Quotes from Mike Krzyzewski

Fun is to experience things you would not have been able to experience in any other setting.

With me and basketball, it became part of me.

Defense is one man guarding the ball and four others helping him

My mom gave me unconditional support and unfailing love. You can't get any better than that. That's why I've never been afraid to lose.

Imagination has a great deal to do with winning.

Confidence shared is better than confidence only in yourself.

It's always an honor to be ranked high, but whatever is said about you, you take it and then take a realistic look at yourself and who you are.

It is the ultimate honor for a coach to be his country's coach.

I don't look at myself as a basketball coach. I look at myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball.

Believe that the loose ball that you are chasing has your name wirtten on it.

I think you're not a human being unless you have doubts and fears.

Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.

That's another thing, we made up games. We didn't have equipment. When it snowed, we would play slow motion tackle football. We would play hockey, but we wouldn't skate. We just made things up. I loved doing that.

You can't defer if you're the person who's in the leadership position.

Almost everything in leadership comes back to relationships.

That's what I do now: I lead and I teach. If we win basketball games from doing that, then that's great, but I lead and teach. Those are the two things I concentrate on.

My ambition in high school was to be a high school coach and teacher, and that's still what I do: teach.

To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.

When I was in sixth grade, I wanted to become a priest.

I had a really bad temper, when I was growing up. Sport helped me channel that temper into more positive acts.

If you win a National Championship, or you win two, people think you have not only seen the Holy Grail, but you've embraced it. Basically, I do what a lot of people do, but I've been able to win.

Basketball was not my main sport in grade school, or even the first year of high school.

The person who has inspired me my whole life is my Mom, because she taught me commitment. She sacrificed.

The life expectancy of a team is about eight months. Then the next year, it's a whole new team.