I tell the players that they can't relive any day in their lives and that they can't relive the minutes of a game, so they should make a great effort, a Mount Everest type effort, to live up to their potential. Success is a communal type thing, and if we win, then everyone can be considered successful and we can move uptown together.

Al McGuire

Categorized in : Moving Sports Successful

Help one kid at a time. He'll maybe go back and help a few more. by Al McGuire

Help one kid at a time. He'll maybe go back and help a few more.

nba basketball kids

I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated.

basketball college education

I went into a restaurant one night and ordered lobster, and the waiter brought me one with a claw missing. I called him over and told him about it. He told me that in the back there's a tank they keep the lobsters in and while they're in there, they fight and sometimes one loses a claw. I told him 'then bring me a winner.'

fighting missing night

The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets. by Al McGuire

The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.

hilarious humorous funny

My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house. That's not my world. My world has a cracked sidewalk.

basketball house kids

I believe in a business boarding up early. If you make a mistake, you put the boards in the window of the store and say, "Hey, I made a mistake." Let me take two shots in the arm and a punch on the nose and let me get on to the next thing. I don't believe in worrying over failures. I worry about successes. This is opposite from most people. Most people zero in on their failures. I try to keep all my attention on a pyramid type philosophy rather than the averaging-down philosophy.

zero leadership sports

Remember, half the doctors in this country graduated in the botto... by Al McGuire

Remember, half the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their class.

basketball graduation country

You can always tell the Catholic schools by the length of the che... by Al McGuire

You can always tell the Catholic schools by the length of the cheerleaders' skirts.

catholic basketball school

It's so ridiculous to see a golfer with a one foot putt and everybody is saying "Shhh" and not moving a muscle. Then we allow nineteen year-old kids to face a game-deciding free throw with seventeen thousand people yelling.

golf kids moving

A team should be an extension of a coach's personality. My teams... by Al McGuire

A team should be an extension of a coach's personality. My teams are arrogant and obnoxious.

team basketball personality

Life is what you allow yourself not to see. by Al McGuire

Life is what you allow yourself not to see.

basketball life-is

Don't be just another guy going down the street and going nowhere... by Al McGuire

Don't be just another guy going down the street and going nowhere.

other-guys guy basketball

Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in... by Al McGuire

Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.

basketball leadership sports

They call me eccentric. They used to call me nuts. I haven't changed. The only difference between being eccentric and being nuts is the number of security boxes you own.

differences money nuts

The nicest thing about coaching is that one day you feel like you can play handball against a curb, and on other days you feel like you can fly to the moon.

basketball moon play

It bothers me that the average fan, the average sportswriter for that matter, pays so much attention to what's in a box score. A box score does not properly represent the most important thing - team play. It shows some guy scoring 27 points, but it doesn't show that my 27-point man let his guy score 30.

team average men

There's no one who's dropped on top of the mountain. You've got t... by Al McGuire

There's no one who's dropped on top of the mountain. You've got to work your way to the top.

mountain way

Our guys took Shop and Advanced Shop. Shop is when you make a chair. Advanced Shop is when you paint it.

paint guy basketball

Don't call me son unless you're going to include me in your will. (When Adolph Rupp called him, "Son.")

call-me basketball son

Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious. by Al McGuire

Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious.

basketball motivational sports