players that fit your system. I need guys that can shoot the basketball, not fatigue, get after it defensively."

11. "It’s easy to focus on self. That is the natural inclination of people. But it is more productive to focus on the team. And it is even more important to focus on the work you must do to help the team."

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Best Rick Pitino Quotes About Coaching and Leadership

12. "Passion and hunger are the two ingredients that I look for in first making the judgment on - whether an athlete, an assistant coach, or a horse trainer or anybody I do business with."

13. "Basketball is my passion, and I love it, and I love to see my players succeed. I'm here for them and my children. That's my passion."

14. "The only way to get people to like working hard is to motivate them. Today, people must understand why they're working hard. Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different."

15. "I never thought that shoes would be the reason that you recruit players, but it's a factor. I think we need to get the shoe companies out of the lives of the athletes. I think we need to get it back to where parents and coaches have more of a say than peripheral people, but that's easier said than done."

16. "Technology is a compulsive and addictive way to live. Verbal communication cannot be lost because of a lack of skill. The ability to listen and learn is key to mastering the art of communication. If you don't use your verbal skills and networking, it will disappear rapidly. Use technology wisely."

17. "I plan to coach at University of Louisville for as long as I can maintain the passion I have for the game of basketball. I don't want to coach anywhere else. I don't believe in anything else as much as I believe in this university and this state. I want to coach as long as they will have me."

18. "I'd tell any coach not to move for money... Stay at your job if you're really happy."

19. "I would tell players to relax and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you’ve lost your focus."

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Quotes About Life, Success & Failure From Coach Pitino

20. "Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth, remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success."

21. "Tackle the difficult things first in the morning; make changes in the way you network. Treat everyone with respect and dignity. This stops you from cynicism and negativity. End your day with that same attitude you started. Renew your contract with a day well completed."

22. "Long term success is a direct result of what you achieve everyday."

23. "Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer."

24. "Success is a choice."

25. "Failure is good. It's fertilizer. Everything I've learned about coaching, I've learned from making mistakes."

26. "I just don't deal with the negativity. I can't get involved in that side of it. I don't understand it, and you can't let it take away from your life and what you are trying to do."

27. "I'd learned how much happiness money can bring you. Very little."

28. "I try not to get too low. I fight adversity as hard as I can fight it, not to get too low. When good things happen, I don't really embrace it. I just say it's a lucky day."

29. "Lying makes a problem part of the future; truth makes a problem part of the past."

Hard Work Quotes By Rick Pitino

30. "Those who work the hardest are the last to surrender."

31. "The term 'overachiever' sort of makes it look like the person has mediocre talent and he just works so hard that he achieves beyond what you would think. 'Overachiever' is sort of a - it's sort of an incorrect term. An overachiever is someone that's just willing to pay the price to get so much more out of his performance."

32. "Dreamers are not content with being mediocre."

33. "Succeeding in difficult times means perseverance, and that trait is not prevalent in these times. We are the now generation."

34. "You can develop all of the wonderful traits you need to succeed—focus, humility, toughness, and passion—but if you quit when things become difficult or when you become discouraged, they all are worthless."

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Other Famous Rick Pitino Quotes

35. "We tried everything. We played four white guys and an Egyptian."

36. "One thing I've learned to do with my age, I really don't look ahead. For years, I've been preaching the precious present and having to always subscribe to it."

37. "If I had one regret in life... it's that I was not more humble at an earlier age."

38. "The one thing I've always said: Let your family and close friends be the judge of who you are as a person. Don't worry about being judged by others who don't know you, because your family and close friends know what you're all about, good and bad."

39. "Avoid cynical and negative people like the plague. They are killers of potential."

40. "What I've found in my life with our children is that often you can give them advice and tell them to eat the right things, stay in shape and wear sunscreen, and they don't really want to listen. But then they hear it from someone else, and they do listen."

41. "I care what people think, but it doesn't change my opinion of how to do things."

42. "I ignore the jealous, I ignore the malicious, I ignore the ignorant, and I ignore the paranoid. If the shoe fits anyone, wear it."

43. "The person with true humility does not see himself as a lone fighter. People with humility see themselves as part of something bigger."

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