I wanted to compete at the highest level again – and that’s the NBA.
LARRY BIRDYou know when I played, you had me and Kevin (McHale) and some others throughout the league.
More Larry Bird Quotes
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You’re all playin’ for second place.
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If you tell a teammate you’re ready to play as tough as you’re able to, you’d better go out there and do it.
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I had control of the ball. As a coach you sort of put the ball in other player’s hands and let them make decisions for you. But I still get a kick out of winning basketball games and that’s what I’m in this for.
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My goal was just to try and be the best player on my high school team, and look where I am now. And that was still my goal as a young kid, just to try and be a little better than my brother was.
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Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you’re ready to play as tough as you’re able to, you’d better go out there and do it..
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Guys like Larry Bird — he played so hard, he wants everybody else to play hard. That’s not unreasonable. Any coach would want that and demand that.
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I wasn’t real quick, and I wasn’t real strong. Some guys will just take off and it’s like, whoa. So I beat them with my mind and my fundamentals.
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In the closing seconds of every game, I want the ball in my hands for the last shot – not in anybody else’s, not in anybody else’s in the world.
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Anytime you’ve got an opportunity to play for your country and win a gold medal,
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I always know what’s happening on the court. I see a situation occur, and I respond.
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Once you are labeled ‘the best’ you want to stay up there, and you can’t do it by loafing around.
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The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson.
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Coaches can talk and talk and talk about something, but if you get it on tape and show it to them, it is so much more effective.
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When I was a kid, like 14 or 15, I played with the waiters from the hotel, ’cause that was the best game. And these guys, they’d let me play. And they were black guys.
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My coach told me, “Larry, no matter how much you work at it, there’s always someone out there who’s working just a little harder – if you take 150 practice shots, he’s taking 200.” And that drove me.
LARRY BIRD