Phil Jackson Quotes

Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.

The strength of the team lies within the individual. And the strength of the individual lies within the team

The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.

You can't force your will on people. If you want them to act differently, you need to inspire them to change themselves

Like life, basketball is messy and unpredictable. It has its way with you, no matter how hard you try to control it. The trick is to experience each moment with a clear mind and open heart. When you do that, the game - and life - will take care of itself.

I won't coach this team next year if he is still here. He won't listen to anyone. I've had it with this kid.

No one plays this or any game perfectly. It's the guy who recovers from his mistakes who wins.

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.

Before a vision (dream) can become a reality, it must be owned by every member of the group.

Leadership is not about forcing your will on others. It's about mastering the art of letting go.

In basketball - as in life - true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way. Of course, it's no accident that things are more likely to go your way when you stop worrying about whether you're going to win or lose and focus your full attention on what's happening right this moment.

The sign of a great player is how much he elevates his colleagues' performance.

Coaching is about, "How do I get people to play at their peak level?" It is a spiritual quest. And if it's not that, you don't have a challenge, you don't have a mission. Forming a brotherhood and trying to move it forward - that's what coaching is.

Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.

Once you've done the mental work, there comes a point you have to throw yourself into the action and put your heart on the line. That means not only being brave, but being compassionate towards yourself, your teammates and your opponents.

Winning is important to me, but what brings me real joy is the experience of being fully engaged in whatever I'm doing.

If you have a clear mind . . . you won't have to search for direction. Direction will come to you.

My dad always had this little sign on his desk: 'The bigger your head is, the easier your shoes are to fill'. He really drilled that in.

It takes a number of critical factors to win an NBA championship, including the right mix of talent, creativity, intelligence, toughness, and of course, luck. But if a team doesn’t have the most essential ingredient - love - none of those other factors matter.

Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart.

I played hockey in North Dakota growing up and watch a lot of that.

In basketball - as in life - true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way.

When the mind is allowed to relax, inspiration often follows.

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.

A coach's main job is to reawaken a spirit in which the players can blend together effortlessly.

I don't believe in curfews, because you can't treat men like they were boys without forfeiting a certain level of trust.

If you give the future all your attention, the present will pass you by.

Not only is there more to life than basketball, there's a lot more to basketball than basketball.

What moves me is watching young men bond together and tap into the magic that arises when they focus with their whole heart and soul on something greater than themselves. Once you've experienced that, it's something you never forget.

Remember, Team, surrender the me for the we.

Love is the force that ignites the spirit and binds teams together.

Yes, victory is sweet, but it doesn't necessarily make life any easier the next season or even the next day.

Basketball is a great mystery. You can do everything right. You can have the perfect mix of talent and the best system of offense in the game. You can devise a foolproof defensive strategy and prepare your players for every possible eventuality. But if the players don’t have a sense of oneness as a group, your efforts won’t pay off. And the bond that unites a team can be so fragile, so elusive.

Approach the game with no preset agendas and you'll probably come away surprised at your overall efforts.

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.

The real value in everything you do is in the details. I just like that quote. A very similar way to say the same thing. If you're washing dishes you pay attention to washing dishes. If you're driving a car, you're paying attention to driving the car.

Your problems never cease, they just change.

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.

I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you're doing. You have to be a salesman and you have to get your players, particularly your leaders, to believe in what you're trying to accomplish on the basketball floor.

You're only a success for the moment that you complete a successful act.

Kobe was hell-bent on surpassing Jordan as the greatest player in the game. His obsession with Michael was striking. When we played in Chicago that season, I orchestrated a meeting between the two of them, thinking that Michael might help shift Kobe’s attitude toward selfless teamwork. After they shook hands, the first words out of Kobe’s mouth were, ‘You know I can kick your ass one on one.’

If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball.

The greatness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive. The weakness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive

An acrobatic dunk will make it onto Sports Center. A simple, unspectacular bounce pass in the rhythm of the offense will not. System basketball has been replaced by players who want to be the system.

Basketball is a simple game. Your goal is penetration, get the ball close to the basket, and there are three ways to do that. Pass, dribble and offensive rebound.

Basketball is sharing.

The ideal way to win a championship is step by step.

The best part of basketball, for those people on the inside, is the bus going to the airport after you've won a game on an opponent's floor. It's been a very tough battle. And preferably, in the playoffs. And that feeling that you have, together as a group, having gone to an opponent's floor and won a very good victory, is as about as high as you can get.

If we can accept whatever hand we've been dealt - no matter how unwelcome - the way to proceed eventually becomes clear.

Basketball is a sport that involves the subtle interweaving of players at full speed to the point where they are thinking and moving as one.