Mike Krzyzewski Quotes on Sports (9 Quotes)

I've tried to handle winning well, so that maybe we'll win again, but I've also tried to handle failure well. If those serve as good examples for teachers and kids, then I hope that would be a contribution I have made to sport. Not just basketball, but to sport.

Playing sport was somewhat frivolous, but I liked it. I rebelled a little bit, and wouldn't go to music lessons and things like that, but I would go and play ball. My parents learned to love it because they saw how much I got out of it.

First of all, what happens is, when you're good at something, you spend a lot of time with it. People identify you with that sport, so it becomes part of your identity.

I've always believed we should have a governance agency for college basketball, under the NCAA umbrella, that would be focused on it on a day-to-day basis, 365 days a year. It's not to say the NCAA hasn't done a good job with the current structure they have, but our sport is too big to be run by committee.

My parents didn't really understand too much about sport. At that time, we were in a Polish community in the inner city of Chicago, and I was the youngest of a bunch of cousins. Polish families are real big, with cousins and aunts and uncles.

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

It is a chance to represent the United States at this elite level of basketball. I am honored to be chosen and look forward to the opportunity to develop this team that will represent our great country in its own sport, both on and off the court.

In high school, in sport, I had a coach who told me I was much better than I thought I was, and would make me do more in a positive sense. He was the first person who taught me not to be afraid of failure.

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