Mike Krzyzewski famous quotes

Imagination has a great deal to do with winning.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Winning #Imagination

I don't think you play for other people's expectations, you know. You don't go and become a lawyer because your mother or father want you to, you don't become a coach because somebody wants you to.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Mother #Father #Thinking

If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you. You haven't done much today.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Yesterday #Coaching

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

#Expectations #Should

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

#Successful #People #Leader

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Team #Play

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

#Basketball #Team #Games

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

#Basketball #Passion #Player

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

#Basketball #Coaching #Persons

Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Teamwork #Volleyball #Communication

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

#Basketball #Teamwork #Chance

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

#Basketball #Order #Accomplishment

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

#Volleyball #Decision

Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Volleyball #Leader #Should

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Teacher #Teaching

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
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Volleyball #Team #Organization

Goals should be realistic, attainable, and shared among all members of the team
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Team #Goal

I don't think we surprise people. We try to out-execute them.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Thinking #People

I think leadership is never singular. In a good organization, it's plural.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Thinking #Organization

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Winning #Games

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

#Basketball #Leader #Doe

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Sports #Lying #Team

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Sports #Daughter #Mother

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Sports #Baseball #Football

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
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Volleyball #Sorry #Leader

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
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Volleyball #Communication #Order

You start developing a championship attitude by, first of all, telling kids that they are really good and that they have the potential to become better.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Attitude #Kids #Firsts

Don't worry about losing. Think about winning.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Thinking #Winning

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Leadership #Team #Believe

Confrontation simply means meeting the truth head-on.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Mean #Confrontation

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

#Basketball #Leader #Looks

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

#People #Decision #Making Decisions

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

#Inspirational #Inspiring #Basketball

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

#Mom #Mother #Persons

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

#Mom #Sports #Mother

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

#Basketball #Responsibility #Winning

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

#Fun #Able

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

#Basketball #Nba #Leader

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

#Sports #Team #Years

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

#Basketball #Winning #Play

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

#Basketball #Practice #Play

Every season is a journey. Every journey is a lifetime.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Sports #Motivational Sports #Journey

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Teacher #Thinking #Parent

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

#Excellence #Hunger

The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions. Not me. I don't want to be a manager or a dictator. I want to be a leader-and leadership is ongoing, adjustable, flexible, and dynamic. As such, leaders have to maintain a certain amount of discretion
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Volleyball #People #Decision

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

#Basketball #Team #Play

You develop a team to achieve what one person cannot accomplish alone. All of us alone are weaker, by far, than if all of us are together.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Team #Together #Achieve

Leadership is an ever-evolving position.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Evolve #Position

Don't do anything as an individual that will make you stand out from your teammates.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Coaching #Teammate

Leaders have to give time for relationships. But more demands will be placed on their time as they become more successful. So if a person's success is based on developing relationships, then they have to continually find new ways of getting it done
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Volleyball #Successful #Giving

In developing teams, I don't believe in rules. I believe in standards. Rules don't promote teamwork, standards do
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Teamwork #Believe

Effort is fully replenishable. There is no need to save any of it. Leave every bit you have on the playing field
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Effort #Fields

Turning down the Lakers was tough, but it is always good to renew your vows to the loves of your life.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Lakers #Tough #Love Your Life

Leaders show respect for people by giving them time.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Giving #People #Leader

People have to be given the freedom to show the heart they possess. I think it’s a leader’s responsibility to provide that type of freedom. And I believe it can be done through relationships and family. Because if a team is a real family, it’s members want to show you their hearts.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Real #Team #Believe

Every leader needs to remember that a healthy respect for authority takes time to develop. It’s like building trust. You don’t instantly have trust, it has to be earned.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Leader #Healthy #Needs

Mutual commitment helps overcome the fear of failure—especially when people are part of a team sharing and achieving goals. It also sets the stage for open dialogue and honest conversation.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Team #Commitment #People

Discipline is doing what you are supposed to do in the best possible manner at the time you are supposed to do it.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Discipline

It's not like we have not had close games. We've just been able to win them, and as a result, the reality sometimes doesn't set in that you're weak in certain areas or you're not doing certain things well. ... When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Winning #Reality #Games

I believe work is good. There is dignity in work. I also believe that a hard-work ethic forges strong leaders.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Strong #Believe #Hard Work

You have to work hard at staying in contact with your friends so that the relationships will continue and live on... Friendships, along with love, make life worth living.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Volleyball #Hard Work #Life Worth Living

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Sports #People

In leadership, there are no words more important than trust.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Important

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Fall #Loss #Winning

When you first assemble a group, it's not a team right off the bat. It's only a collection of individuals
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Volleyball #Team #Groups

When a leader takes responsibility for his own actions and mistakes, he not only sets a good example, he shows a healthy respect for people on his team
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Volleyball #Mistake #Team

In putting together your standards, remember that it is essential to involve your entire team. Standards are not rules issued by the boss; they are a collective identity. Remember, standards are the things that you do all the time and the things for which you hold one another accountable.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Team #Boss #Together

As teachers and coaches, we must remember that when mere winning is our only goal, we are doomed to disappointment and failure. But when our goal is to try to win, when our focus is on preparation and sacrifice and effort instead of on numbers on a scoreboard then we will never lose.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Teacher #Disappointment #Wrestling

I was very pleased with the entire selection process. The manner in which it was conducted included all parts of United States' basketball, from the professional level to the colleges and high schools. Everyone was considered.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #School #College

Two are better than one if two act as one.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Two

Growth creates complexity, which requires simplicity.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Simplicity #Growth #Complexity

As a leader you can get sidetracked but you have to complete your mission
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Leader #Missions

Making shots counts, but not as much as the people who make them.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#People #Shots

Pete Newell told me 'get as much information and learn as much about the game as you can, but use your own personality to teach it.'
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Games #Personality #Use

There are always those times when you're going to be down. It's how you step through it that makes you the person you are.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Steps #Persons

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Team #Believe #Mean

A leader has to show the face his team needs to see.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Team #Leader #Faces

A team is a fist-not five fingers.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Team #Fists

It’s simply doing what you’re supposed to do as well as you can when you’re supposed to do it.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Wells

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Believe #Hard Work #Thinking

A leader may be the most knowledgeable person in the world, but if the players on his team cannot translate that knowledge into action, it means nothing.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Team #Mean #Player

Courage and confidence are what decision making is all about.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Decision #Decision Making

A leader has to be positive about all things that happen to his team. Look at nothing in the past as failure.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Team #Past #Leader

Almost everything in leadership comes back to relationships.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Order #People #Looks

I didn't miss any games, but Coach Knight came out and spent three days with my family in Chicago when my dad passed away. I came back and played and it was good therapy for me. Having a basketball family and a coach who understood and actually became like a father figure for that time was comforting to me, and I'm sure that will be comforting to Coleman.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Dad #Father

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

#Country #Honor #Coaches

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

#Moments #Feels

Great rivalries don't have to be built on hatred. They're built on respect, on a respect for excellence.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Hatred #Excellence #Rivalry

When you cleanse yourself of a big victory, you may open yourself up to the opportunity for an even bigger victory
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Volleyball #Opportunity #Victory

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.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Football #Hockey #Games

We travel in Duke stuff... They can have a hat, but it must be a Duke hat.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Coaching #Stuff

Courage gives a leader the ability to stand straight and not sway, no matter which way the wind blows.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Blow #Wind

Why do you play a game? I play a game to see how good we can be.
-- Mike Krzyzewski

#Basketball #Games #Play