Top 109 Quotes & Sayings by Brad Stevens - Page 2

I'm not a late-night guy.

The difference between mediocre, good and great is you're able to have the enthusiasm for prep, to work to prepare to win the same in January that you do in August, when everybody says they're excited.

Just as you get older, you gain more experiences, you see more things.

Keeping myself motivated is not hard.

I do think in numbers. My mind works that way.

I think the NBA's amazing and I think our players are amazing.

I've always enjoyed football.

I don't have the five positions anymore. It may be as simple as three positions now, where you're either a ball-handler, a wing or a big.

At the end of the day, you do this job because you really like working with your team and like the chance to compete as an organization.

As far as routine goes, one of the things we talk about all the time is that if you have a routine that's great. But you can't be like married to it because the bus could break down on the way to the arena, you could get stuck in traffic, you may be sick that day and you may feel better by game time.

There's an old adage of, 'This is what I do, it's not who I am.' There is a line that gets blurry at times because you sometimes become your work, or you sometimes put so much into your work that you can't separate from it. It swallows you up. It really happens during the season and it's a difficult line to manage.

As I've grown older, I appreciate what I had at Lilly even more than I did back then.

I've always been a guy that if you can shoot 3s, you need to shoot 3s. It extends the defense, especially when you've got a guy that can play an undersize 5 role.

If somebody gives you accolades, that's nice to hear but it's not the end-all, be-all for me.

I always was intrigued by the N.B.A.

One of my biggest regrets in coaching was my eighth or ninth game of my career. I was wound up about a conference game in December - I was wound up tight, and we ended up playing really tight. Our players were bickering with the officials, I was bickering... and then all of a sudden we lose.

What makes Butler truly unique is the people that we have been so blessed to work with.

I've always been a huge Oladipo fan.

One thing I'd like to do better personally is decompress. Obviously when things don't go your way, you'll be thinking of it all the time.

I think the first assumption as a coach can't be that we just have to run harder or do it tougher. You have to understand that everybody is a human being and you have to understand that everybody has things that they're dealing with.

I'm only interested in being better than everyone else thought you could be.

I'm not one of these guys that can stay up until 3 in the morning and get up at 5.

There's no doubt what the goal in Boston is. There is no grey, it is black and white. You're going to try to win the whole thing every single year.

If we can do something to help show people that it's not only OK - we encourage asking for help, because we take care of everybody's physical needs all over the place, we should all be on top of all of our mental needs and wellness needs.

It's so much fun to dream in your driveway. I had an old wooden backboard in my driveway. That's where my friends and I hung out.

I haven't been near perfect by any means. In fact, I've got a list of things I want to do better.

One of my greatest regrets in coaching is the Butler Final Four runs, because if I would have been a seasoned coach, I think we would have won.

When things don't go your way, the day after you wake up and try to get better and be as good as you can be the next day.

I've always found that in a team of 15 people, it's a little different than in a team of 40 or 50 people. If I name two or three people captains, inevitably you're disempowering more than you're empowering.

I can tell you right now, anybody that says I'm genius, that is the farthest thing from the truth.

I think the game will always be dependent on the players that are at its most elite level at that time.

I try not to schedule too many meetings. That's one of the things I learned in corporate America - that you can spend your days having meetings and never actually have time to work.

We want to be as routine-oriented as we can, but it's just not always feasible.

I have a pretty good idea of what makes NBA players great - especially at the different positions, and where the biggest problems lie that you have to address in defending those people.

I've been really fortunate to have coached in some moments that you can only dream about coaching in. The day after, you wake up and you try to do it again.

I don't focus well angry.

I've said this about many people, but when you were recruiting against John Beilein you knew it was a fair fight, a real fight and he was going to do it the right way. I have a lot of respect for John. He's a heck of a coach and he will do a great job in Cleveland.

One of the great things about coaching is it's a different challenge every day.

There have been many a days in coaching where I've said, What was I thinking? Because it is not the easiest job in the world. But it is very fulfilling, not because of the results you achieve but because of the relationships you build.

I couldn't be more proud to be in the NBA, to be with the Celtics and be surrounded by the people I get to go to work with every day.

My goal is to win the next game one possession at a time. That's it. I don't have any other goals

How good can we expect to be if our best player is not our best teammate

You have to earn your right to win the game with effort and togetherness

The difference between a good defensive team and a bad defensive team is as little as three possessions

The game honors toughness

As a coach I think that's one of the things we have to exude: the ability to move on regardless of the result.

You have a choice to make when you're not playing. Either you're invested and a great teammate, or your not

We're building a culture of accountability, trust, and togetherness. Entitlement will not be tolerated

The key is to maintain an evenness. Try to play one possession at a time, regardless of what happened on the last possession