Top 148 Quotes & Sayings by John Calipari - Page 2

If I'm up at 4 in the morning, it's because I'm just coming in.

Let's not have a postseason tournament. Let's have a preseason tournament where you're guaranteed three games: we go somewhere, and all the fans come in, and we celebrate our league. We'll have great games to start the year, and we'll do it prior to the year.

My vision is one of celebrations and banquets, diplomas and banners, rings and parades.

I have bobby pins everywhere.

I'm going to continue to see my friends who coach in the NBA and see my former players who play in the NBA. I'm going to continue to go to games.

The problem with my guys, all my guys, they come in and improve themselves so fast in college: they go from 'He's this and this' to 'That kid is the first pick or second pick. Four. Five. Seven.' Tell me about those teams: not great. So my guys are walking into bad situations.

Every kid will tell you that they want you to be real, but that's until you keep it real with them. Then they don't want it real.

If they want to go to college and then leave, let them leave when they want to leave. Why would we force a kid to stay? 'Well - it's good for the game?' It's about these kids and their families.

LeBron and I are friends.

I'm not the grand poobah. I'm not the emperor. That's not what I want to be.

If a guy can bully you, he will bully you.

I'm not a big proponent of the league tournament.

Kentucky is the best job in basketball coaching. Why would I leave?

If you win the conference tournament, it doesn't mean anything.

In a normal season, the sixth man always seems to get the most minutes on my team.

The thing I can tell you about coaching is that we make decision and career moves when your nerves and emotions are still raw, right after the season. It's the worst profession for that.

At times, we, as coaches, try to shove guys as square pegs into round holes and keep hammering away.

When your best players are really good guys, it's the best.

I've always said I have more money than I can spend, than my children can spend.

Some of the best kids I coach were raised by a grandmother who was so firm that they understood.

My life, even as a college student, has all been through the NCAA, and I'm telling you there's so much good that comes out of it.

If the NBA is worried about the NBA, if the NCAA is worried about the NCAA, if each individual institution is just worried about themselves, and the last thing we think about is these kids, then we're going to make wrong decisions. There are a lot of players of different levels, of different abilities. Let's be fair with them.

The guy who started on third base and gets home and acts like he hit a homer - that guy doesn't impress me.

Every one of us in this country is based on you've gotta take care of yourself.

The whole thing is develop players, develop them as people, develop teams.

I never thought Marquis Teague would leave after a year.

I majored in business/marketing because I was going to be a teacher and a high school basketball coach.

What I've always tried to do is undersell and overdeliver.

You're coaching Kentucky - and you have a chance to change lives. That's not what this is up there in the NBA. You have assets. You're trying to piece a team together. You're trying to win more games than the other guy. You're trying to advance in the playoffs, and if you don't, they'll find somebody else that can.

I was a very average-at-best player.

All my best players have been really good guys, which means I can coach them.

There are certain people I do want to absolutely dislike me. And I want them to paint me as their enemy. Because I want nothing to do with them.

If you don't deserve to play, you won't play.

You wish there was more consistency about how they do things in the NCAA.

Any coach out there that wants to lose, you make sure they put raisins in the breakfast oatmeal. You'll go down, don't worry about that.

Change does not come easy.

If I walk in a home, and a young man disrespects his mother or grandfather, grandmother in front of me, I'm out. Because if that's the case, he respects no one. He is not going to respect me.

I had no desire to coach college until I went to college. Then I said, 'Maybe I can do this.' You get inspired by the people around you who move you and light a fire under you.

I was small, but I was also slow.

Let the D-League be for players who have been in the NBA, who are on the fringe, and that want to fight like heck to get in the NBA. They should have a living wage, not $17,000 to $25,000. A living wage.

There's no other state, none, that's as connected to their basketball program as this one. Because those other states have other programs. Michigan has Michigan State, California has UCLA, North Carolina has Duke. It's Kentucky throughout this whole state, and that's what makes us unique.

The best teams I've had had a little bit of swagger.

The only thing I pay attention to with free throws is what a guy does in the final four minutes of a game. If you can improve players' self-esteem and confidence, get them to relax, teach visualization and routine, they will shoot as well, or better, with the pressure on.

It's not about how far you fall, but how high you rebound.

You've gotta learn to love the grind. Because life IS the grind.

If I walk in a home and a kid disrespects a woman, his mother or grandmother, then I am out... I wont recruit them

I'm playing the guys who are going to fight. If you're not into this, I'm going to someone else

The biggest thing is you cannot be afraid to miss the game-winning shot. It's not that you want to make it; it's that you're not afraid to miss it. You're not afraid to make a play and it go wrong. You have to have amnesia. You're not afraid to make a play and it go wrong.

What type of teammates do you want to play with? Be that teammate yourself

Nothing is given to you. You're going to have to work for it.

What do you do to help us win when you're not scoring baskets?

When you're trying to make somebody the best version of themselves, you have to keep defining that over a period of time because sometimes it changes.

It's not just about working hard, it's about working together. You have to care more about the team than you do about yourself

I need people who look at adversity as a challenge and failure as a learning opportunity.

If we're going to stay the gold standard, we're going to stay ahead of the curve, well, then, when people try to do the things we're doing, we're trying to do more. We're trying to do something different. We're coming at it a different way. That, for me, to be honest, is the fun part.

You better educate yourself. You don't stand in the front of the line unless you're up there because you know everything that's involved.

I'm a teacher, a motivator. That's what I do. And I'm a protector on top of that.

You can be the seventh scorer or the first scorer, just be your best version.

A successful person never loses...they either win or learn!

Practice gotta be harder than the games and it never is unless you want it to be as a player. The coach can't drive that