Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Basketball Quotations

Michael Jordan and Magic and myself all learned how to play the game in college programs that emphasized the team.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

You can't win if you don't play as a unit.

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.

A team will always appreciate a great individual if he's willing to sacrifice for the group.

Fundamental preparation is always effective. Work on those parts of your game that are fundamentally weak.

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.

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

I think the NBA will certainly survive without Michael Jordan.

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

My most memorable moment came in 1985 as we beat the Boston Celtics.

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

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

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

Center is a very tough position to play.

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

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

I'm still my parent's child, I'm still me, but I made a choice. I evolved into Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I think it has to do with evolution.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

I think someone should explain to the child that it's OK to make mistakes. That's how we learn. When we compete, we make mistakes.

I felt that a number of people might have questioned my loyalty, but I continue to be a patriotic American.

I think black Americans expect too much from individual black Americans in terms of changing the status quo.

OK, I'll put it like this: I doubt if we will see another All-American basketball athlete who is a Rhodes Scholar.

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

Your mind is what makes everything else work.

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

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

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.

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

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

I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.

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

When you're a coach you've got to go up the ladder, you've got to be ready to travel. That's the nature of coaching

One man cannot make a team.

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. I've been shooting it ever since.

I think Kwame will be an asset to the Lakers.

People still cheat on their wives, that hasn't fallen out of fashion. We all speak of it badly, but it has not fallen out of fashion.

In the Western standards of modesty, there are different guidelines.

Elgin's game was an incredible performance, also. I don't think there's any comparison. Elgin did it without three-point lines. His game was attacking the hoop and hitting jumpers inside 20 feet. Kobe's range is unreal, and he does it his way.

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.

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 try to do the right thing at the...

Your best athletes might give basketball a try just when they think, geez, this might be something that pays off for me in the end.

I wanted to play baseball!

I'm not going to emphasize the sky-hook as much as work with the specific skills of the guys.

I was latching on to something that was part of my heritage, because many of the slaves who were brought here were Moslems.

I needed to go to class; I needed to go to practice; I needed to have a life away from basketball.

During 1866 and 1922, Native Americans and black soldiers often intermingled in the American west, on the frontier.

Few players have cast a spell across the game like Yao Ming, before or since.

You play with your soul as well as your body.

I don't know if I was the baddest. People kind of saw me in that light.

I feel that Dennis Rodman has become a problem. He will be more of a problem than an asset. Of course, he can prove me wrong.

Initially when I stopped playing, I had accumulated some burnout.

I've had a desire to coach for years. This was something I felt I should do.

Kobe's an incredibly talented athlete, and there are many more like him among today's players.

When a rap song glorifies violence, death and sadness and loss is inflicted because of the violence.

What I learned in my time isn't necessarily being taught now, and I'd like to help impart that knowledge to a new generation of players.

We don't have selfish guys here, which sometimes leads to problems.

There are rap groups that have a positive outlook in their art. These groups should be shown as an alternative to gangsta rap.

The rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics endured for about eight years, and the interest grew each year.

The Lakers were able to maintain a certain level of talent and success, and so were the Celtics. It became part of people's sports lore.

The disconnect lasted too long. I think people got the idea I was sullen and couldn't communicate, which wasn't true.

The constant expansion has diluted the talent. Other than that, it's still the same game.

The Lakers fans have been great, even folks in the supermarket are welcoming me back!

I listen to jazz mainly. Mainstream jazz.

I'm not going to disappear.

Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath; that's the essence of yoga, too. So, I consciously began using yoga techniques in my practice and playing. I think yoga helped reduce the number and severity of injuries I suffered. As preventative medicine, it's unequaled.

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.

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.

He doesn't necessarily have to learn the sky hook. He just has to learn how to be an effective post player. I think I can help him do that.

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

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

Alexander Hamilton realized that warfare was part and parcel of human nature, and it's something we had to prepare for.