A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.
Pat Riley

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.
Pat Riley

Being a part of success is more important than being personally indispensable.
Pat Riley

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

Discipline is not a nasty word.
Pat Riley

Don't let other people tell you what you want.
Pat Riley

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

Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.
Pat Riley

Giving yourself permission to lose guarantees a loss.
Pat Riley

Great effort springs naturally from great attitude.
Pat Riley


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

Look for your choices, pick the best one, then go with it.
Pat Riley

Management must speak with one voice. When it doesn't management itself becomes a peripheral opponent to the team's mission.
Pat Riley

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

Public life is regarded as the crown of a career, and to young men it is the worthiest ambition. Politics is still the greatest and the most honorable adventure.
Pat Riley

The Ten Commandments were not a suggestion.
Pat Riley

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

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.
Pat Riley

There's no such thing as coulda, shoulda, or woulda. If you shoulda and coulda, you woulda done it.
Pat Riley

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