Our Mike Krzyzewski quotes will make you feel like you’re sitting on the bench of a Duke basketball game. The ultra-successful coach has won five NCAA Championships, 15 ACC Tournaments, and 12 ACC regular-season titles.
If you’re coaching basketball, learn from the best. Read on.
Great Mike Krzyzewski Quotes
I believe a big part of leadership is about winning the moment.
Leadership is an ever-evolving position.
When I had troubles, I’d go out with basketball – you can do it by yourself, too. So you’d go out and shoot, and you’d fantasize.
With me and basketball, it became part of me.
A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That’s how I want you to play.
Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.
Coach K Quotes on Life
The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions.
Leaders have to search for the heart of a team because the person who has it can bring out the best in everybody else.
A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That’s how I want you to play.
I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one.
I have a rule on my team: when we talk to one another, we look each other right in the eye, because I think it’s tough to lie to somebody. You give respect to somebody.
I think you’re not a human being unless you have doubts and fears.
I’m fortunate now that I coach at Duke University and we’ve won a lot. I have some kids who haven’t failed that much. But when they get to college, they’re going to fail sometimes. That’s a thing that I can help them the most with.
See Understanding Basketball Positions From Point Guard to Stretch 5.
Mike Krzyzewski on Winning
I’ve tried to handle winning well so that maybe we’ll win again, but I’ve also tried to handle failure well. If those serve as good examples for teachers and kids, then I hope that would be a contribution I have made to sport. Not just basketball, but to the sport.
If a team cannot perform with excellence at a moment’s notice, they probably will fail in the long run.
Coach K’s Basketball Sayings
I hated to lose.
I’m looking for players who make their teammates better. You do that with enthusiasm and passion.
If you have talent with teamwork, you’ve got a chance to be a championship team.
Imagination has a great deal to do with winning.
In high school, in sport, I had a coach who told me I was much better than I thought I was and would make me do more in a positive sense. He was the first person who taught me not to be afraid of failure.
Mike Krzyzewski on Basketball
The thing I loved the most – and still love the most about teaching – is that you can connect with an individual or a group, and see that individual or group exceed their limits.
I always wanted to teach.
The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions.
Whatever a leader does now sets up what he does later. And there’s always a later.
Even though we want huge individual egos, our collective ego is unbelievable.
Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.
When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance.
First of all, what happens is, when you’re good at something, you spend a lot of time with it. People identify you with that sport, so it becomes part of your identity.
To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.
I don’t look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball.
See Basketball Plans for Youth Coaches
Check out the Official website of Coach K – Mike Krzyzewski.
Mike Krzyzewski Sayings on the Game
Confrontation simply means meeting the truth head-on.
With accomplishments comes confidence and with confidence comes belief. It has to be in that order.
A leader’s responsibility to his team is paramount. It overshadows even his own personal feelings at any given time.
Don’t worry about losing. Think about winning.
Confidence shared is better than confidence only in yourself.
People want to be on a team. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be in a situation where they feel that they are doing something for the greater good.
Courage gives a leader the ability to stand straight and not sway no matter which way the wind blows.
When you sub, tell the player to give you three great minutes, and if you bust your butt, I’ll give you an extra minute.
By Mike O’Halloran
Mike is a former basketball coach, has authored three books on basketball, and is the editor of Sports Feel Good Stories.
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