Top 140 Mike Krzyzewski Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “Throughout the season, I look into my players eyes to gauge feelings, confidence levels, and to establish instant trust.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

102. “Why do you play a game? I play a game to see how good we can be.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

103. “There are kids don’t want to do something because they’re afraid of looking stupid to their peers. There comes a time when they start protecting themselves, instead of extending. I want to make sure that they’re always trying to extend themselves.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

104. “Footwork is one of the primary prerequisites to becoming a great player.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

105. “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.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

106. “Sometimes in a defeat, you can set the stage for future victory. I wanted them to feel good about what they had accomplished. Not to like losing, but to like the success that they had.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

107. “As teachers and coaches, we must remember that when mere winning is our only goal, we are doomed to disappointment and failure. But when our goal is to try to win, when our focus is on preparation and sacrifice and effort instead of on numbers on a scoreboard then we will never lose.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

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

— Mike Krzyzewski

109. “I’ve been so fortunate in my life that my family has never been jealous of my success. They have shown true love and commitment to me by being supportive. They shared in it.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

110. “I try to see each new season as a new challenge because I have a new team to work with, new opponents to encounter, and often new ideas and theories to try.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

111. “Don’t let a single game break your heart.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

112. “When you cleanse yourself of a big victory, you may open yourself up to the opportunity for an even bigger victory.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

113. “Even though we want huge individual egos, our collective ego is unbelievable.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

114. “I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

115. “I’m still not a great reader, but my wife is and my daughters are, and I envy them. I think I got into a bad habit of trying to do something all the time, instead of trying to sit down and take my time a little bit.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

116. “Throughout my life, my mom has been the person that I’ve always looked up to.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

117. “It’s funny what happens when you become a grandparent. You start to act all goofy and do things you never thought you’d do. It’s terrific.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

118. “You can see and you can listen, but you have to have moments in which you feel.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

119. “I’m fortunate now that I coach at Duke University and we’ve won a lot. I have some kids who haven’t failed that much. But when they get to college, they’re going to fail some time. That’s a thing that I can help them the most with.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

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

— Mike Krzyzewski

121. “I love practice. It is when a coach exercises the most control over the improvement of his or her team.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

122. “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.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

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

— Mike Krzyzewski

124. “If the only reason I coached was to win basketball games, my life would be pretty shallow.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

125. “If you set up an atmosphere of community and trust, it becomes a tradition. Older team members will establish your credibility with newer ones. Even if they don’t like everything about you, they’ll say, ‘He’s trustworthy, committed to us as a team.’”

— Mike Krzyzewski

126. “The thing I loved the most – and still love the most about teaching – is that you can connect with an individual or a group, and see that individual or group exceed their limits.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

127. “Sometimes it’s not bad to hurt. Sometimes you don’t want things until you get hurt. We got hurt today, let’s see what we do.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

128. “If you have talent with teamwork, you’ve got a chance to be a championship team.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

129. “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.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

130. “Once you win a National Championship, how do you do that again? How do you get the passion to do that again? We won it again right away, the next year. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I didn’t give myself an opportunity to enjoy the first one.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

131. “With me and basketball, it became part of me.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

132. “When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

133. “Therefore, as a player, as a coach, even though we might have lost in a season or not won a championship, it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy that I’m going to win some time. I’ve never felt myself a loser.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

134. “It is the ultimate honor for a coach to be his country’s coach.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

135. “I don’t think we surprise people. We try to out-execute them.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

136. “The team that trusts-their leader and each other-is more likely to be successful.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

137. “Actually, the Kentucky moment was better than winning the two National Championships, because it was the epitome of what I try to get from a team in a crisis situation.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

138. “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.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

139. “Parents can really help, but they can also really hinder the development of their youngsters.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

140. “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.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

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

— Mike Krzyzewski

142. “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.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

143. “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.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

144. “When I had troubles, I’d go out with basketball – you can do it by yourself, too. So you’d go out and shoot, and you’d fantasize.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

145. “I always wanted to teach.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

146. “When I was growing up, there weren’t any Little Leagues in the city. Parents worked all the time. They didn’t have time to take their kids out to play baseball and football.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

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

— Mike Krzyzewski

148. “I don’t think you play for other people’s expectations, you know. You don’t go and become a lawyer because your mother or father want you to, you don’t become a coach because somebody wants you to.”

— Mike Krzyzewski

149. “The other thing I knew I had was a high level of competitiveness.”

— Mike Krzyzewski