Do quotes matter? Do players listen? Many times we've said, "I wish I'd said that."
My favorite basketball quote is Phil Jackson's, "Basketball is sharing."
Maybe the only one, after a bad loss, players absorbed was, "How you play reflects how you live your lives."
Oscar Wilde generated a lot of quotes. Let's take a look.
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." I'm sure some of our favorite NBA stars meet that criterion.
"There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it." That restates Bo Schembechler's quote about missing out on some prospects. "On their team he'll beat you once a year; on ours he'll beat you every day."
"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." Overwhelming success or failure and obscurity seldom travel together.
"True friends stab you in the front." Our 'real' friends have the courage to tell the truth to our faces.
"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes." The Celtics compiled a lot of experience in the 2022 postseason.
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." Never confuse what we work for and what we wish for.
"I can resist everything but temptation." With the passage of hidden cheating and the advent of open season (NIL), the times are changing.
"To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect." Preparation and perspiration leave the fingerprints of aspiration and inspiration.
"A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally."
"The world is a stage but the play is badly cast."
Lagniappe (something extra). I think of this as the "reverse" of "America's Play" (screen to the corner for the inbounder).
