All the famous basketball personalities paid gratitude to this legend after his death saying his death was an irrecoverable loss for the sport of basketball and he would remain alive in their hearts. He was the third player in the basketball history who got Hall of Fame entry through both ways, as a player and as a coach as well. Sports Illustrated, in 1989, declared him the best coach ever in the history of basketball. But what he thought about himself? For that, we see his quotations.
“I don’t think I was a fine game coach. I don’t think I was a great strategy guy. I think I was a good practice coach. I could tell you right now what we did at every practice I had at UCLA — every day, every minute. It’s all on paper.”
—UCLA Magazine (Summer 2000)
He was such a nice person that he never said that he was great. Some of his other quotes are also mentioned below.
“Be prepared to be honest.”
“Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.”
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
“It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”
“It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”