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You got to have the killer instinct. If you do not have it, forget about basketball and go into social psychology or something. If you sometimes wonder if you’ve got it, you ain’t got it. No pussycats, please.

Bill Russell

The last five or six days, I’ve been running. The last two days, I’ve been running pretty hard. Everybody’s got to be someplace.
BILL RUSSELL

Hard Myself Pretty Run
My father once told me that anyone who worked for three dollars an hour owed it to himself to put in four dollars’ worth of work.
BILL RUSSELL

Father Myself Work Worth
We overreached our decision power. Sometimes our decisions have to fit the reality of the outside world.
BILL RUSSELL

Decision Power Reality World
We couldn’t sustain it. And they got a lot of kids that can shoot. We just couldn’t close out well enough.
BILL RUSSELL

Children Close Enough Sustainable
Learning is a daily experience and a lifetime mission. I truly believe in the saying “We work to become, not to acquire.”
BILL RUSSELL

Experience Learning Mission Time Work
Don’t knock the ball in the stands, keep it in your hands!
BILL RUSSELL

Hands Stand Yourself
My most prized possession was my library card from the Oakland Public Library.
BILL RUSSELL

Library Myself Possession Prize
The only important statistic is the final score.
BILL RUSSELL

Final Importance Score Statistics
Remember that basketball is a game of habits. If you make the other guy deviate from his habits, you’ve got him.
BILL RUSSELL

Game Habit Himself Remember Yourself
The morale and the camaraderie that we had for one another earlier in the year is starting to come under duress because of all the losses. Some of the guys are feeling the pressure now from the last year when they were not successful.
BILL RUSSELL

Command Early Loss Moral Pressure Success
We learn to make a shell for ourselves when we are young and then spend the rest of our lives hoping for someone to reach inside and touch us. Just touch us-anything more than that would be too much for us to bear.
BILL RUSSELL

Bear Learning Live Touch Young
Commitment separates those who live their dreams from those who live their lives regretting the opportunities they have squandered.
BILL RUSSELL

Commitment Live Opportunity Regret Separate
The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.
BILL RUSSELL

Important Measurement Myself Play Team
The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.
BILL RUSSELL

Believe Block Ideas Opponent Yourself
If you really have integrity, there are very few people who can insult you, or honor you.
BILL RUSSELL

Insult Integrity People Respect Yourself
If a guy pays you five dollars, you give him seven dollars worth of work.
BILL RUSSELL

Man Pay Work Worth Yourself

You got to have the killer instinct. If you do not have it, forget about basketball and go into social psychology or something. If you sometimes wonder if you’ve got it, you ain’t got it. No pussycats, please.

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You got to have the killer instinct. If you do not have it, forget about basketball and go into social psychology or something. If you sometimes wonder if you’ve got it, you ain’t got it. No pussycats, please.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Bill Russell Quotes