What distinguishes a great player is his presence. When he goes on to the court, his presence dominates the atmosphere.
BILL RUSSELLTo 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.
More Bill Russell Quotes
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If Shakespeare can compare all of life to a stage, maybe it’s not odd to believe that part of the play can take place on a basketball court.
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The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.
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The only important statistic is the final score.
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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.
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Success is a result of consistent practice of winning skills and actions. There is nothing miraculous about the process. There is no luck involved.
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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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We overreached our decision power. Sometimes our decisions have to fit the reality of the outside world.
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Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.
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Don’t knock the ball in the stands, keep it in your hands!
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If a guy pays you five dollars, you give him seven dollars worth of work.
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Friendship is a full-time job.
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Most people have a harder time letting themselves love than finding someone to love them.
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I think that David Stern is probably the greatest commissioner that any sport has ever had in the history of this country.
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What’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.
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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.
BILL RUSSELL