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The Boston Celtics are not a basketball team, they are a way of life.
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Just do what you do best.
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Winners train, losers complain. Give me twelve players that want to win and they will find a way to win.
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To be a successful coach you should be and look prepared. You must be a man of integrity. Never break your word. Don't have two sets of standards. Remember you don't handle players-you handle pets. You deal with players. Stand up for your players. Show them you care-on and off the court. Very important-it's not 'how' or 'what' you say but what they absorb.
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I don't believe in statistics. There are too many factors that can't be measured. You can't measure a ballplayer's heart.
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Wilt Chamberlain had a great deal to do with the success of the NBA. His dominance, power, demeanor and the rivalry with Bill Russell says it all. He will be sorely missed by myself and everyone in the basketball community. Wilt was a great performer and a great athlete.
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All records are made to be broken.
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You can't win without the ball.
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You've got to avoid overcoaching. You've got to avoid talking too much. You've got to avoid showing players that you're the boss every time. You don't have to do that. They know you're in charge.
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An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise.
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Any coach needs talent. You start with talent. Without talent, we're all in the soup.
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Look after your people.
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I have two college degrees, but the only way I could make a living was by showing kids how to put a ball in a hole.
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The coach should be the absolute boss, but he still should maintain an open mind.
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The most important thing in coaching is communication. It's not what you say as much as what they absorb.
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I have two college degrees, four honorary doctorate degrees, and am in three Halls of fame, and the only thing I know how to do is teach tall people how to put a ball in the hole.
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You see, in sports you have so many things that aren't expected. There's so much uncertainty. So when players find themselves in a situation where management has a great deal of integrity and they can depend on my word or anybody else's word in the organization, they feel secure. And if the players feel secure, they don't want to leave here. And if they don't want to leave here, they're going to do everything they can on the court to stay here.
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They said you have to use your five best players but I found you win with the five who fit together the best.
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Take pride in what you do. The kind of pride I'm talking about is not the arrogant puffed-up kind; it's just the whole idea of caring - fiercely caring
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If you want to be a Champion, you've got to feel like one, you've got to act like one, you've got to look like one.
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To a father, when a child dies, the future dies; to a child when a parent dies, the past dies.
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Everything can happen in the playoffs.
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If I'm going to coach the players, I want some say on who they're going to be.
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I never took a position we were going to be a good ball club. I took the position we were going to be a winning ball club.