48 Inspirational Pat Riley Quotes (COMMITMENT)

Top 10 Most Famous Pat Riley Quotes

“If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.”
Pat Riley

There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either in or out. There's no such thing as a life in between. — There are only two options regarding **commitment**. You’re either in or out. There’s no such thing as a **life** in between.

Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better. — **Excellence** is the gradual result of always striving to do better.

There's always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning. — There’s always the **motivation** of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a **champion** needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond **winning**.

Excellence happens when you try each day to both do and be, a little better than you were yesterday!

“All of us have at least one great voice deep inside. People are products of their environment. A lucky few are born into situations in which positive messages abound. Others grow up hearing messages of fear and failure, which they must block out so the positive can be heard. But the positive and courageous voice will always emerge, somewhere, sometime, for all of us. Listen for it, and your breakthroughs will come.”
Pat Riley

Great effort springs naturally from great attitude.

The key to teamwork is to learn a role, accept a role, and strive to become excellent playing it. — The key to **teamwork** is to **learn** a role, accept a role, and strive to become excellent playing it.

Shoulda, coulda, and woulda won't get it done. In attacking adversity, only a positive attitude, alertness, and regrouping to basics can launch a comeback. — Shoulda, coulda, and woulda won’t get it done. In attacking **adversity**, only a positive attitude, alertness, and regrouping to basics can launch a comeback.

Until you change the way that you look at things, those things will never change. — Until you **change** the way that you look at things, those things will never change.

10 Inspirational Pat Riley Quotes on Winning

“Great players and great teams want to be driven. They want to be pushed to the edge. They don’t want to be cheated. Ordinary players and average teams want it to be easy.”
Pat Riley

You have no choices about how you lose, but you do have a choice about how you come back and prepare to win again.

Giving yourself permission to lose guarantees a loss.

There can only be one state of mind as you approach any profound test; total concentration, a spirit of togetherness, and strength. — There can only be one state of mind as you approach any profound test; total concentration, a spirit of togetherness, and **strength**.

The true warrior understands and seizes that moment by giving an effort so intense and so intuitive that it could only be called one from the heart.

When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. — When you’re playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder.

A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning. — A **champion** needs a **motivation** above and beyond **winning**.

You have to defeat a great players aura more than his game.

Unless you learn to manage the aftereffects of winning, the forces that led your team to the top will turn around and destroy you.

3 Pat Riley Quotes on Magic Johnson

“Magic was an avid student of all the styles of basketball. Instead of crushing his teammates under his own greatness, he studied their styles and figured out how he, as the man controlling the movement of the ball, could help get the most out of the abilities they had. He dealt to their strengths.”
Pat Riley

Magic Johnson believed that if he helped everyone around him get what they wanted out of the game, then winning would always follow. — **Magic Johnson** believed that if he helped everyone around him get what they wanted out of the game, then **winning** would always follow.

“Through this unselfishness he would enhance the skills of others. He would help them experience the same kind of kinetic, contagious joy from playing that he always felt. Then they’d be motivated to be their best. The team would experience both winning and success at the same time.”
Pat Riley

9 Motivational Pat Riley Quotes About Life and Success

“Each Warrior wants to leave the mark of his will, his signature, on important acts he touches. This is not the voice of ego but of the human spirit, rising up and declaring that it has something to contribute to the solution of the hardest problems, no matter how vexing!”
Pat Riley

Being a part of success is more important than being personally indispensable. — Being a part of **success** is more important than being personally indispensable.

The key to success is to learn to do something right and then do it right every time.

I've learned to keep things simple. Look at your choices, pick the best one, then go to work with all your heart. — I’ve learned to keep things simple. Look at your choices, pick the best one, then go to work with all your heart.

Being ready isn't enough; you have to be prepared for a promotion or any other significant change. — Being ready isn’t enough; you have to be prepared for a promotion or any other significant **change**.

If you have a positive attitude and strive to give your best, eventually, you will overcome problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.

Anytime you stop striving to get better, you're bound to get worse. — Anytime you stop striving to get better, you’re bound to get worse.

Don't let other people tell you what you want. — Don’t let other people tell you what you want.

The Ten Commandments were not a suggestion.

2 Wise Pat Riley Quotes on Adversity

In every adversity, there is a seed of equivalent benefit.

We sometimes need adversity to fathom our true depths.

10 Pat Riley Quotes About Team & Teamwork

“When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly search for new and more intricate explanations to explain away defeat. After a while it becomes more innovative in thinking up how to lose than thinnking up how to win.”
Pat Riley

Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers. — Great **teamwork** is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our **careers**.

The most difficult thing for individuals to do when they become part of a team is to sacrifice, it is much easier to be selfish.

A particular shot or way of moving the ball can be a player's personal signature, but efficiency of performance is what wins the game for the team. — A particular shot or way of moving the ball can be a player’s personal signature, but efficiency of performance is what wins the game for the team.

“My driving belief is this: great teamwork is the only way to reach our ultimate moments, to create the breakthroughs that define our careers, to fulfill our lives with a sense of lasting significance.”
Pat Riley

Any team can be a miracle team. The catch is that you have got to go out and work for your miracles. Effort is what ultimately separates great teams from ordinary teams. — Any team can be a **miracle** team. The catch is that you have got to go out and work for your miracles. Effort is what ultimately separates great teams from ordinary teams.

People who create 20% of the results will begin believing they deserve 80% of the rewards.

Complacency is the last hurdle standing between any team and its potential greatness.

“Teamwork doesn’t appear magically just because someone mouths the words. It doesn’t thrive just because of the presence of talent or ambition. It doesn’t flourish simply because a team has tasted success.”
Pat Riley

Being innocent means understanding territoriality and knowing that each player has his space—and then putting it aside for the good of the team.

4 Pat Riley Quotes on Leadership

“Am I a control freak? No. Do I believe in organization? You bet. In discipline? In being on time and making sure everything at the hotel is ready and right? Definitely. I don’t control players. I try to control the environment around the players so they can flourish.”
Pat Riley

To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way. — To have long term success as a coach or in any position of **leadership**, you have to be obsessed in some way.

“All I did from day-to-day is coach. That’s what my job was, that’s what my passion was, and the fact that now it’s something I’m being considered for is just mind-blowing to me, that I would ever be in that kind of company.”
Pat Riley