20th-century Basketball Player Quotes

Michael Jordan

Magic Johnson

Kobe Bryant

R. Kelly

LeBron James

Shaquille O'Neal

Yao Ming

I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me.

The key is not the will to win... everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.

If there's no fire, there's no scream. If there's no scream, then no one hears you and no one comes to help you in the first place. The depth of my struggle has definitely determined the height of my success. To be able to teach my kids not just about success but about the struggle that comes with it.

On his reception by other players when he returned from retirement to an All-Star game:

It was the first game ever called on account of hugs.

I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body.

Winston Bennett

It's the mind that makes everything else work.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

God blessed me with a lot of heart and no height, and I'll take that any day,

You know, I've always told him (Larry Brown) I wanted the relationship that Michael Jackson... Michael Jordan, I'm sorry. … I wanted the same relationship with him like Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan had.

I'm still glad that we didn't shake their hands. They were whiners and criers. Piss on them.

Close-out games are actually kind of easy. Teams tend to fold if you come out and play hard in the beginning, so we want to come out and establish an early lead and protect it.

I consider myself a pretty rounded guy. I've done pretty elite things in business, sport and academics and all of a sudden I woke up one morning and I'm a 'big, black, British, gay guy'. That was frustrating at times

Admiting to using steroids:

It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust. I want you to know that I have been dishonest and you have the right to be angry with me. I have let them [my family] down, I have let my country down and I have let myself down.

You create shots for yourself by what you do without the ball more than what you do after you get it

I got the rebound and he tackled me. I know this is Sunday, but this is the wrong field.

Larry Bird is overrated in a lot of areas.... Why does he get so much publicity? Because he's white. You never hear about a black player being the greatest.

There'll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow
Just you wait and see.
There'll be love and laughter
And peace ever after
Tomorrow
When the world is free.

Yes, it's true - I love the roar of the crowd. When the fans are with you, their voices come together in a big booming rush of sound that you can actually feel in your body - almost like a wave that lifts you and carries you past your own limits.

Good people are happy when something good happens to someone else.

Not every effort at loving difficult people will have a positive ending... We don't love people in hopes of a happy ending. We love them because it's the right thing to do.

I grew up in a classical music household. My dad is a phenomenal musician who can play any and all instruments, can sight read, can play by ear.

My uniqueness reveals something of Christ that no one else does.

I'm in better condition [after going vegan]. My endurance has gone up, and I haven't gotten tired at all during the whole season. … I don't think you should eat something that had a mother.

Salim Stoudamire

To live fully your well-read life -at any age- it is essential to take your selection of books seriously. When you drift from book to book, you're lulled into thinking that this lack of focus is right and natural - but it's as wrong as can be. Some serendipity in your reading is delightful, but if you wanted to build a house, would you wait for the materials to assemble themselves? - Steve Leveen

Pat Williams (basketball)

Science will never be able to reduce the value of a sunset to arithmetic. Nor can it reduce friendship or statesmanship to a formula. Laughter and love, pain and loneliness, the challenge of accomplishment in living, and the depth of insight into beauty and truth; these will always surpass the scientific mastery of nature.

One night I was in the players' parking lot at the Fleet Center in my Celtics warm-ups about a half hour before a game, waiting for one of my dealers to come up from Fall River, because if I didn't get my stuff I was too sick to even go through the pre-game layup line, never mind actually play in the game.