Jeff Van Gundy Quotes

I think we all have had better days in competition.

If we lose games, and I don't score a lot, they gonna say I'm not scoring enough.

I was a professional athlete, the best baseball player in the world at one point.

Like I said, when you have to play against a great player every night, that defines who you are if you can compete on that same level night in and night out.

It's a very competitive thing, pro sports. The hardest thing in pro sports is staying up there.

I've always hated to lose and I continue to hate it. But I've been obliged to accept it because I also have had some crushing defeats.

I think competing gets overlooked sometimes. The competitiveness that you bring to a game and an at-bat, it can go a long way. It really can.

You have to go into every event with 100 percent confidence and just surf your best because everyone there is there to win, and no one is going to give you the heat. You have to win by a mile to really make a heat.

The footballer's career is very long and staying on the top for many years is always very difficult.

Every moment, every practice, every game, everywhere; I just love competing. Competition is in my DNA.

I've never felt like I've had a good game.

I approach every match with that mindset, that this guy is trying to beat you, and it will change his life if he does.

The greatness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive. The weakness of Michael Jordan is his competitive drive

I enjoy watching competitive people. You watch 'em come and you watch 'em go, and how they try to be the best. How they handle when they're not. How they handle when they are. How they get along together on the court.

The mind is absolutely instrumental in achieving results, even for athletes. Sports psychology is a very small part, but it's extremely important when you're winning and losing races by hundredths and even thousandths of a second.

Tension is the greatest curse in sport. I've never had any tension. You give the best you have - you win or lose. What's the difference if you give all you've got to give?

I'm not in this sport to say a guy can beat me.

Everybody gets all worked up about trash talk but it is what it is - it's talk... You ask any player, honestly, if trash talk's gonna affect how hard they play, because if a little trash talk affects how hard they can play, it just lets us know that they were holding back or weren't playing harder or as hard as they could.

If you got anything to you at all as an athlete and a competitor, you don't care what the circumstances are. You still got competition.

I have the mentality of a winner. I first went to the Olympic Games when I was 17, three weeks after my O-levels, and I remember sitting in a dining-hall filled with the world's best athletes.

I just think winners win. And guys who won all the way through high school and college, the best player at every level, they have a way of making things happen and winning games.

You're always facing the top defenders in this league. To go out there and do your best, that's all you can ask for.

I would say I'm more traditional than I am superstitious. I don't, for example, have to do things ritually before the game in order to feel comfortable going to the game. But I don't think I'm naturally a football player. I don't have that grit and that killer instinct.

I like to challenge myself. There are not many guys on tour who can give me a challenge in Ping-Pong. So I'll throw some points to see if I can come back.

The best thing I've ever heard another player say is, 'I hate playing against you.'