Basketball has had some of sports biggest personalities, and with those great personalities come some highly inspirational and entertaining quotes. After a big hunt around the net I have compiled 25 of the most Inspirational Basketball quotes in history, which you can see below! Feel free to share other great Basketball quotes in the comments box. In the unlikely event that these quotes bore you, then try my hub '25 Funny Basketball Quotes'.

1. "One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team." - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

2. "Any American boy can be a basketball star if he grows up, up, up." - Bill Vaughn

3. "Talent wins games, but team work and intelligence wins championships." - Michael Jordan

4. "The best teams have chemistry. They communicate with each other and they sacrifice personal glory for the common goal." - Dave DeBusschere

5. "I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream." - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

6. "You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise." - Michael Jordan

7. "As far as carrying the torch for the years to come, I don't know. I just want to be the best basketball player I can be." - Kobe Bryant

8. "There are really only two plays: Rome and Juliet, and put the darn ball in the basket." - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

9. "You don't play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball." - Bobby Knight

10. "Even when I'm old and gray, I won't be able to play it, but I'll still love the game" - Michael Jordan

11. "Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals." - Dr. James Naismith

12. "Basketball is a game that gives you every chance to be great, and puts every pressure on you to prove that you haven't got what it takes. It never takes away the chance, and it never eases up on the pressure." - Bob Sundvold

13. "Basketball is like photography, if you don't focus, all you have is the negative." - Dan Frisby

14. “When it's played the way is spozed to be played, basketball happens in the air; flying, floating, elevated above the floor, levitating the way oppressed peoples of this earth imagine themselves in their dreams.” - John Edgar Wideman

15. “Me shooting 40% at the foul line is just God’s way to say nobody’s perfect.” -Shaquille O’Neal

16. “I would tell players to relax and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you’ve lost your focus.” - Michael Jordan

17. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” - Michael Jordan

18. “Don’t let what other people think decide who you are.” - Dennis Rodman

19. “I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot...and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why... I succeed.” - Michael Jordan

20. "If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life." - Isiah Thomas

21. "A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play." - Mike Krzyzewski

22. "I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind." - Kareem Abdul-Jabber

23. "You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go... Don't ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body." - Kareem Abdul-Jabber

24. "I wanted to do two things when I was growing up, about your age. I wanted to play in the NBA, and I wanted to be a businessman after my basketball career was over, and that is what I am doing now." - Magic Johnson

25. "I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok." - Shaquille O’Neal