160 Quotes by Larry Bird

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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