I’ve never felt my job was to win basketball games – rather, that the essence of my job as a coach was to do everything I could to give my players the background necessary to succeed in life.
BOBBY KNIGHTWhen I first started coaching, one of the worst things that I think I heard was ‘It will be O.K.’ I would wonder, ‘How the hell is it going to be O.K.?’ The worst word in the English language is ‘hope.’
More Bobby Knight Quotes
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As his team prepares, a coach’s entire being must be concentrated on winning games.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
And I would be the first to admit that probably, in a lot of press conferences over the time that I have been in coaching, indulging my own sense of humor at press conferences has not been greatly to my benefit.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
Practice structure determines success.
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To be as good as it can be, a team has to buy into what you as the coach are doing. They have to feel you’re a part of them and they’re a part of you.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
I don’t believe in luck, I believe in preparation.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
I’m not sure that an athlete is prepared to be a role model. He has a lot of attention paid to him that he shouldn’t have, and then the athletes tend to think of themselves as better than they are.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
There are as many guys in coaching who do a lousy job as there are in the media. Those are two professions that are a lot alike. There aren’t a hell of a lot of really good coaches or writers.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
Victory favors the team making the fewest mistakes.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
My definition isas follows: 1. Do what has to be done; 2. When it has to be done; 3. As well as it can be done; and 4. Do it it that way all the time.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
I’ve always had an a$$-to-the-brain theory. When a player’s a$$ gets put on the bench, a message goes straight to the brain saying, Get me off of here.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
I also believe that when something negative comes out about you in the media, that’s only one person’s opinion. These guys sometimes believe they’ve been ordained from on high to give the general opinion of the populace, and that just isn’t the case.
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People change over the years, and that changes situations, for good and for bad.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
I recognize that I have a problem with my temper. For those times it has ever caused me to do anything that gave anyone understandable and justifiable reason to be upset, I am sincerely sorry.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
You are never going to be driven anywhere worthwhile, but you sure as hell drive yourself to a lot of great places. It is up to you to drive yourself there.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
My overall point is that ‘one and dones’ are not healthy for college basketball. I should not have made it personal to Kentucky and its players and I apologize.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
When my time on earth is done and my activities here are past, I want them to bury me upside down, so my critics can kiss my ass.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
Pat has been instrumental in what we’ve done here so far and the most selfish thing for me is that I want to see what we’ve done placed in the hands of the most competent person, and that’s Pat.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
As I’ve said, basketball has been, I think, a real cooperative venture. There have been a lot of people that have been involved in it: coaches, administrators – not recently – fans and nobody, nobody any more so than students over the years.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
Your biggest opponent isn’t the other guy. It’s human nature.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
You remember when you were a kid growing up, and believed in Santa Claus? There’s not much difference between Santa Claus and me today, you know. We’re two overweight lovable guys that kids really enjoy.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
Basketball may have been invented in Massachusetts, but it was made for Indiana.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
Son, my name isn’t Knight to you, it’s coach Knight or it’s Mr. Knight. I don’t call people by their last name and neither should you.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
In order to achieve to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them
BOBBY KNIGHT -
For me to get an award from the press, I know there’s been no favoritism.
BOBBY KNIGHT -
Everybody wants to be on a championship team, but nobody wants to come to practice.
BOBBY KNIGHT