1.
You should never be proud of doing the right thing. You should just do it.
Dean Smith
2.
What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.
Dean Smith
3.
Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat.
Dean Smith
4.
If you make every game a life and death proposition, you're going to have problems. For one thing, you'll be dead a lot.
Dean Smith
5.
A leader's job is to develop committed followers. Bad leaders destroy their followers' sense of commitment.
Dean Smith
6.
Good people are happy when something good happens to someone else.
Dean Smith
7.
A lion never roars after a kill.
Dean Smith
8.
Basketball is a team game. But that doesn't mean all five players should have the same amount of shots.
Dean Smith
9.
There is a lot of basketball beyond our control, but a player should never let anyone try harder than he does
Dean Smith
10.
The truly free person in society is a disciplined person.
Dean Smith
11.
You should sub a player out when you see a player not going full-speed or playing selfish basketball.
Dean Smith
12.
The coach's job is to be part servant in helping each player reach his goals within the team concept.
Dean Smith
13.
Michael, if you can't pass, you can't play.
Dean Smith
14.
One player's selfish attitude can poison a locker room and make it hard, if not impossible, to establish team work
Dean Smith
15.
I wasn't as critical during games as I was at practice. Players needed confidence during games more than criticism.
Dean Smith
16.
I always mean what I say, but I don't always say what I'm thinking.
Dean Smith
17.
I only use statistics to reinforce what I already think, or if it's something unusual.
Dean Smith
18.
I would never recruit a player who yells at his teammates, disrespected his high school coach, or scores 33 points a game and his team goes 10-10.
Dean Smith
19.
I think the real free person in society is one that's disciplined. It's the one that can choose; that is the free one.
Dean Smith
20.
I enjoy basketball. I enjoy coaching basketball. It's the out-of-season stuff I didn't handle well.
Dean Smith
21.
You can't teach court savvy
Dean Smith
22.
There is a point in every contest when sitting on the sidelines is not an option.
Dean Smith
23.
Over coaching is the worst thing you can do to a player.
Dean Smith
24.
The most important thing in good leadership is truly caring.
Dean Smith
25.
Given the fact that we are in a capitalist society, we still do not want to overlook not only what a corporation produces and its profitability but also how it impacts the environment, touches human life and whether it protects or undermines the dignity of the human person.
Dean Smith
26.
The best way to stop the problem of agents would be for the NCAA to come down hard and suspend a school for two years if it finds players with agents on campus.
Dean Smith
27.
I've always believed in quickness over strength and size.
Dean Smith
28.
As soon as you try to describe a close friendship, it loses something.
Dean Smith
29.
Everyone on the bench stands for the man coming out of the game.
Dean Smith
30.
The most important thing is team morale.
Dean Smith
31.
The key statistic is still to get to the foul line.
Dean Smith
32.
The flash of rain, the shining rainbow riding completely around the plane, the lift over mountain ridges, the steady, pure air at dawn take-offs. ... It was so alive and rich a life that any other conceivable choice seemed dull, prosaic, and humdrum.
Dean Smith
33.
Basketball, more than any other sport, is a team game...about the thousands of small, unselfish acts, the sacrifices on the part of the players that result in team building.
Dean Smith
34.
If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you'll die a lot of times.
Dean Smith
35.
You should just do the right thing.
Dean Smith
36.
Praise behaviour that you want repeated
Dean Smith
37.
Our teachers at the public school level are the most underpaid for the importance of their job in America.
Dean Smith
38.
The best way to build team chemistry is the way Rupp used to substitute, when they fouled out.
Dean Smith
39.
Any old coach will say the game was meant for finesse. It's a beautiful game, especially on television.
Dean Smith
40.
Motor cut. Forced landing. Hit cow. Cow died. Scared me.
Dean Smith
41.
I know a lawyer who'd love to retire and be an assistant coach. I mean, it's fun.
Dean Smith
42.
Only praise behavior that you want to be repeated. Never use false praise.
Dean Smith
43.
I do believe in praising that which deserves to be praised.
Dean Smith
44.
Always have your players go and pick-up the guy who draws the charge.
Dean Smith
45.
The presidents of colleges have to have some courage to step forward. You can't limit alcohol in college sports, you have to get rid of it.
Dean Smith
46.
I just think we shouldn't get into counting coaches' records. I've never been for that but I know that's just American society.
Dean Smith
47.
The focus should be on the players. I'm here a long time. You can call me in the summer. Our seniors will be gone.
Dean Smith
48.
The real issue is not if a crossing is put in, but when. It would be negligent on the part of Union Pacific and the California Public Utilities Commission to not address the problem.
Dean Smith
49.
The death penalty makes us all murderers.
Dean Smith
50.
I'd like to see the high schools put in a rule that limits recruitable athletes from playing on teams outside a 100-mile radius from their home or school.
Dean Smith
