Top 74 Quotes & Sayings by Larry Bird

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American coach Larry Bird.

Last updated on November 5, 2024.

Larry Joe Bird is an American former professional basketball player, coach and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Growing up in French Lick, Indiana, he was a local basketball star. Highly recruited, he initially signed to play college basketball for coach Bobby Knight of the Indiana Hoosiers, but dropped out after one month and returned to French Lick to attend a local community college. The next year he attended the smaller Indiana State University, playing ultimately for three years for the Sycamores. Drafted by the Boston Celtics with the sixth overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft after his second year at Indiana State, Bird elected to stay in college and play one more season. He then led his team to an undefeated regular season in 1978–1979. The season finished with a national championship game matchup against Michigan State, a team that featured Magic Johnson, beginning a career-long rivalry that the two shared for more than a decade.

American - Coach | Born: December 7, 1956

Source: Wikipedia

It's been a journey, the NBA. It's taken me a lot farther than I ever expected.

Larry Bird

While day by day the overzealous student stores up facts for future use, he who has learned to trust nature finds need for ever fewer external directions. He will discard formula after formula, until he reaches the conclusion: Let nature take its course.

Larry Bird

I've got a theory that if you give 100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.

Larry Bird

The one thing that always bothered me when I played in the NBA was I really got irritated when they put a white guy on me.

Larry Bird

Once you are labeled 'the best' you want to stay up there, and you can't do it by loafing around.

Larry Bird

When it gets down to it, basketball is basketball.

Larry Bird

When I was a kid, I never thought about anything. Never had to think about where I was going to school or what I was going to do. I just lived minute to minute.

Larry Bird

Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It's being able to take it as well as dish it out. That's the only way you're going to get respect from the players.

Larry Bird

I'm a loner.

Larry Bird

I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-American.

Larry Bird

But it is a black man's game, and it will be forever.

Larry Bird

As far as playing, I didn't care who guarded me - red, yellow, black. I just didn't want a white guy guarding me, because it's disrespect to my game.

Larry Bird

I like being by myself.

Larry Bird

The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson.

Larry Bird

I wasn't real quick, and I wasn't real strong. Some guys will just take off and it's like, whoa. So I beat them with my mind and my fundamentals.

Larry Bird

I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me.

Larry Bird

I've been around a while. I kinda know these things.

Larry Bird

When I was a kid, like 14 or 15, I played with the waiters from the hotel, 'cause that was the best game. And these guys, they'd let me play. And they were black guys.

Larry Bird

It doesn't matter who scores the points, it's who can get the ball to the scorer.

Larry Bird

A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.

Larry Bird

The best players will play. That's the way it will always be.

Larry Bird

Push yourself again and again. Don't give an inch until the final buzzer sounds.

Larry Bird

I used to love the feeling of running, of running too far. It made my skin tingle.

Larry Bird

I get homesick.

Larry Bird

What's better? Dogs or broomsticks? I mean will the world really ever know?

Larry Bird

I really don't like talking about money. All I can say is that the Good Lord must have wanted me to have it.

Larry Bird

Leadership is getting players to believe in you. If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it. Players will see right through a phony. And they can tell when you're not giving it all you've got.

Larry Bird

If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she'd get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don't mean she wouldn't pay the bank, but the children always came first.

Larry Bird

Practice habits were crucial to my development in basketball. I didn't play against the toughest competition in high school, but one reason I was able to do well in college was that I mastered the fundamentals. You've got to have them down before you can even think about playing.

Larry Bird

First master the fundamentals.

Larry Bird

When I go to the line I'm thinking 'All net.' When I don't think that, I'm likely to miss.

Larry Bird

My name's been on this check for a week now.

Larry Bird

You never make any of the shots you never take. 87% of the ones you do take, you'll miss too. I make 110% of my shots.

Larry Bird

Basketball was always a game to me. One of the greatest things in life for me was to be able to play what I loved dearly and get paid for it. So it was always a game to me and that's how I perceived everything.

Larry Bird

I hate to lose more than I like to win.

Larry Bird

I learned what my weaknesses were and I went out the next day to turn those weaknesses intro strengths.

Larry Bird

I have always been confident in my skills and once the game got going I knew I was probably the best player on the floor most of the time whether it was junior high, high school or college. I knew I had control of the game.

Larry Bird

Michael Jordan is God disguised as a basketball player.

Larry Bird

Coaches can talk and talk and talk about something, but if you get it on tape and show it to them, it is so much more effective.

Larry Bird

Eminem. My son was listening to that and I was like, “What is that junk?” Then I started listening and I thought, You know, that kid is pretty good. It's the storytelling.

Larry Bird

Before every game I used to go out and shot the same shots over and over and over. In the summer time I spent a lot of time just shooting. So really it just came natural. Whether it's a tie game or down by 1 or up by five, it was always the same shot. So I always felt comfortable with the ball in my hands because it was in there a million times before.

Larry Bird

You can make all the excuses you want, but if you're not mentally tough and you're not prepared to play every night, you're not going to win.

Larry Bird

When I was young, I never wanted to leave the court until I got things exactly correct. My dream was to become a pro.

Larry Bird

You're all playin' for second place.

Larry Bird

Basketball has been my life and I worked at it so hard because I enjoyed it so much.

Larry Bird

I just shoot until I feel good.

Larry Bird

It makes me sick when I see a guy just stare at a loose ball and watch it go out of bounds.

Larry Bird

In the closing seconds of every game, I want the ball in my hands for the last shot - not in anybody else's, not in anybody else's in the world.

Larry Bird

Strength is not nearly as important as desire. I don't think you can teach anyone desire. I think it's a gift. I don't know why I have it, but I do.

Larry Bird

Maybe it's God disguised as Michael Jordan.

Larry Bird

I knew I was as good as anybody. That's not really bragging; it's just that I'd put the time in.

Larry Bird

There are many times when you are better off practicing than playing; but most people just don't understand that

Larry Bird

I don't think that once you get to one level, you can relax. You've got to keep pushing.

Larry Bird

The more you win, the better you're gonna get. It grows on itself.

Larry Bird

My coach told me, "Larry, no matter how much you work at it, there's always someone out there who's working just a little harder - if you take 150 practice shots, he's taking 200." And that drove me.

Larry Bird

Don't let winning make you soft. Don't let losing make you quit. Don't let your teammates down in any situation.

Larry Bird

I've always been interested in jobs in the NBA. But I've been in this for 20 years and it might be time to do something else.

Larry Bird

My opinion about basketball, the way I was taught, was when you step on the court, you play to win.

Larry Bird

If you tell a teammate you're ready to play as tough as you're able to, you'd better go out there and do it.

Larry Bird

I'm a firm believer in that you play the way you practice.

Larry Bird