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The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.

Bill Russell

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

Decision Power Reality World
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
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
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
Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.
BILL RUSSELL

Focus Mental Tough Victory
Success is a result of consistent practice of winning skills and actions. There is nothing miraculous about the process. There is no luck involved.
BILL RUSSELL

Action Luck Miracle Practice Result Skill Success
People say it was the greatest individual rivalry they’ve ever seen. I agree with that. Let me assure you that if either Wilt’s or Russ’ coach had ever told one of them he couldn’t guard the other guy, he would have lost that player forever.
BILL RUSSELL

Forever Greatness People Player Rivalry
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
I think that David Stern is probably the greatest commissioner that any sport has ever had in the history of this country.
BILL RUSSELL

Commission Country Greatness Thinking
To love someone is nothing, to be loved by someone is something, to love someone who loves you is everything.
BILL RUSSELL

Feeling True
Most people have a harder time letting themselves love than finding someone to love them.
BILL RUSSELL

Finding Hard Time Love People
My most prized possession was my library card from the Oakland Public Library.
BILL RUSSELL

Library Myself Possession Prize
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

Instinct Kill Social Wonder Yourself
Create unselfishness as the most important team attribute.
BILL RUSSELL

Attribute Creation Important Selfish Team
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 RUSSELL

Happiness Hungry Light Natural Restaurant Sun Win Yourself
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

Paper Positive Team Thinking
The only important statistic is the final score.
BILL RUSSELL

Final Importance Score Statistics
Don’t knock the ball in the stands, keep it in your hands!
BILL RUSSELL

Hands Stand Yourself
Friendship is a full-time job.
BILL RUSSELL

Friendship Job One Liner Time
What distinguishes a great player is his presence. When he goes on to the court, his presence dominates the atmosphere.
BILL RUSSELL

Atmosphere Dominate Greatness Player Presence
If a guy pays you five dollars, you give him seven dollars worth of work.
BILL RUSSELL

Man Pay Work Worth Yourself
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
Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.
BILL RUSSELL

Athlete Durability Endurance Greatness Inspirational One Liner
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
You can do anything you want to do if you want it bad enough.
BILL RUSSELL

Bad Enough Yourself
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.
BILL RUSSELL

Compare Life Play Stage
On females officiating in the NBA -Incompetence should not be confined to one sex.
BILL RUSSELL

Female Oneself Sex

The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.

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The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I’d made my teammates play.

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