43 Best Phil Jackson Quotes 'Cause Winning is Contagious

Our Phil Jackson quotes provide insight into the NBA coach who has won the most NBA championships. Having won six titles with the Chicago Bulls and another five with the Los Angeles Lakers, Jackson knows a thing about coaching at the pro level.

The Zen Master has coached Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant. He has a proven ability to work with MVP-level stars.

Best Phil Jackson Quotes

The ideal way to win a championship is step-by-step.
Love is the force that ignites the spirit and binds teams together.
The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.

Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the ‘Me’ for the ‘We.’
Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I’m doing.
I gave it my body and mind, but I have kept my soul.
Your problems never cease; they just change.
Yes, victory is sweet, but it doesn’t necessarily make life any easier the next season or even the next day.
Once you’ve done the mental work, there comes a point you have to throw yourself into the action and put your heart on the line. That means not only being brave but being compassionate towards yourself, your teammates, and your opponents.
I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you’re doing. You have to be a salesman, and you have to get your players, particularly your leaders, to believe in what you’re trying to accomplish on the basketball floor.
You have to be able to psychologically help your players, support-wise, be in touch with them, so I think managing people is very important.

Good Phil Jackson Quotes

Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart.
The sign of a great player is how much he elevates his colleagues’ performance.
Basketball is a sport that involves the subtle interweaving of players at full speed to the point where they are thinking and moving as one.
Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.
Love is the force that ignites the spirit and binds teams together.
Basketball, unlike football with its prescribed routes, is an improvisational game, similar to jazz. If someone drops a note, someone else must step into the vacuum and drive the beat that sustains the team.
When the mind is allowed to relax, inspiration often follows.
An acrobatic dunk will make it onto Sports Center. A simple, unspectacular bounce pass in the rhythm of the offense will not. System basketball has been replaced by players who want to be the system.

The Zen Master’s Insights

Basketball, unlike football with its prescribed routes, is an improvisational game, similar to jazz. If someone drops a note, someone else must step into the vacuum and drive the beat that sustains the team.
Not only is there more to life than basketball, there’s a lot more to basketball than basketball.
Kobe was hell-bent on surpassing Jordan as the greatest player in the game. His obsession with Michael was striking. When we played in Chicago that season, I orchestrated a meeting between the two of them, thinking that Michael might help shift Kobe’s attitude toward selfless teamwork. After they shook hands, the first words out of Kobe’s mouth were, ‘You know I can kick your $#$ one on one.’
The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success and then let go of the outcome. The ride is a lot more fun that way.

On Mindfulness

Like life, basketball is messy and unpredictable. It has its way with you, no matter how hard you try to control it. The trick is to experience each moment with a clear mind and an open heart. When you do that, the game–and life–will take care of itself.
Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.
Coaching is about “How do I get people to play at their peak level?” It is a spiritual quest. And if it’s not that, you don’t have a challenge, you don’t have a mission. Forming a brotherhood and trying to move it forward – that’s what coaching is.
What moves me is watching young men bond together and tap into the magic that arises when they focus with their whole heart and soul on something greater than themselves. Once you’ve experienced that, it’s something you never forget.
As a leader, your job is to do everything in your power to create the perfect conditions for success by benching your ego and inspiring your team to play the game the right way. But at some point, you need to let go and turn yourself over to the basketball gods. The soul of success is surrendering to what is.
Leadership is not about forcing your will on others. It’s about mastering the art of letting go.

See Phil Jackson Wikipedia Page.

Sayings from the Coach Phil Jackson

If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball.
That’s why at the start of every season I always encouraged players to focus on the journey rather than the goal. What matters most is playing the game the right way and having the courage to grow, as human beings as well as basketball players. When you do that, the ring takes care of itself.
In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind, there are few.
In basketball – as in life – true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way. Of course, it’s no accident that things are more likely to go your way when you stop worrying about whether you’re going to win or lose and focus your full attention on what’s happening right this moment.

Fun Phil Jackson Quotes

Approach the game with no preset agendas and you’ll probably come away surprised at your overall efforts.
Once you’ve done the mental work, there comes a point you have to throw yourself into the action and put your heart on the line. That means not only being brave but being compassionate towards yourself, your teammates, and your opponents.
Turn the Mundane into the Sacred. “As I see it, my job as coach was to make something meaningful out of one of the most mundane activities on the planet: Playing pro basketball.” He incorporated meditation into his team’s practices. “I wanted to give players something besides X’s and O’s to focus on. What’s more, we often invented rituals of our own to infuse practices with a sense of the sacred.
Basketball is a simple game. Your goal is penetration, getting the ball close to the basket, and there are three ways to do that. Pass, dribble, and offensive rebound.
And yet, as a coach, I know that being fixated on winning (or, more likely, not losing) is counterproductive, especially when it causes you to lose control of your emotions. What’s more, obsessing about winning is a loser’s game: The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success and then let go of the outcome. The ride is a lot more fun that way.

Basketball is a Mystery Quote

Basketball is a great mystery. You can do everything right. You can have the perfect mix of talent and the best system of offense in the game. (And) You can devise a foolproof defensive strategy and prepare your players for every possible eventuality. But if the players don’t have a sense of oneness as a group, your efforts won’t pay off. And the bond that unites a team can be so fragile, so elusive.

By Mike O’Halloran

Founder and Editor, Sports Feel Good Stories

Mike O’Halloran founded Sports Feel Good Stories in 2009. He co-authored four trivia books for kids under the Smart Attack line. Mike coached basketball for 15 seasons, taught tennis, and has written four books on basketball coaching. He has been a contributing writer for USA Football, the youth arm of the NFL. Mike is the founder of the Fantasy Football Team Names Hall of Fame.