On how to make the game more exciting - Eliminate the referees, raise the basket four feet, double the size of the basketball, limit the height of the players to 5 feet 9 inches, bring back the centre jump, allow taxi drivers in for free and allow the players to carry guns.

Make your life exciting. Do what you have to do as long as you don't hurt people.

I tell the players that they can't relive any day in their lives and that they can't relive the minutes of a game, so they should make a great effort, a Mount Everest type effort, to live up to their potential. Success is a communal type thing, and if we win, then everyone can be considered successful and we can move uptown together.

I let ballplayers yell back at me because I wasn't trying to prove I'm boss. I know I'm boss.

I just can't recruit where there's grass around. You gotta have a concrete lawn before I feel comfortable enough to go in and talk to you parents.

When a guy takes off his coat, he's not going to fight. When a guy takes off his wristwatch, watch out!

Don't call me son unless you're going to include me in your will. (When Adolph Rupp called him, "Son.")