"I've always believed no matter how many shots I miss, I'm going to make the next one"
About this Quote
It is the kind of sentence that sounds simple until you picture what it’s defending against: the creeping math of failure. In basketball, misses stack up publicly and fast, and the sport offers almost no time to mourn them. Isaiah Thomas’s line isn’t a cute affirmation; it’s a survival tactic for a job where confidence is part of the skill set. The intent is blunt: keep shooting. Keep deciding. Keep your body moving toward the rim even when your last possession is still echoing.
The subtext is more interesting than the optimism. “No matter how many shots I miss” acknowledges the reality that effort doesn’t inoculate you from embarrassment. He’s not denying the miss; he’s refusing to let it write the next play. That’s a subtle shift from self-esteem talk to process talk: belief as a performance tool, not a personality trait.
In context, it reads like the ethos of a player who was repeatedly told he shouldn’t exist at that level. Thomas, famously undersized in an NBA built for length and leverage, had to take and make difficult shots just to justify his minutes, let alone his stardom. That pressure turns every attempt into a referendum. The quote pushes back against that framing: the next shot is not a trial, it’s a choice.
It also captures a wider sports culture moment where “confidence” is often dismissed as swagger. Thomas is arguing for something quieter: selective amnesia, disciplined hope, the ability to keep your nerve when the scoreboard is trying to talk you out of yourself.
The subtext is more interesting than the optimism. “No matter how many shots I miss” acknowledges the reality that effort doesn’t inoculate you from embarrassment. He’s not denying the miss; he’s refusing to let it write the next play. That’s a subtle shift from self-esteem talk to process talk: belief as a performance tool, not a personality trait.
In context, it reads like the ethos of a player who was repeatedly told he shouldn’t exist at that level. Thomas, famously undersized in an NBA built for length and leverage, had to take and make difficult shots just to justify his minutes, let alone his stardom. That pressure turns every attempt into a referendum. The quote pushes back against that framing: the next shot is not a trial, it’s a choice.
It also captures a wider sports culture moment where “confidence” is often dismissed as swagger. Thomas is arguing for something quieter: selective amnesia, disciplined hope, the ability to keep your nerve when the scoreboard is trying to talk you out of yourself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Never Give Up |
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