Top 70 Brad Stevens Quotes

As a coach, you have to have a short-term memory when it comes to shooting. Let it fly and move on.

Your strengths have to stand out. Your strengths have to be perfected.

I believe you’re either intrinsically motivated or you’re not.

When you work in the pharmaceutical industry you realize that there’s a lot out of people’s control, and there’s ways that people can be helped.

That’s the toughest part about coaching, I think, is that the longer you’re in it, the more winning becomes, ‘Phew, I’m glad we won,’ and the losing is like just the most brutal thing ever.

I appreciate who I work with, I appreciate the players and the staff.

Nutrition and sleep are two of the most underrated things, especially with younger kids.

I learned you don’t put limitations on yourself.

I don’t focus well angry.

I think that some of the best runs that I’ve been on as a coach have come as the result of a tough loss or a string of tough losses that galvanized us and made us figure out who we were. Then we were able to take off. You have to use them as learning experiences and move forward.

I think it’s great when you get a chance to play for your country.

Keeping myself motivated is not hard.

I’ve always found that in a team of 15 people, it’s a little different than in a team of 40 or 50 people. If I name two or three people captains, inevitably you’re disempowering more than you’re empowering.

It’s so much fun to dream in your driveway. I had an old wooden backboard in my driveway. That’s where my friends and I hung out.

As far as routine goes, one of the things we talk about all the time is that if you have a routine that’s great. But you can’t be like married to it because the bus could break down on the way to the arena, you could get stuck in traffic, you may be sick that day and you may feel better by game time.

There’s no doubt what the goal in Boston is. There is no grey, it is black and white. You’re going to try to win the whole thing every single year.

We want to be as routine-oriented as we can, but it’s just not always feasible.

At the end of the day, you do this job because you really like working with your team and like the chance to compete as an organization.

One of my greatest regrets in coaching is the Butler Final Four runs, because if I would have been a seasoned coach, I think we would have won.

I don’t keep a lot of the trophy stuff. I don’t pay attention to it.

I’m not a big basketball book guy.

I think the first assumption as a coach can’t be that we just have to run harder or do it tougher. You have to understand that everybody is a human being and you have to understand that everybody has things that they’re dealing with.

There have been many a days in coaching where I’ve said, What was I thinking? Because it is not the easiest job in the world. But it is very fulfilling, not because of the results you achieve but because of the relationships you build.

I’m boring.

Basketball has given me so many opportunities, and it’s something that’s opened the world to me and allowed me to travel really all over the world.

I couldn’t be more proud to be in the NBA, to be with the Celtics and be surrounded by the people I get to go to work with every day.

That’s what the great teams do. That’s where, if you’re a good shooter, become a great one. If you’re a good ballhandler, become a great one.

Two points doesn’t seem like a lot, but there’s only 2 points that separate the best from the worst sometimes.

One thing I’d like to do better personally is decompress. Obviously when things don’t go your way, you’ll be thinking of it all the time.

I get great satisfaction from trying to get better and trying to do the next thing as well as I can.

If we can do something to help show people that it’s not only OK – we encourage asking for help, because we take care of everybody’s physical needs all over the place, we should all be on top of all of our mental needs and wellness needs.

The longer I’ve gone on in coaching, the more I take everything as information and not as much emotional.

If I was playing a game of Sorry or checkers with my nine-year-old, I hate losing. That’s just my makeup and personality.

I think in coaching you just expect it to end at some point by being let go or by being fired. It’s just kind of the nature of the business, so I’ve never really focused on that. I’m just trying to focus on doing the job as well as I can.

As I’ve grown older, I appreciate what I had at Lilly even more than I did back then.

Jaylen’s greatest impact, as good as he is at basketball, won’t be at basketball. I just think he’s a special guy. He’s a special leader.

Just as you get older, you gain more experiences, you see more things.

I think the NBA’s amazing and I think our players are amazing.

I think you just have to work as hard as you can. Sometimes you’re going to fail, but the way I look at it is if you’re always focused on the process, you’re going to fail forward, and you’re going to keep building and growing.

I’m a huge Billy Donovan fan.

Jaylen’s a high achiever. You can be a high achiever in every which way. He’s a guy that – we’ve talked about several times – is gonna do bigger things off the court than on it, and he’s a special player on it.

I guess I could be happy in anything where you feel like there’s a scoreboard.

I like Kyrie, and I wish him nothing but health and success.

I haven’t been near perfect by any means. In fact, I’ve got a list of things I want to do better.

That’s part of free agency. You can go where you want at the end of the day.

I’m pretty bland. I’m not a big decorator.

We truly love Butler University and Indianapolis and are very thankful to have had the opportunity to celebrate so many wonderful things together.

When things don’t go your way, the day after you wake up and try to get better and be as good as you can be the next day.

I guess my Indy friends don’t always love to hear this, but yeah I root for the Pats.

I’ve always been a guy that if you can shoot 3s, you need to shoot 3s. It extends the defense, especially when you’ve got a guy that can play an undersize 5 role.

Of all the great moments at Butler, I still remember the losses most vividly. I don’t know why. I guess that’s kind of what drives you.

One of my biggest regrets in coaching was my eighth or ninth game of my career. I was wound up about a conference game in December – I was wound up tight, and we ended up playing really tight. Our players were bickering with the officials, I was bickering… and then all of a sudden we lose.

I love Evan Turner. I think he’s a great teammate. I think he’s a hard worker. I think he loves basketball. I don’t think you can overvalue that.

I always was intrigued by the N.B.A.

I’m only interested in being better than everyone else thought you could be.

I try not to schedule too many meetings. That’s one of the things I learned in corporate America – that you can spend your days having meetings and never actually have time to work.

Strength is never a negative. The stronger you are, the more you’re able to defend. The more physical you are, the better you are. The top teams in the NBA are the most physical teams, too.

The difference between mediocre, good and great is you’re able to have the enthusiasm for prep, to work to prepare to win the same in January that you do in August, when everybody says they’re excited.

I can tell you right now, anybody that says I’m genius, that is the farthest thing from the truth.

I love the game of basketball. I don’t know if I like it better than competing.

I don’t think patient would be the first word that anybody that knows me would describe me as. But I think that’s anybody in competitive sports.

You always have to be growing.

I’ve always been a huge Oladipo fan.

My experience at DePauw was about as beneficial as any experience I’ve had.

I think the biggest thing in this league is how many positions can you guard and do you have a strength offensively that’s applicable?

I’m not one of these guys that can stay up until 3 in the morning and get up at 5.

One of the great things about coaching is it’s a different challenge every day.

Every decent person feels the pain of the African-American community, but I also don’t want to pretend like I know the exact distinct pain.

You always want to put time and thought into how guys can improve during the offseason.

Do your job one play at a time.