Michael Jordan is a basketball legend. He has unparalleled accomplishments including 6 NBA championships, 5-time Most Valuable Player, 6-time Finals Most Valuable Player, 10-time All-NBA First Team, NBA Rookie of the Year, 2-time Olympic Gold Medal Winner, and a NCAA National Championship,  just to name a few. Most recently, Michael’s career was documented in the documentary, The Last Dance.

Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player that has ever played the game.

Here are 88 Motivational Michael Jordan Quotes:

1. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

2. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” – Michael Jordan

3. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan

4. “My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.” – Michael Jordan

5. “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan

6. “To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.” – Michael Jordan

7. “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” – Michael Jordan

8. “If you quit once it becomes a habit. Never quit!” – Michael Jordan

9. “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.” – Michael Jordan

10. “Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.” – Michael Jordan

11. “To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.” – Michael Jordan

12. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan

13. “Don’t let them drag you down by rumors just go with what you believe in.” – Michael Jordan

14. “Make it happen” – Michael Jordan

15.“If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.” – Michael Jordan

16. “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

17. “Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.” – Michael Jordan

18. “The minute you get away from fundamentals – whether it’s proper technique, work ethic or mental preparation – the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing.” – Michael Jordan

19. “The key to success is failure.” – Michael Jordan

20th Michael Jordan Quote – “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”

21. “Learning’s a gift, even when pain is your teacher.” – Michael Jordan

22. “Failure is acceptable. but not trying is a whole different ball park.” – Michael Jordan

23. “There is no “I” in team but there is in win.” – Michael Jordan

24. “I play to win, whether during practice or a real game.” – Michael Jordan

25. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”- Michael Jordan

26. “Every time I feel tired while I am exercising and training, I close my eyes to see that picture, to see that list with my name. This usually motivates me to work again.” – Michael Jordan

27. “The best come from the worst.” – Michael Jordan

28. “I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot… When you think about the consequences you will always think of the negative result.” – Michael Jordan

29. “I’ve never lost a game I just ran out of time.” – Michael Jordan

30. “I’m not out there sweating for three hours every day just to find out what it feels like to sweat.” – Michael Jordan

31. “My body could stand the crutches but my mind couldn’t stand the sideline.” – Michael Jordan

32. “The game is my wife. It demands loyalty and responsibility, and it gives me back fulfillment and peace.” – Michael Jordan

33. “I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it is an illusion to me. Failure always made me try harder the next time.” – Michael Jordan

34. “It’s heavy duty to try to do everything and please everybody. My job was to go out there and play the game of basketball as best I can. People may not agree with that. I can’t live with what everyone’s impression of what I should or what I shouldn’t do.” – Michael Jordan

35. “If it turns out that my best wasn’t good enough, at least I won’t look back and say I was afraid to try.” – Michael Jordan

36. “I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it.” – Michael Jordan

37. “Be true to the game, because the game will be true to you. If you try to shortcut the game, then the game will shortcut you. If you put forth the effort, good things will be bestowed upon you. That’s truly about the game, and in some ways that’s about life too.” – Michael Jordan

38. “Heart is what separates the good from the great.” – Michael Jordan

39. “I would tell players to relax and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you’ve lost your focus.” – Michael Jordan

40th Michael Jordan Quote – “You can practice shooting 8 hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.”

41.“I own the guy guarding me.” – Michael Jordan

42. “The game has its ups and downs, but you can never lose focus of your individual goals and you can’t let yourself be beat because of lack of effort.” – Michael Jordan

43. “There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, & I don’t believe there is only one greatest player either.” – Michael Jordan

44. “If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.” – Michael Jordan

45. “You have competition every day because you set such high standards for yourself that you have to go out every day and live up to that.” – Michael Jordan

46. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan

47. “I mean we all fly. Once you leave the ground, you fly. Some people fly longer than others.” – Michael Jordan

48. “Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.” – Michael Jordan

49. “Best evaluation I can make of a player is to look in his eyes and see how scared they are.” – Michael Jordan

50. “Winning isn’t always championships.” – Michael Jordan

51. “Sometimes you need to get hit in the head to realize that you’re in a fight.” – Michael Jordan

52. “I want to wake up every day and do whatever comes in my mind, and not feel pressure or obligations to do anything else in my life.” – Michael Jordan

53. “Enjoy every minute of life. Never second-guess life.” – Michael Jordan

54. “I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era.”  – Michael Jordan

55. “If I had been playing for money I would have complained a long time ago that I was underpaid.” – Michael Jordan

56. “Being Michael Jordan means acting the same as I always have.” – Michael Jordan

57. “My father used to say that it’s never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said you never know what you can accomplish until you try.” – Michael Jordan

58. “I want to be the bridge to the next generation.” – Michael Jordan

59. “When I will lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it’s time for me to move away from the game.” – Michael Jordan

60th Michael Jordan Quote –“I hope the millions of people I’ve touched have the optimism and desire to share their goals and hard work and perseverance with a positive attitude.” 

61. “Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.” – Michael Jordan

62.  “In reality, I never want to grow up.” – Michael Jordan

63. “How many times have your parents told you not to do things, and the next thing you know, you go do it? And you realized you shouldn’t have done it.”  – Michael Jordan

64. “My heroes are and were my parents. I can’t see having anyone else as my heroes.” – Michael Jordan

65. “In college I never realized the opportunities available to a pro athlete. I’ve been given the chance to meet all kinds of people, to travel and expand my financial capabilities, to get ideas and learn about life, to create a world apart from basketball.” – Michael Jordan

66. “In any investment, you expect to have fun and make money.”  – Michael Jordan

67.  “For a competitive junkie like me, golf is a great solution because it smacks you in the face every time you think you’ve accomplished something. That to me has taken over a lot of the energy and competitiveness for basketball.” – Michael Jordan

68. “My challenge when I came back was to face the young talent, to dissect their games, and show them maybe that they needed to learn more about the game than just the money aspect.” – Michael Jordan

69.  “Do I need my number retired throughout the course of the league to acknowledge what I’ve done? No.”  – Michael Jordan

70. “I want to be perceived as a guy who played his best in all facets, not just scoring. A guy who love challenges.” – Michael Jordan

71. “I built my talents on the shoulders of someone else’s talent.” – Michael Jordan

72.  “Even when I’m old and gray, I won’t be able to play it, but I’ll still love the game.” – Michael Jordan

73. “I know the signs of scaredness.” – Michael Jordan

74. “It’s absolutely wrong that I don’t want guys to challenge me. And the people who say that aren’t in the room.” – Michael Jordan

75.  “Live the moment for the moment.” – Michael Jordan

76.  “I will not quit this game because of what the media has done to me.” – Michael Jordan

77.  “When I was young, I had to learn the fundamentals of basketball. You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you still have to know the fundamentals.” – Michael Jordan

78.  “People ask me if I could fly, I said, ‘yeah…. for a little while.” – Michael Jordan

79.  “Champions do not become champions when they win an event, but in the hours, weeks, and months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely a demonstration of their championship character.” – Michael Jordan

80th Michael Jordan Quote – “My mother is my root, my foundation. She planted the seed that I base my life on, and that is the belief that the ability to achieve starts in your mind.” 

81. “The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I’ve always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It’s been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It’s a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game.” – Michael Jordan

82. “As athletes, we’re used to reacting quickly. Here, it’s ‘come, stop, come, stop.’ There’s a lot of downtime. That’s the toughest part of the day.” – Michael Jordan

83. “It’s hard to say if the NBA is hurt by the influx of younger players, but it’s definitely impacted the league.” – Michael Jordan

84. “I think the players win the championship, and the organization has something to do with it, don’t get me wrong. But don’t try to put the organization above the players.” – Michael Jordan

85. “The basketball court for me, during a game, is the most peaceful place I can imagine. On the basketball court, I worry about nothing. When I’m out there, no one can bother me.” – Michael Jordan

86. “I can’t speak for the future. I have no crystal ball.” – Michael Jordan

87. “There’s only one Michael Jordan.” – Michael Jordan

88. “The good part about being famous is being able to help people. The hard part is every day you have to be in a good mood, because that is what people expect. You learn to get good at it.” – Michael Jordan

What’s your favorite Michael Jordan Quote? Share your favorite quote in the comment section below.