John Wooden on "Fight"

"Fight is a determined effort to do the very best we can do. On the basketball court, fight is measured by hustle: diving to the floor for loose balls, sprinting to fill a lane on a fast break, taking a charge, picking up a missed defensive assignment or stealing the ball from an opposing player. It's digging in, gritting our teach, standing our ground. When we have fight, we are always ready to respond. We are quick, but we don't hurry. We make fewer mistakes, because we have the level of our intensity under control. A player with fight has a contained fire burning in his or her belly. This emerges as focused passion. Players with fight never lose a game; they just run out of time. Therese days, I hear a lot of talk about getting up for a big game. No game should be bigger than any other. People with fight can't get up any higher for an important game because they get up for every game. When people with fight step onto the floor, they always give everything they have to give, whether it's for practice, a scrimmage or a championship game. There's no such thing as losing when we've made the effort to do the best we can do. If we use our fight and determination to do our best, success will take care of itself."