Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Quotes (63 Quotes)

Hes not a raw kind of talent. Hes got some sophistication to his basketball game, and I think he will progress quickly.

The game has basically not changed since I ended my career.

I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.

Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.

I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.

I saw Islam as the correct way to live, and I chose to try to live that way.

My mother had to send me to the movies with my birth certificate, so that I wouldn't have to pay the extra fifty cents that the adults had to pay.

You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go... Don't ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.

I didn't really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home.

When we went up against teams that were better, I just hoped that we could steal the victories.

I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify.

Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary.

You can't win unless you learn how to lose.

I feel that there has been progress made since I was a boy on matters of race, but we have a long way to go.

I have been coaching recently. I coached high school basketball in Arizona, and I hope that more opportunities become available.

I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing.

It's hard for young players to see the big picture. They just see three or four years down the road.

I think race has been a burden for black Americans. Being Muslim has also been a challenge because so many people do not understand Islam.

I had a moment like that with Wilt (Chamberlain). He knocked me out of bounds, I came back and faked him, came across the middle and dunked on him.

If they took the idea that they could escape poverty through education, I think it would make a more basic and long-lasting change in the way things happen. What we need are positive, realistic goals and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals.

I expect more people from China and Asia to end up in the NBA.

Center is a very tough position to play.

My choosing Islam was not a political statement; it was a spiritual statement.

The transition was difficult. It's hard to stop something that you've enjoyed and that has been very rewarding.

As brilliant an individual that Michael Jordan was, he was not successful until he got with a good team unit.

I allowed him far too much space in my own head, ... of these moves worked more than once.

I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.

We want to show how hip-hop, which kind of fuels today's basketball stars, is directly related to jazz.

I'm not comfortable being preachy, but more people need to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court.

I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.

The extra pass and the extra effort on defense always get the job done.

In his 1983 autobiography, Giant Steps, ... Either because I was an athlete or because I was black -- probably both -- there seemed to be a clear assumption that I wouldn't be up to the work.

I wanted to play baseball!

When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.

One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.

When the line started to blur between the fans and the players, sometimes things can get ugly.

Five guys on the court working together can achieve more than five talented individuals who come and go as individuals.

All the courage and competitiveness of Jackie Robinson affects me to this day. If I patterned my life after anyone it was him, not because he was the first black baseball player in the majors but because he was a hero.

I'm not going to disappear.

I've had enough success for two lifetimes. My success is talent put together with hard work and luck.

But people don't know if I can teach the game. I know I can. My experience in Oklahoma was positive. It opened my eyes to how the game is played -- the interaction among players, fans and media, how all that works. You have to know about the business of the game and how the actions of players and coaches affect the business. I think I have it down now.

I think I did very well against everyone who tried to defend me.

I listen to jazz mainly. Mainstream jazz.

The first time I shot the hook, I was in fourth grade, and I was about five feet eight inches tall. I put the ball up and felt totally at ease with the shot. I was completely confident it would go in and I've been shooting it ever since.

As a parent, I have a job as a role model to my children, and by extension, to other young people.

I think the NBA will certainly survive without Michael Jordan.

Black people don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.

I think the NBA players have to be held accountable in a reasonable way, just like any other professionals.

In athletics there's always been a willingness to cheat if it looks like you're not cheating. I think that's just a quirk of human nature.

He's a bright young man. He would have done well in the college environment. He's learning what the professional life is all about. I expect him to do well. His body hasn't even matured. He has a great attitude.