Skip to main content

Motherhood Quote by Scott Brooks

"I believe this with all my heart: The greatest coach of all time in my eyes is my mom. She's instilled in me a toughness and a perseverance and just a never-quit mentality, and I thank her every day for providing me, for what she sacrificed her life for"

About this Quote

Brooks pulls off a neat bit of rhetorical jujitsu: he takes a title built for trophies and win-loss records - "greatest coach of all time" - and hands it to someone who never drew up a play. In a profession that fetishizes genius, adjustments, and the myth of the singular mastermind, he shifts the spotlight to the invisible infrastructure that makes a "tough" athlete or coach possible in the first place.

The word choice is doing quiet work. "In my eyes" concedes subjectivity while daring you to argue with it. "With all my heart" signals that this isn't PR gratitude; it's a moral claim. Then he lists the traits sports culture prizes most - toughness, perseverance, "never-quit" - but roots them in parenting rather than competition. The subtext: what we celebrate on the court is often borrowed, not built. He is also laundering the hard-edged virtues of athletics through tenderness, making vulnerability feel like strength.

The line about sacrifice is the emotional hinge, and it's deliberately blunt: "what she sacrificed her life for". That phrasing elevates everyday caregiving into something almost devotional, the kind of labor that is constant, unglamorous, and rarely repaid in public. Coming from a coach, it also functions as a corrective to the industry's ego economy. Brooks isn't just thanking his mom; he's redefining "coaching" as character formation, and reminding fans that behind every resilient professional is usually someone who paid the costs off-camera.

Quote Details

TopicMother
More Quotes by Scott Add to List
Scott Brooks on His Mother as Greatest Coach
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

USA Flag

Scott Brooks (born July 31, 1965) is a Coach from USA.

21 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes