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Life is what you allow yourself not to see.

Al McGuire

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Al McGuire
Age: 72 †
Born: 1928
Born: September 7
Died: 2001
Died: January 26
Basketball Coach
Basketball Player
Queens
New York
Allow
Basketball
Life

More quotes by Al McGuire

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I went into a restaurant one night and ordered lobster, and the waiter brought me one with a claw missing. I called him over and told him about it. He told me that in the back there's a tank they keep the lobsters in and while they're in there, they fight and sometimes one loses a claw. I told him 'then bring me a winner.'
Al McGuire
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Winning is overrated. The only time it is really important is in surgery and war.
Al McGuire
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Help one kid at a time. He'll maybe go back and help a few more.
Al McGuire
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Remember, half the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their class.
Al McGuire
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Make your life exciting. Do what you have to do as long as you don't hurt people.
Al McGuire
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Butch, you come from DeWitt Clinton. There are five thousand brothers in that school. You're the best there. You've been all-city two years in a row. How bad can you be? You come with me and we'll make nice music.
Al McGuire
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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.
Al McGuire
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Winning is only important in war and surgery.
Al McGuire
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I'm not saying that they were Einsteins they were marginal students. But every ballplayer whoever touched me has moved up his station in life. And the players moved up my station.
Al McGuire
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Live every day as if it were Saturday night.
Al McGuire
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When a guy takes off his coat, he's not going to fight. When a guy takes off his wristwatch, watch out!
Al McGuire
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You better have great practices.
Al McGuire
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It's so ridiculous to see a golfer with a one foot putt and everybody is saying Shhh and not moving a muscle. Then we allow nineteen year-old kids to face a game-deciding free throw with seventeen thousand people yelling.
Al McGuire
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I don't know why people question the academic training of an athlete. Fifty percent of the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their classes.
Al McGuire
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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.
Al McGuire
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There's no one who's dropped on top of the mountain. You've got to work your way to the top.
Al McGuire
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When I'm losing, they call me nuts. When I'm winning, they call me eccentric.
Al McGuire
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I don't discuss basketball. I dictate basketball. I'm not interested in philosophy classes.
Al McGuire
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I come from New York where, if you fall down, someone will pick you up by your wallet.
Al McGuire
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I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated.
Al McGuire