445 Quotes by Phil Jackson

I felt at some times Kobe might have taken advantage of our flexibility,

Basketball is sharing.

I feel like we will have better opportunities as we go along.

I expect a cigar, ... Not lit, hopefully.

You go in the weight room and you lift weights and you do all these things to strengthen your body. This is strengthening your mind. When you can stay focused and you can use that focus to always come back with your breath to center yourself, so that you're kind of floating in the moment, in the spirit.

He's had a great year this year. I wanted him to have an opportunity to be on the playoff roster and be successful.

He practiced against Kobe all of last year, so obviously it was sweet revenge for him. We deserved that. We didn't know who he was, we gave him up to Charlotte, we had no idea how good a player he was.

He was an excellent football coach. He had a lot of success here. He was a real gentleman. I knew him pretty well. He was one of the finest men I ever knew.

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, then let go of the outcome. The ride is a lot more fun that way.