If you really have integrity, there are very few people who can insult you, or honor you.
BILL RUSSELLHeart 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.
More Bill Russell Quotes
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Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.
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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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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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To love someone is nothing, to be loved by someone is something, to love someone who loves you is everything.
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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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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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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.
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Don’t knock the ball in the stands, keep it in your hands!
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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.
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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.
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I’ve been fortunate to meet and work with a lot of really smart people. The thing that strikes me most about them is how they continue to explore and learn every day. I have tried to apply that approach in my modest career as well.
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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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Remember that basketball is a game of habits. If you make the other guy deviate from his habits, you’ve got him.
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My most prized possession was my library card from the Oakland Public Library.
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The magic to a great meeting is all of the work that’s done beforehand.
BILL RUSSELL