Scottie Pippen Quotes

One of the hardest things for a ball player to do is to accept his role

Teams do not make their debut in the first XI - individuals do - but it is the team that enables the individual to get the best out of himself. Football IQ, I call it, understanding roles and the team structure.

Players have to buy into your system and be willing to accept the role, you, as the coach, have assigned to them

How good can we expect to be if our best player is not our best teammate

The greatest players fit with the team. They play within the team's style, rather than asking the team to change its style.

Every matchup is very important regardless of who the bigs are, who the guards are.

I told our players at Butler, 'I hate to break it to you, but you aren't playing beyond here. That's reality. So why are you so concerned with yourself?' It's a hard lesson, but I told them, 'How you handle your role on this team will be remembered by your coaches and your teammates. It will define you.'

Whether it's the best player or the 12th man next to the Gatorade cooler, understanding the personalities on your team is key.

That's something that's so often overlooked in this game - the dynamics of the locker room.

Mascherano's impact as a leader is more important inside the squad, and Messi's leadership is more important in the pitch.

It's tough coming out of Nebraska, where you're the man and you have to score, to going to the guy that sets the team up and being a role player.

You don't have to be best friends as basketball players but I do believe in chemistry. I think it makes everything different if a team is really together and they're all on that same page. They might not like each other, per se, but if you're on the same page and the chemistry is there, you can play great basketball. You can go back to teams like Detroit, the Bad Boys. Those guys had great chemistry, that's why they won.

Chemistry is important. If you like your teammates, it's going to be easier to play with them on the court.

The coach's job is to be part servant in helping each player reach his goals within the team concept.

Basketball is a great mystery. You can do everything right. You can have the perfect mix of talent and the best system of offense in the game. You can devise a foolproof defensive strategy and prepare your players for every possible eventuality. But if the players don’t have a sense of oneness as a group, your efforts won’t pay off. And the bond that unites a team can be so fragile, so elusive.

You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they've got one heartbeat. Then you've got yourself a team.

You should sub a player out when you see a player not going full-speed or playing selfish basketball.

He doesn't need advice on how to play his position, but he needs advice on how to play team ball... If it's going to be my team, I'll voice my opinion. If he don't like it, he can opt out.

A team can't work when a guy puts himself in front of a team. I have yet to be on a team like that.

A group of amazingly high achievers can be brought together and play together, and all believe that they are competing for something bigger than themselves. Those players are so used to being patted on the back and told how good they are. Frankly, those are usually the hardest people to remind that they are aspiring to achieve something bigger than themselves.

Everybody on a championship team doesn't get publicity, but everyone can say he's a champion.

It's the most pleasurable experience in the world! When you're on a great team and you get hot, your teammates milk you dry - they wear you out and there's nothing like being on a great team.

I am the same person as always and I have the good fortune to play in a great team. It was an historic year for Barca and for me but it's thanks to the work of everyone.

Not only is there more to life than basketball, there's a lot more to basketball than basketball.

On a team, trust is all about vulnerability, which is difficult for most people.