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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

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
Durability is part of what makes a great athlete.
BILL RUSSELL

Athlete Durability Endurance Greatness Inspirational One Liner
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
The magic to a great meeting is all of the work that’s done beforehand.
BILL RUSSELL

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

Decision Power Reality World
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
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 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.
BILL RUSSELL

Instinct Kill Social Wonder Yourself
If you can take something to levels that very few other people can reach, then what you’re doing becomes art.
BILL RUSSELL

Art Level People Reach Yourself
To love someone is nothing, to be loved by someone is something, to love someone who loves you is everything.
BILL RUSSELL

Feeling True
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
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
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.
BILL RUSSELL

Black Important Manager
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
Don’t knock the ball in the stands, keep it in your hands!
BILL RUSSELL

Hands Stand Yourself
The most important thing to me is the friends that I’ve made.
BILL RUSSELL

Friendship Important Myself
Most people have a harder time letting themselves love than finding someone to love them.
BILL RUSSELL

Finding Hard Time Love People
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
If you really have integrity, there are very few people who can insult you, or honor you.
BILL RUSSELL

Insult Integrity People Respect Yourself
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
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
My most prized possession was my library card from the Oakland Public Library.
BILL RUSSELL

Library Myself Possession Prize
Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.
BILL RUSSELL

Focus Mental Tough Victory
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

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

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