Top 40 Red Auerbach Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “All records are made to be broken.”

— Red Auerbach

2. “Winners train, losers complain. Give me twelve players that want to win and they will find a way to win.”

— Red Auerbach

3. “If you want to be a Champion, you’ve got to feel like one, you’ve got to act like one, you’ve got to look like one.”

— Red Auerbach

4. “Take pride in what you do. The kind of pride I’m talking about is not the arrogant puffed-up kind; it’s just the whole idea of caring – fiercely caring.”

— Red Auerbach

5. “The Boston Celtics are not a basketball team, they are a way of life.”

— Red Auerbach

6. “The most important thing in coaching is communication. It’s not what you say as much as what they absorb.”

— Red Auerbach

7. “If they think we’ve got an edge, we’ve got an edge.”

— Red Auerbach

8. “They said you have to use your five best players but I found you win with the five who fit together the best.”

— Red Auerbach

9. “An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise.”

— Red Auerbach

10. “And I have been very blessed, having coached some of the greatest that have ever played the game. But if I had to start a team today, the greatest player and the one guy I would take would be Larry Bird.”

— Red Auerbach

11. “Just do what you do best.”

— Red Auerbach

12. “Basketball is like war in that offensive weapons are developed first, and it always takes a while for the defense to catch up.”

— Red Auerbach

13. “You don’t win games as a coach during games. You win games as a coach before games. Players win during games, not coaches.”

— Red Auerbach

14. “If you’re keeping score, win!”

— Red Auerbach

15. “You can’t win without the ball.”

— Red Auerbach

16. “Players are people, not horses. You don’t handle them. You work with them, you coach them, you teach them, and, maybe most important, you listen to them.”

— Red Auerbach

17. “It’s not what you tell your players that counts. It’s what they hear.”

— Red Auerbach

18. “Wilt Chamberlain had a great deal to do with the success of the NBA. His dominance, power, demeanor and the rivalry with Bill Russell says it all. He will be sorely missed by myself and everyone in the basketball community. Wilt was a great performer and a great athlete.”

— Red Auerbach

19. “I never had a set of rules. Every situation is different.”

— Red Auerbach

20. “Many, many times, the kids with the less talent become the better athletes because they’re more dedicated to achieving their full potential.”

— Red Auerbach

21. “The best way to forget ones self is to look at the world with attention and love.”

— Red Auerbach

22. “Strategy is something anyone can learn. But not all coaches take the time to understand a man’s personality.”

— Red Auerbach

23. “Everyone is born with a certain potential. You may never achieve your full potential, but how close you come depends on how much you want to pay the price.”

— Red Auerbach

24. “Everything can happen in the playoffs.”

— Red Auerbach

25. “To a father, when a child dies, the future dies; to a child when a parent dies, the past dies.”

— Red Auerbach

26. “I don’t believe in statistics. There are too many factors that can’t be measured. You can’t measure a ballplayer’s heart.”

— Red Auerbach

27. “Stand up for your players. Show them you care on and off the court.”

— Red Auerbach

28. “I’ve turned down a lot of trades where I might have gotten a better player, but I wasn’t totally sure of the chemistry of that new player coming in. Even though he might possess golden ability, his personality and the way he gets along with teammates might be things you just don’t want to cope with.”

— Red Auerbach

29. “He who believes in nobody knows that he himself is not to be trusted.”

— Red Auerbach

30. “Look after your people.”

— Red Auerbach

31. “I have two college degrees, four honorary doctorate degrees, and am in three Halls of fame, and the only thing I know how to do is teach tall people how to put a ball in the hole.”

— Red Auerbach

32. “You’ve got to avoid overcoaching. You’ve got to avoid talking too much. You’ve got to avoid showing players that you’re the boss every time. You don’t have to do that. They know you’re in charge.”

— Red Auerbach

33. “I have two college degrees, but the only way I could make a living was by showing kids how to put a ball in a hole.”

— Red Auerbach

34. “The coach should be the absolute boss, but he still should maintain an open mind.”

— Red Auerbach

35. “If I’m going to coach the players, I want some say on who they’re going to be.”

— Red Auerbach

36. “Any coach needs talent. You start with talent. Without talent, we’re all in the soup.”

— Red Auerbach

37. “I never took a position we were going to be a good ball club. I took the position we were going to be a winning ball club.”

— Red Auerbach

38. “You handle animals. You deal with people.”

— Red Auerbach

39. “I can’t stand a ballplayer who plays in fear.”

— Red Auerbach

40. “He has the players too happy.”

— Red Auerbach