Quotes about Teamwork

The locker rooms were clean when we departed because I asked the players to pick up after themselves. I believe this is just common courtesy. Somebody's going to have to clean it up, and I see no reason why it shouldn't be the person who messed it up.

Ninety percent of the time, the game is going to be decided in the final five minutes. When two teams are evenly matched, the better conditioned team will usually execute better when fatigue set sin, and will probably win.

Go Out of Your Way to Praise Those "Quiet" Performers Who Make Things Happen.

Seek Players Who Will Make the Best Team Rather Than the Best Players.

I never dreamed about winning a national championship. What I was dreaming about was trying to produce the best basketball team we could be. My thoughts were directed toward preparation, our journey, not the results of the effort. That would simply have shifted my attention to the wrong area, hoping for something out of my control.

Condition Your Team to Love the Struggle.

Personal greatness is not determined by the size of the job, but by the size of the effort one puts into the job. This applies to everyone on the team.

Sports don't build character; they reveal it.

And that, in my opinion, is the first goal of leadership—namely, getting the very best out of the people in your organization, whether they have talent to spare or are spare on talent.

Drawing up plans such as these diagrams is the easy part. I did it thousands of times. Creating a successful organization with people who execute the plans at a level of Competitive Greatness—now, that's the challenge of leadership.

I believe effective leaders are, first and foremost, good teachers. We are in the education business. Whether in class or on the court, my job was the same: to effectively teach those under my supervision how they could perform to the best of their ability in ways that best served the goals of our team. I believe the same is true for productive leaders in any organization.

I'm very proud of the fact that while all the records were being set at UCLA by our basketball teams, I felt exactly the same way. Family is first. Always. Always.