Top 40 Dean Smith Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “A lion never roars after a kill.”

— Dean Smith

2. “What do do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.”

— Dean Smith

3. “You should just do the right thing.”

— Dean Smith

4. “Basketball is a beautiful game when the five players on the court play with one heartbeat.”

— Dean Smith

5. “You should never be proud of doing the right thing. You should just do it.”

— Dean Smith

6. “If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times.”

— Dean Smith

7. “The most important thing in good leadership is truly caring.”

— Dean Smith

8. “Good people are happy when something good happens to someone else.”

— Dean Smith

9. “There is a lot of basketball beyond our control, but a player should never let anyone try harder than he does.”

— Dean Smith

10. “There is a point in every contest when sitting on the sidelines is not an option.”

— Dean Smith

11. “The death penalty makes us all murderers.”

— Dean Smith

12. “Only praise behavior that you want to be repeated. Never use false praise.”

— Dean Smith

13. “One player’s selfish attitude can poison a locker room and make it hard, if not impossible, to establish team work.”

— Dean Smith

14. “Michael, if you can’t pass, you can’t play.”

— Dean Smith

15. “The truly free person in society is a disciplined person.”

— Dean Smith

16. “I only use statistics to reinforce what I already think, or if it’s something unusual.”

— Dean Smith

17. “Given the fact that we are in a capitalist society, we still do not want to overlook not only what a corporation produces and its profitability but also how it impacts the environment, touches human life and whether it protects or undermines the dignity of the human person.”

— Dean Smith

18. “Basketball is a team game. But that doesn’t mean all five players should have the same amount of shots.”

— Dean Smith

19. “The key statistic is still to get to the foul line.”

— Dean Smith

20. “I do believe in praising that which deserves to be praised.”

— Dean Smith

21. “If you make every game a life and death proposition, you’re going to have problems. For one thing, you’ll be dead a lot.”

— Dean Smith

22. “The best way to build team chemistry is the way Rupp used to substitute, when they fouled out.”

— Dean Smith

23. “I always mean what I say, but I don’t always say what I’m thinking.”

— Dean Smith

24. “I would never recruit a player who yells at his teammates, disrespected his high school coach, or scores 33 points a game and his team goes 10-10.”

— Dean Smith

25. “Over coaching is the worst thing you can do to a player.”

— Dean Smith

26. “Our teachers at the public school level are the most underpaid for the importance of their job in America.”

— Dean Smith

27. “Everyone on the bench stands for the man coming out of the game.”

— Dean Smith

28. “The presidents of colleges have to have some courage to step forward. You can’t limit alcohol in college sports, you have to get rid of it.”

— Dean Smith

29. “As soon as you try to describe a close friendship, it loses something.”

— Dean Smith

30. “Motor cut. Forced landing. Hit cow. Cow died. Scared me.”

— Dean Smith

31. “I enjoy basketball. I enjoy coaching basketball. It’s the out-of-season stuff I didn’t handle well.”

— Dean Smith

32. “I know a lawyer who’d love to retire and be an assistant coach. I mean, it’s fun.”

— Dean Smith

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

— Dean Smith

34. “You can’t teach court savvy.”

— Dean Smith

35. “I think the real free person in society is one that’s disciplined. It’s the one that can choose; that is the free one.”

— Dean Smith

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

— Dean Smith

37. “I’d like to see the high schools put in a rule that limits recruitable athletes from playing on teams outside a 100-mile radius from their home or school.”

— Dean Smith

38. “The focus should be on the players. I’m here a long time. You can call me in the summer. Our seniors will be gone.”

— Dean Smith

39. “The real issue is not if a crossing is put in, but when. It would be negligent on the part of Union Pacific and the California Public Utilities Commission to not address the problem.”

— Dean Smith

40. “Always have your players go and pick-up the guy who draws the charge.”

— Dean Smith

41. “I wasn’t as critical during games as I was at practice. Players needed confidence during games more than criticism.”

— Dean Smith

42. “The best way to stop the problem of agents would be for the NCAA to come down hard and suspend a school for two years if it finds players with agents on campus.”

— Dean Smith

43. “I’d never get elected if people in North Carolina realized how liberal I am.”

— Dean Smith

44. “Any old coach will say the game was meant for finesse. It’s a beautiful game, especially on television.”

— Dean Smith

45. “I’ve always believed in quickness over strength and size.”

— Dean Smith