Best 56 quotes of Larry Bird on MyQuotes

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Eminem. My son was listening to that and I was like, “What is that junk?” Then I started listening and I thought, You know, that kid is pretty good. It's the storytelling.

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.

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.

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 hate to lose more than I like to win.

I just shoot until I feel good.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

When I was a player, I didn't expect my teammates to play the way I did. I did expect them to work 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.