Mike Krzyzewski Quotations

The thing I loved the most - and still love the most about teaching - is that you can connect with an individual or a group, and see that individual or group exceed their limits.

I think some parents now look at a youngster failing as the final thing. It's a process, and failure is part of the process. I would like it if the teacher and the parents would connect more. I think that used to be, but we're losing a little bit of that right now.

Imagination has a great deal to do with winning.

Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.

The person who has inspired me my whole life is my Mom, because she taught me commitment. She sacrificed.

Throughout my life, my mom has been the person that I've always looked up to.

I've been so fortunate in my life that my family has never been jealous of my success. They have shown true love and commitment to me by being supportive. They shared in it.

Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.

Even though we want huge individual egos, our collective ego is unbelievable.

To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.

That's what I do now: I lead and I teach. If we win basketball games from doing that, then that's great, but I lead and teach. Those are the two things I concentrate on.

In high school, in sport, I had a coach who told me I was much better than I thought I was, and would make me do more in a positive sense. He was the first person who taught me not to be afraid of failure.

A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play.

The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions.

That's another thing, we made up games. We didn't have equipment. When it snowed, we would play slow motion tackle football. We would play hockey, but we wouldn't skate. We just made things up. I loved doing that.

Actually, the Kentucky moment was better than winning the two National Championships, because it was the epitome of what I try to get from a team in a crisis situation.

Fun is to experience things you would not have been able to experience in any other setting.

The life expectancy of a team is about eight months. Then the next year, it's a whole new team.

Parents can really help, but they can also really hinder the development of their youngsters.

I think you're not a human being unless you have doubts and fears.

When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance.

I'm still not a great reader, but my wife is and my daughters are, and I envy them. I think I got into a bad habit of trying to do something all the time, instead of trying to sit down and take my time a little bit.

You can see and you can listen, but you have to have moments in which you feel.

There are kids don't want to do something because they're afraid of looking stupid to their peers. There comes a time when they start protecting themselves, instead of extending. I want to make sure that they're always trying to extend themselves.

I had a really bad temper, when I was growing up. Sport helped me channel that temper into more positive acts.

I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one.

My ambition in high school was to be a high school coach and teacher, and that's still what I do: teach.

First of all, what happens is, when you're good at something, you spend a lot of time with it. People identify you with that sport, so it becomes part of your identity.

Basketball was not my main sport in grade school, or even the first year of high school.

It's always an honor to be ranked high, but whatever is said about you, you take it and then take a realistic look at yourself and who you are.

I have a rule on my team: When we talk to one another, we look each other right in the eye, because I think it's tough to lie to somebody. You give respect to somebody.

With me and basketball, it became part of me.

Once you win a National Championship, how do you do that again? How do you get the passion to do that again? We won it again right away, the next year. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I didn't give myself an opportunity to enjoy the first one.

When I was growing up, there weren't any Little Leagues in the city. Parents worked all the time. They didn't have time to take their kids out to play baseball and football.

When I went to high school, an all-boys' school, a Catholic school, I tried out for football, and I didn't make it. It was the first time, athletically, that I was knocked down.

If you win a National Championship, or you win two, people think you have not only seen the Holy Grail, but you've embraced it. Basically, I do what a lot of people do, but I've been able to win.

My parents didn't really understand too much about sport. At that time, we were in a Polish community in the inner city of Chicago, and I was the youngest of a bunch of cousins. Polish families are real big, with cousins and aunts and uncles.

Playing sport was somewhat frivolous, but I liked it. I rebelled a little bit, and wouldn't go to music lessons and things like that, but I would go and play ball. My parents learned to love it because they saw how much I got out of it.

It is the ultimate honor for a coach to be his country's coach.

The other thing I knew I had was a high level of competitiveness.

I've tried to handle winning well, so that maybe we'll win again, but I've also tried to handle failure well. If those serve as good examples for teachers and kids, then I hope that would be a contribution I have made to sport. Not just basketball, but to sport.

I'm fortunate now that I coach at Duke University and we've won a lot. I have some kids who haven't failed that much. But when they get to college, they're going to fail some time. That's a thing that I can help them the most with.

When I was in sixth grade, I wanted to become a priest.

I don't feel like crying, I feel happy. Not that we lost, but I feel happy that I've had them. I mean how lucky. We have been really fortunate with this group, these seniors, to have four years like that.

Lee was aggressive, not just with his shot, but that's the best defense he's played for a while. He was there.

Giving back what the game has given you, that's one of the things I want to permeate through the program for the next three years and serve as a basis for the team, ... I hope the players look at it that way, too. You forget how lucky you are to be in a specific situation sometimes. We need to get that feeling going again.

I love Collins; he's unflappable. For them to win, I think they needed Collins to be who Collins is and one of those other two guys have a good night. Just Collins had that night, and that's one of the reasons that we won.

He's great, in every sense of the word. We're so lucky to have him.

We're probably going to get beat a number of times. I just think we have to keep improving. I like my team, but we're not who we will be.

Our big guys were more animated than they have been the entire season.

I think the people who are involved in this program should embrace it, ... When you look up at the scoreboard, it will say the United States. It will never say an individual name. I can promise you we will put together a team that will serve as an example to the rest of the world of the way the game should be played and the way you conduct yourself.

I think we could have done a little better job, but the other team forces you into those situations. I don't think we ever completely adjusted to the physicality of this game. And they did.

Usually when you play bad, somebody makes you look bad and we didn't respond very well.

We were never a dominant team. We knew that, and things would have to go right for us to win.

We're not going to beat a really good team with J.J. going 5 for 21.

We weren't as good of a team last year. That team did remarkable things - they were a remarkable team to accomplish what they did.

We will put together a team that will represent our country on and off the court and the way the game should be played, ... It's our game and it's time to reclaim it.

I've always said that you want to end the season where you're cutting down the nets or you're crying in your locker room. And our kids were all crying in our locker room.

You should crave this opportunity, to be in that moment. It's exciting. The beauty of the tournament is you have one pitch. You hit it or you miss it. If you hit it, you get another pitch.

If you just focus on J.J. and just watched him, you'd be shocked at the maze of things that he has to get through usually to get a shot. I think he's just evolved each year as a better basketball player, and the last two years he's made a year-round commitment to being in exceptional shape.

I just told the guys to go out and have fun.

I just felt it (Friday) at practice, that we were finally in the NCAA Tournament. Southern did us a favor by playing so well. We needed to get on to the next thing.

In the second half, once we got organized and played better in the half court, our defense was excellent.

I didn't think Sean was going to be able to play. We were a little bit worried it might be real serious, but it wasn't. He played hurt, yet you wouldn't know it. I'm proud of him.

That's the best team we've played. They know what they're doing and they do it well. It's a big win for us.

We weren't ever a dominant team. We knew that. So things had to go right for us to win.

It?s his time. He?s 27 years old. He should try to assume a position of leadership on the team. I would think he?s very hungry to do this.

It's his time. He's 27 years old now. He should try to assume a position of leadership in the team. I would think he's very hungry to do this. I see him fitting in very, very well.

They're both great scorers. I think some collegiate players going into this type of situation would be a little bit intimidated. I don't think either one of these guys will. They more define the specialist role.

I don't think we ever completely adjusted to the physicality of this game.

In order to be a winner, you have to look for ways of getting things done and not for reasons why things can’t be done. People who live with excuses have things that can’t be done hovering around them all the time.

In all forms of leadership, whether you are a coach, a CEO, or a parent, there are four words that, when said, can bring out the best in your team, your employees, and your family. I BELIEVE IN YOU. Those four words can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try.

You don't just be a team. You become a team. Through tough games you find that you need each other

Only the mediocre are always at their best. If your standards are low, it is easy to meet those standards every single day, every single year. But if your standard is to be the best, there will be days when you fall short of that goal. It is okay to not win every game. The only problem would be if you allow a loss or a failure to change your standards. Keep your standards intact, keep the bar set high, and continue to try your very best every day to meet those standards. If you do that, you can always be proud of the work that you do.

A leader is someone who puts their people in position to be successful all the time

During critical periods, a leader is not allowed to feel sorry for himself, to be down, to be angry, or to be weak. Leaders must beat back these emotions

When you are passionate, you always have your destination in sight and you are not distracted by obstacles. Because you love what you are pursuing, things like rejection and setbacks will not hinder you in your pursuit. You believe that nothing can stop you!

I don't look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball.

I'm looking for players who make their teammates better. You do that with enthusiasm and passion.

It takes courage not only to make decisions, but to live with those decisions afterward

Champions play as they practice. Create a consistency of excellence in all your habits.

With accomplishments comes confidence and with confidence comes belief. It has to be in that order.

In leadership, there are no words more important than trust. In any organization, trust must be developed among every member of the team if success is going to be achieved

You can't defer if you're the person who's in the leadership position.

Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication

One of the worst things anybody can do is assume. I think fools assume. If people have really got it together, they never assume anything. They believe, they work hard, and they prepare- but they don't assume.

If a team cannot perform with excellence at a moment's notice, they probably will fail in the long run.

I always wanted to teach.

Our goal is not to win. It's to play together and play hard. Then, winning takes care of itself.

If you have talent with teamwork, you've got a chance to be a championship team.

Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated

You should do things because of what your expectations are of yourself.

Play and practice like you are trying to make the team.

Talent is important. But the single most important ingredient after you get the talent is internal leadership. It's not the coaches as much as one single person or people on the team who set higher standards than that team would normally set for itself. I really believe that that's been ultimately important for us.

Don't worry about losing. Think about winning.

Communication does not always occur naturally, even among a tight-knit group of individuals. Communication must be taught and practiced in order to bring everyone together as one

My hunger is not for success, it is for excellence. Because when you attain excellence, success just naturally follows.

Every season is a journey. Every journey is a lifetime.

Whatever a leader does now sets up what he does later. And there's always a later.

Confrontation simply means meeting the truth head-on.