You don’t play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.
Meaning of the quote
When you play basketball, you're not really competing against the other team. Instead, you're playing against the game itself - the rules, the strategies, the skills required to be successful. The quote suggests that the true challenge is not about beating the other players, but about mastering the sport and overcoming the inherent difficulties of the game. It's a mindset that encourages players to focus on their own improvement and the complexities of the game, rather than solely on outperforming their opponents.
More quotes from Bobby Knight
Mental toughness is to physical as four is to one.
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As I’ve said, basketball has been, I think, a real cooperative venture. There have been a lot of people that have been involved in it: coaches, administrators – not recently – fans and nobody, nobody any more so than students over the years.
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And I would be the first to admit that probably, in a lot of press conferences over the time that I have been in coaching, indulging my own sense of humor at press conferences has not been greatly to my benefit.
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The key is not the will to win… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.
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All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things.
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When my time on earth is gone, and my activities here are passed, I want they bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my ass!
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Why talk now when so many things have been said without ever giving me a chance to talk?
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You don’t play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.
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I’ve never predicted anything. All I have ever said is, that we will do the very best we can.
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Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win.
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I don’t have to wait until the next morning to regret something I did that was kinda dumb.
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People change over the years, and that changes situations for good and for bad.
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The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare.
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I don’t intend to retire.
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Well, I think it’s pretty much established that I just didn’t have any interest in coaching in the pros.
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I don’t think I have ever been out of control.
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If I came in to recruit your son, I would tell you, your wife, and your son, that I will be the most demanding coach your son can play for.
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Walking has been ridiculous in college basketball the past 15 years.
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I’m an unemployed teacher right now and I’m looking for a place to teach.
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