Top 381 Playoffs Quotes & Sayings - Page 6

My dream was to be in the NBA. I wasn't really focused on being a star player on a team. I just wanted to make it to the NBA. I've been blessed for the opportunities to be in the Finals, been in the playoffs ever since I've been in the NBA.

I'd rather be in a good position in the playoffs and holding up a World Series trophy than holding up an MVP trophy.

Any chance a rookie gets to go play in the playoffs, that should be a boost going into summer league. That should be a boost for the rest of your career. That's something that a lot of rookies can't say they did.

No matter what the trends are in the NBA - teams going big, going small, getting more efficient with analytics - the ability for a player to create his own shot, then convert tough shots, will always be a weapon, particularly when you get to the playoffs.

When people come up to me and say, "I was at your Game 7 in the playoffs in Toronto," or, "I saw your first goal in the NHL," that triggers memories. But I don't sit around my kitchen table and tell my kids, "You know, one year I got 92 goals."

As you've progress further in the Playoffs, the ice usually gets a little softer. It's tough to keep it that cold. We could make it hard, but it would be about 4 degrees in the building. I'm sure the fans wouldn't appreciate that very much, wearing parkas in June.

I think when you saw this year's playoffs, Miami and Detroit have a pretty fierce rivalry now. Also, the Suns and San Antonio look like they're starting to develop something there. I look forward to seeing those rivalries continue and develop.

I always talk about, like, with end-of-game situations, making and missing big shots, I know I can shoulder that. I can live with having the success of the playoffs and having a huge failure. I know I can deal with it.

Politics and sports are the same thing in some ways. I like sports; I don't like the sports aspect of politics. The conventions are basically the playoffs, and the election's the Super Bowl. To me, it doesn't feel important.

Certain games aren't going to be my game. Certain games aren't going to be other people's games. As long as we win with the main goal to make the playoffs, that's all that matters.

We don't tell the officials to change the standard for the playoffs, but as we all know, time and space tends to evaporate very quickly in a playoff game; there tends to be a lot more physicality and a lot more adjustments in the course of a series.

Do I want to play for a contending team? Yeah. Do I want to go to the playoffs? Yeah. Do I want to win a ring? Of course I do.

You get a taste of playing in the playoffs and what that's like, and it's a completely different world. You get a taste in those meaningful games. You get that taste, and you can't get it out. You want more.

When you have a tough year or a year that didn't go the way you wanted it, especially the playoffs and all that and not being able to take advantage of our team and our talent on our team, you feel that. And whenever something is taken away from you like that, you definitely cherish it more.

Every game is its own thing in the playoffs. When you're in them long enough, you understand. If a playoff series goes six or seven games, it's like a rollercoaster. Your emotions are so up, then they're so down. 'You can't do anything right! Then everything's going your way!'

I just want to help, first of all, the Chicago Fire to grow, to change the mentality to a winning team, and to reach the playoffs. That's my goal. But also to change the game style into a team which is able to control every opponent.

A team like Brooklyn has seen everything, they've experienced everything, they've had every atmosphere you can have in the playoffs and some of them have won championships. That's the advantage you have as an experienced team and the disadvantage you have as a young team.

The football playoffs feature one-off affairs, without bad feelings building from weekend to weekend. In addition, football uses platoons for offense and defense and kicking, so only the interior linemen have a chance to really get up close and personal with one another.

The Process is never going to end. It's an ongoing thing. I don't think it's ever going to stop. As I have explained before, it's a process for making it to the playoffs, it's another one to make the conference finals, another one to actually go to The Finals and win the championship.

Win games. Win games in the playoffs. Win the Super Bowl. That's what it comes down to. The ultimate goal is to start off by winning the division and go from there. Those are the big goals.

When you're in the playoffs, you have to get easy baskets and you have to limit their easy baskets.

I just love the Buffalo market. Say what you want about their fans, it'll be December and they've been out of the playoffs for a month. But if there's a December game with snow, there's still going to be 72,000 people in those stands. One of the most passionate, loyal groups of fans in the National Football League, bar none.

The game against the Vikings back in my second year stands out. It was kind of a turnaround for us. It allowed us to make a run at the playoffs for the first time in quite a while. The memories are so many it's hard to pin one down.

COVID has caused no shortage of problems. One of them is the possibility we could be off for nine months. That's too long. We're not in the playoffs, summer league has been canceled and training camp is pushed back. We need some help, but we aren't really getting it.

Ultimately, if you can say that I'm a bad owner and we're winning championships, I can live with that. But if we're not making the playoffs and we're spending and losing money, then I have to look in the mirror and say maybe I'm not taking the necessary steps to doing what it takes to run an organization.

It's easy to go somewhere where everything already is set up and they've been to the playoffs four, five years in a row. I've been on those teams. Those are great experiences.

Whenever I'm out on the basketball court, I lace up and just hoop. Whether it's in summertime, at practice, in the games, playoffs, every time I step out on the basketball court, I approach it the same way.

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.

But then I lock back in and I start thinking about how fun it is to compete during the playoffs and the first round, the second round, and Eastern Conference Finals. If I'm lucky enough to get here again, it will be fun to do it.

I really love Philadelphia and all of the fans, my teammates, the front office, the organization, everybody. I know I'm going to miss them. I really appreciate everything we did together. On the other side, I am happy because I have a chance to go to the playoffs. Another opportunity, maybe, to go to the World Series.

I really pride myself on not missing starts and being able to take the ball when it's my turn, I want to be able to do my job and take my turn. Especially in the playoffs.

You make mental notes. You're a coach, so you make mental notes from matchups, to who steps up in the playoffs to who doesn't, different types of players.

There are many reasons why I hate college football. The 4-hour games drone on longer than Steve Lyons during the American League playoffs. The ever-expanding season threatens to creep into early July. Boise, Idaho, hosts a bowl game. And it's played on blue artificial turf.

Experience is everything. It means so much because it enabled me to learn the game even faster. Playing in the playoffs is the best basketball in the world, and if you can learn under that pressure, succeed under that pressure, it gives you more confidence the next year.

I don't rate Heat fans like I rate Knicks fans. We are true basketball fans. No matter what - rain, sleet or snow, or even if we don't make it to the playoffs for 10 years - the Garden stands are still full.

A-Rod wants to be like Babe Ruth. And people don't realize this, he's a lot like Babe Ruth. Before the playoffs a couple of years ago, A-Rod went to the hospital and promised a dying kid he'd ground out to second for him.

I could play through anything. But just thinking about I have kids, longevity, I probably would have made more of a conscious effort not to hit the floor, but at the end of the day in the playoffs, you can't play that way. You just have to play and give it your all.

I thought the playing time I was getting during the season was getting me ready for the playoffs. When it didn't happen and Coach Riley never told me why, I thought, 'Maybe I'm just being used as a pawn in the game.'

Every team in the NFL is hard, but when we play our own division it's a fight. Our goal is to make it to the playoffs and to do that we have to win games within the division. We match up well against this division, it's just a matter of getting on the field and doing what we know we can do.

It's more frustrating. My expectation probably wasn't that I'd play [during the playoffs], but I was just trying to make sure that if there was any chance that it was possible to come back that I was ready and that I'd done everything I could to be ready. It's frustrating, disappointing. But can't really control any of that.

You could have a season where you hit .330 and did all these great things, but nothing ever materialized from it and you went home October One. Or you could hit .260 and have key hits and key plays on defense that help your team get to the playoffs and win the World Series.

Over a 10-season stretch from 1967 to 1976, eight Super Bowl champions either were the Raiders or had to beat the Raiders in the playoffs. The Jets, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Baltimore Colts, Miami, the Steelers each of the first two times... we all had to deal with the Raiders.

It's not how you start the season, it's how you finish. If you wind up helping the team make the playoffs, that's what you play for. You don't play to put up your numbers, but to try to get a chance to make it to the World Series.

It's no secret that in the NFL playoffs, the pressure's on. The guys who can rise above that pressure and play mistake-free when it counts the most build legends for themselves: Think Joe Montana, Tom Brady, or Adam Vinatieri.

Everybody wants to play in the playoffs. You don't know how good the good times were until you hit the bad times. But sometimes success is just around the corner.

We know how hard it is to get to the playoffs in general, and then to get to the NFC Championship Game. You just never know if you'll have the opportunity again, so you really want to make the most of it.

When I come off the bench, I have that intensity and that effort. That's something all of us guys are trying to bring, but especially the guys off the bench. Because we can play a role in any game, let alone the playoffs.

We went through a whole lot in Washington, from winning 28, 29 games to going to the second round of the playoffs in two years. That was a tough time and a great time as well. Early, like my first year, it was really tough, because to be honest with you, I didn't want to be there.

I think that type of mindset, no matter if you're 16-0, you're rolling through the playoffs, no matter what the situation is, there's always going to be somebody that's doubting you or saying something about you. I think for certain guys individually, it may be something that kind of gives you that extra kick.

When I go back to NFL functions today, I feel a bit on the outside looking in. I played 13 years in the NFL, and I loved it - made a Pro Bowl and went to the playoffs - but I always felt like I was having to knock the door down to get in.

Hed been to the playoffs before. I was asked last week what I thought this season has felt like for Coach Gibbs. I would think it must seem very familiar to a man with all those playoff wins. Hes a great coach who understands how to get his team to play.

I don't think I was a year too late or a year too early in retiring. If the Seahawks had been in the playoffs a year later, I might have had some regrets.

I won so many years in Seattle and then to go to Cleveland... I had a pretty nice year the first year I got there and then the last two years, we just weren't able to make it to the playoffs.

In 1999, I got fired as coach of New England. In three years in New England, we actually did better than most people think. We were 27-21, won the AFC division title, went to the playoffs twice.

I believe that every single game in the Playoffs, round 1 to Eastern Conference Finals, every single game is a different game.

You look at it every year, how many teams are in and out of the playoffs, and how close the league is, it seems like every team is not too far away.

My first year in baseball, there were only one or two reporters. My second year, I got to the Triple-A playoffs, there were four or five. When I came up in 1984, I never saw so many people.

There are a lot of guys who average a lot of points, but they make the game hard for themselves, and they make the game hard for their teammates, and that's why you never really see them win or get deep in the playoffs.

Pat Riley, Dave Checketts and Ernie Grunfeld - they brought the Knicks back to the glory days. It started with Rick Pitino. We took our first step with him, making the playoffs. When Pat came in we just kicked the door open.

Westbrook: 10 triple-doubles and carrying that team, injury-prone, into the playoffs. LeBron being the best player in the world. But I think right now I would go with James Harden because of what he's done. He's stepped up his game defensively. He's not a great defender but he's competing on the defensive end.