Thursday, December 06, 2007 Pages: Qoutes from Ali, MJ, Lance, Tiger and more By John Pages Match Point
I LOVE quotations. Ever since I was in high school, I recall tearing out and compiling every Reader’s Digest ‘Quotable Quotes’ that I could find. Sports quotations? My favorite. Hope you enjoy these...
“I’m tired of hearing about money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.”—Shaquille O’Neal
“Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost.”—Martina Navratilova
“I don’t watch movies a lot. I watch sporting events. Because you can never tell how they’re going to end.”—Michael Douglas
“If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That’s all I am. I live it.”—Marvin Hagler “Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision.
They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”—Muhammad Ali
“A runner’s creed: I will win; if I cannot win, I shall be second; if I cannot be second, I shall be third; if I cannot place at all, I shall still do my best.”—Ken Doherty
“Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead.”—Roger Bannister, after breaking the four-minute mile (1952)
“When I step onto the court, I don’t have to think about anything. If I have a problem off the court, I find that after I play, my mind is clearer and I can come up with a better solution. It’s like therapy. It relaxes me and allows me to solve problems.”—Michael Jordan
“100 percent of the shots you don’t take don’t go in.”—Wayne Gretzky
“Not only is there more to life than basketball, there’s a lot more to basketball than basketball.” —Phil Jackson “No, my dad was fun.”—Phil Mickelson, when asked if his dad was like Earl Woods
“I always feel pressure. If you don’t feel nervous, that means you don’t care about how you play. I care about how I perform. I’ve always said the day I’m not nervous playing is the day I quit.”—Tiger Woods
“You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.”—Arthur Ashe
“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”—Lance Armstrong
“Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.”—Lou Holtz
“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.”—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”—John Wooden
“Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We.”—Phil Jackson
“The key is not the “will to win” . . . everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”—Bob Knight
“How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal, and you have to be willing to work for it.”—Jim Valvano
“Boxing is the ultimate challenge. There’s nothing that can compare to testing yourself the way you do every time you step in the ring.”—Sugar Ray Leonard
“You can make a lot of money in this game. Just ask my ex-wives. Both of them are so rich that neither of their husbands work.”—Lee Trevino
“The 5 Ss of sports training are: stamina, speed, strength, skill, and spirit; but the greatest of these is spirit.”—Ken Doherty
“Success isn’t permanent and failure isn’t fatal.”—Mike Ditka
“Show me a man who never failed and I’ll show you a man who never tried anything hard enough.”—Allen Waimsley
“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence.”—Vince Lombardi
“I’m scared every time I go into the ring, but it’s how you handle it. What you have to do is plant your feet, bite down on your mouthpiece and say, ‘Let’s go.’”—Mike Tyson
