Larry Bird quotes:

A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.

Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It's being able to take it as well as dish it out. That's the only way you're going to get respect from the players.

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. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got.

Push yourself again and again. Don't give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.

As far as playing, I didn't care who guarded me - red, yellow, black. I just didn't want a white guy guarding me, because it's disrespect to my game.

I've got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.

I used to love the feeling of running, of running too far. It made my skin tingle.

I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-American.

What's better? Dogs or broomsticks? I mean will the world really ever know?

It doesn't matter who scores the points, it's who can get the ball to the scorer.

The one thing that always bothered me when I played in the NBA was I really got irritated when they put a white guy on me.

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.

I really don't like talking about money. All I can say is that the Good Lord must have wanted me to have it.

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.

The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson.

The best basketball announcer is one who allows you to close your eyes.

Once you are labeled 'the best' you want to stay up there, and you can't do it by loafing around.

I think you have to work very hard and dedicate yourself and have the respect of your teammates before you're about to go out and just try to take a game over by yourself.

While day by day the overzealous student stores up facts for future use, he who has learned to trust nature finds need for ever fewer external directions. He will discard formula after formula, until he reaches the conclusion: Let nature take its course.

First master the fundamentals

I was always making decisions and they were easier decisions because I had control of the game, 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.

When it gets down to it, basketball is basketball.

I like being by myself.

I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me.

The best players will play. That's the way it will always be.

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.

I get homesick.

But it is a black man's game, and it will be forever.

If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she'd get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don't mean she wouldn't pay the bank, but the children always came first.

Anytime you've got an opportunity to play for your country and win a gold medal, I think that takes it all. That's the greatest thing you could ever achieve in your sport. So, I have been very fortunate to play on great teams, but the gold medal was probably the best.

Basketball has been my life and I worked at it so hard because I enjoyed it so much.

Basketball was always a game to me. One of the greatest things in life for me was to be able to play what I loved dearly and get paid for it. So it was always a game to me and that's how I perceived everything.

Before every game I used to go out and shot the same shots over and over and over. In the summer time I spent a lot of time just shooting. So really it just came natural. Whether it's a tie game or down by 1 or up by five, it was always the same shot. So I always felt comfortable with the ball in my hands because it was in there a million times before.

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.

Don't let winning make you soft. Don't let losing make you quit. Don't let your teammates down in any situation.

First master the fundamentals.

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.

I always know what's happening on the court. I see a situation occur, and I respond.

I can see why fans don't like to watch pro basketball. I don't, either. It's not exciting.

I don't think that once you get to one level, you can relax. You've got to keep pushing.

I hate to lose more than I like to win.

I have always been confident in my skills and once the game got going I knew I was probably the best player on the floor most of the time whether it was junior high, high school or college. I knew I had control of the game.

I just shoot until I feel good.

I knew I was as good as anybody. That's not really bragging; it's just that I'd put the time in.

I learned what my weaknesses were and I went out the next day to turn those weaknesses intro strengths.

I think a lot of blue collar people related to me because a lot of people work for their money.

I wanted to compete at the highest level again - and that's the NBA.

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.

It makes me sick when I see a guy just stare at a loose ball and watch it go out of bounds.

It's been a journey, the NBA. It's taken me a lot farther than I ever expected.

I've always been interested in jobs in the NBA. But I've been in this for 20 years and it might be time to do something else.

I've been around a while. I kinda know these things.

Maybe it's God disguised as Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan is God disguised as a basketball player.

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.

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.

My name's been on this check for a week now.

My opinion about basketball, the way I was taught, was when you step on the court, you play to win.

Practice habits were crucial to my development in basketball. I didn't play against the toughest competition in high school, but one reason I was able to do well in college was that I mastered the fundamentals. You've got to have them down before you can even think about playing.

Strength is not nearly as important as desire. I don't think you can teach anyone desire. I think it's a gift. I don't know why I have it, but I do.

The more you win, the better you're gonna get. It grows on itself.

The nature of competition is such that any number of people invariably have their eyes on the same prize you do. Recognize your assets and employ them to the best of your ability.

There are many times when you are better off practicing than playing; but most people just don't understand that

When I go to the line I'm thinking 'All net.' When I don't think that, I'm likely to miss.

When I was a player, I didn't expect my teammates to play the way I did. I did expect them to work hard hard every day and get better. And I never learned anything by losing.

When I was young, I never wanted to leave the court until I got things exactly correct. My dream was to become a pro.

Who in their right mind wouldn't listen to what Larry Bird tells them? He knows what it takes to be a successful player, and he's letting us do the things to have the success.

You can make all the excuses you want, but if you're not mentally tough and you're not prepared to play every night, you're not going to win.

You know when I played, you had me and Kevin (McHale) and some others throughout the league. I think it's good for a fan base because as we all know the majority of the fans are white America. And if you just had a couple of white guys in there, you might get them a little excited.

You never make any of the shots you never take. 87% of the ones you do take, you'll miss too. I make 110% of my shots.

You're all playin' for second place.

I'm a firm believer in that you play the way you practice.