Celtics Trivia Quotes

Lots of quotes to ponder and kind of a verbal journey through Celtic history. See if you can figure it out. Who said what about whom?

"We weren't much of a basketball team. We were the worst."

"I'm a homely man. I know that. I look in the mirror. I was always the one who made everyone else at the party laugh, then went home alone with a newspaper under my arm. I think that's why I came to love Carl Sandburg's writing, because he had this philosophy which said true beauty lies in a compassion for ugliness. That was always my feeling, too: I have to better myself in other ways because of the kisser I haven't got. Love comes in many forms, and one of them is compassion for the downtrodden, for the adverse, for things that don't look good, for things that don't work, or have gone aground. That's what is missing in this world today, real love. I'd like to think I have it."

"Back in college a professor convinced me the best way to go into an exam was a little bit hungry; that way your mind operates better. Eat a big meal and you feel lethargic on the sidelines. I wanted to feel like a tiger - alert, aggressive, maybe even a little bit hostile . . ."

"I always wanted to be the best. It wasn't enough to be very good. I had to be the best."

"I nearly had a heart attack watching that shot. Everything was riding on it. When it bounced off the rim, I just grabbed it and hung on for dear life."

"Even my size had advantages. In the backcourt I was bigger than some opponents. And upfront I was faster than bigger forwards. And thanks to [my teammates] I didn't have to worry much about rebounding. As soon as a shot went up, I could take off for the other end and those bigger guys had to chase me."

"I told Rocky thanks but no thanks, that I had stomach trouble - no guts. My face isn't much to look at, but I like what I've got."

"He was a tough, gutty kid and an ideal forward. He was a clutch performer who could do it all: great offensive rebounding, great moves, great shots, including a beautiful soft hook, even great defense when he felt like playing it. And as Frank Ramsey used to say, "He would knock down his grandmother for two points."

"I was a tough man to beat in the trenches. A loose ball was my ball."

"Give me the ball and get out of the way. I'll make it."

"I loved playing alongside him. That meant I didn't have to play against him. I'd look at the poor souls he was haunting and be thankful it wasn't me. Thank you Lord, thank you."

"If I were playing in an imaginary pickup game, among all the players I've ever seen, he's the one I would choose."

"Before the next game, John Havlicek and I walked into the locker room and wrote PRIDE on the blackboard in great big letters."

"I don't want the season to end. In a game like this, if all your guts fall out you just pick them up, stuff them back, and keep going."

"There are two kinds of superstars. One kind makes himself look good at the expense of the four other men on the floor. The other kind makes the four men around him better than they are. That's the kind of superstar [he] was. He made us all look better than we were."

"He was a basketball freak. He couldn't jump. He couldn't run. He just made monkeys out of opponents by making their strengths work against them. He out-thought them."

"This is the dumbest team I ever played on."

"I was afraid maybe I'd pick up the paper one day and find out I was traded."

"I don't worry about injuries. I don't get hurt because I'm the one doing the hitting. I'm the one going a little nutty out there."

"Don't choke."

"We have a heart as big as this room."

"Never was there a day when I didn't look forward to going out on the parquet and being a Celtic. It's an honor that remains with you long after your playing days are over. Like forever."

"I had to call off practice. We were going after each other like Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier. I'd never seen anything like that intensity in practice in all the time I've been here."

"What I didn't know about was his self-motivation and his willingness to pay the price by working hard. The more you paid him, the harder he worked. He wanted to show he was worth it."

"There's a secret to playin' basketball, but I ain't tellin' what it is."