To me, the most important part of winning is joy. You can win without joy, but winning that’s joyless is like eating in a four-star restaurant when you’re not hungry. Joy is a current of energy in your body, like chlorophyll or sunlight, that fills you up and makes you naturally want to do your best.
BILL RUSSELLWhat’s more important than who’s going to be the first black manager is who’s going to be the first black sports editor of the New York Times.
More Bill Russell Quotes
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Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute.
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The most important thing to me is the friends that I’ve made.
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We couldn’t sustain it. And they got a lot of kids that can shoot. We just couldn’t close out well enough.
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Heart in champions has to do with the depth of our motivation and how well your mind and body react to pressure – that is, being able to do what you do best under maximum pain and stress.
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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.
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The only important statistic is the final score.
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Friendship is a full-time job.
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Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.
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Most people have a harder time letting themselves love than finding someone to love them.
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If you can take something to levels that very few other people can reach, then what you’re doing becomes art.
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We overreached our decision power. Sometimes our decisions have to fit the reality of the outside world.
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I think what has happened to our basketball team, we’ve been badly distracted. They’re not reading too many positive things in the paper.
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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.
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My most prized possession was my library card from the Oakland Public Library.
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Learning is a daily experience and a lifetime mission. I truly believe in the saying “We work to become, not to acquire.”
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