Kareem abdul-jabbar quotes

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

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.

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

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

[Albert] Hoxie, my Western Civilization professor. I had him in my freshman year and he opened up an extraordinary world to me that I've never forgotten. He used his extensive knowledge of art history to illustrate the development of Western culture and politics.

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.

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.

Islam is about finding your own space.

I feel like I've always been a full-time historian, but nobody knows it.

You got guys now declaring they're ready to play pro ball in their second or third year of high school. It's crazy! They're missing so much.

You play with your soul as well as your body.

I love basketball, but playing basketball doesn't fully define who I am. I was always a good student, too.

If ISIS represents Islam, then the KKK represents Christianity

Some stuff can be fixed, some stuff can’t be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing.

Even when there are adverse circumstances, I try to do my job. And I usually do.

More whites believe in ghosts than believe in racism.

My English teacher, Dr. John Lindstrom, taught me an appreciation for the written word. Until his class, I'd dabbled in journalism and essay writing. But when he selected one of my essays as the best in the class, it gave me the confidence to see myself as a writer.

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

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

One man cannot make a team.

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

Yoga is just good for you.

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

In a typical history book, black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There's so much more to the story.

I think people that are, you know, voting in the blind are doing a disservice to America by not being better informed.

The type of leukemia that I am dealing with is treatable. So if I do what my doctors tell me to do - get my blood checked regularly, take my meds and consult with my doctor and follow any additional instructions he might make - I will be able to maintain my good health and live my life with a minimum of disruptions to my lifestyle.

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

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'm the baddest among the bad guys.

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

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

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.

I rooted for the Dodgers when they were in Brooklyn.

I don't get a big charge out of being the leading scorer. The object of competing is winning. I just try to do what has to be done for us to win. That might be anything at the time - defense, rebounding, passing. I get great satisfaction out of being a team player.

The 3-point shot has created a situation in the game akin to 'Lotto' fever.

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.

What we need are positive, realistic goals and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals.

When I was at UCLA, the Harlem Globetrotters offered me a million dollars to come play for them. I turned it down because my education was just as important as playing ball.

I've kept in touch with many of my former teammates: Bob Marcucci was our team manager and we bonded over our passion for baseball.

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

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

I read that Hollywood wanted to film Fences years ago with a white director, but [August] Wilson refused. He thought that the director needed to have lived the culture of black Americans.

Lakers were able to maintain a certain level of talent and success and so were the Celtics. So after awhile it became part of people's sports lore...

I got all A's and was hated for it; I spoke correctly and was called a punk.

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.

Each story, novel, poem and play presents a vision of the world that illuminates the dark cave of life we stumble through. We can see better where we're going, what sudden drop to avoid, where the cool water is running.

A lot of players think the game is all about individual performances when it's really all about a team game.

I've always tried to stay out of the fray and not be an object of controversy.

I enjoy seeing new places.

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

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.

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

You're never really cancer-free and I should have known that.

I was a baseball fan myself, I wanted to play baseball.

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

Ken Heitz got drafted by the Bucks the same year I did. He went to their camp just for the experience, then dropped out to attend Harvard Law School. I always admired his combination of athleticism and brains.

I don't really care who's doing drugs in the NBA as long as the scene isn't adversely affecting my team and teammates. I've known enough drug users-going as far back as grade school and the streets of New York-not to view them as pariahs or lost souls. I've certainly smoked more than my quota of weed.

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

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

I'm not going to disappear.

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

Sports and entertainment are the only places where inner-city kids see themselves being able to succeed. Their intellectual development is something they don't relate to.

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.

I think the NBA will certainly survive without Michael Jordan.

I think Kwame will be an asset to the Lakers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have always thought that writers come with any variety of attributes. Some are capable and some aren't.

Music rhythms are mathematical patterns. When you hear a song and your body starts moving with it, your body is doing math. The kids in their parents' garage practicing to be a band may not realize it, but they're also practicing math.

We can learn from mistakes of others, whether they're kings or our parents. When we do learn those lessons, we're better equipped to make our own dreams come true.

When I was 17, I worked in a mentoring program in Harlem designed to improve the community. That's when I first gained an appreciation of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when African-Americans rose to prominence in American culture. For the first time, they were taken seriously as artists, musicians, writers, athletes, and as political thinkers.

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

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

My high school had been a renovated old hospital, so when I first came to the UCLA campus in the spring of 1965, I was immediately impressed by the classic northern Italian architecture that was mixed with futuristic ultra-modern buildings. The classic architecture gave it the heft of old wisdom while the modernistic look inspired hope for the future.

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

I am highly offended by the total lack of acknowledgement of my contribution to Laker success.

My biggest resource is my mind.

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

Pride was his life force; for us it was a live nerve that he could teach us to brush. One stroke, a good practice, and we could tingle for days ... First, he found the pride in each of us, then he taught us how good it could feel. What he was ultimately after was for every one of us to learn to light our own fires and glow our brightest.

I want to do as little as possible when I finish playing ball - just spend a lot more time with my family.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

High school dropouts are forfeiting their opportunity to pursue the American Dream.

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

There are a lot of authors in the world, so it's difficult to find a unique niche to present your take on things. That is always a challenge for any author.

I want people to understand that I intend to continue living and doing all the things that I love to do up until the end. And the end is by no means rushing up on me.

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.

The word 'leukemia' is a very frightening word. In many instances, it's a killer and it's something that you have to deal with in a very serious and determined way if you're going to beat it.

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

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

I wanted to play baseball!

The saying, "Those that don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it" doesn't just apply to politicians and world leaders, it applies to all of us on a daily basis.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that the 761st was Patton's best tank unit and nobody knew about it.

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

We all had a lot of fun making the film ["Airplane" ], but there weren't a lot of outtakes or cracking up because we all were focused on doing our jobs in a professional manner.

Your mind is what makes everything else work.

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.

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

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.

Culture and politics were inseparable [in the Sixties], which gave a soundtrack to political awareness and activism.

Center is a very tough position to play.

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

I totally alienated some reporters as I retreated.

But all was not sunshine and Marvin Gaye songs. [UCLA] also recruited black students as part of a High Potential Program that was meant to bring diversity to the campus. Two of the students that were part of that program were Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins, Jr., both members of the Black Panther Party's Southern California Chapter.

Good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they are executed.

There's a ball. There's a hoop. You put the ball through the hoop. That's success.

What I have is P.H. positive chronic myeloid leukemia, which is an aberration in your white blood cells.

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.

The '80s made up for all the abuse I took during the '70s. I outlived all my critics. By the time I retired, everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change.

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

I could have skated by as an athlete, but the world is so much bigger and more interesting than any one thing. I didn't want to be pigeonholed as just a jock. I'm also an author, a student of history, and I collect memorabilia from the Wild West. I'm also a son, a father, and a friend.

Justice should be blind especially color-blind and able to fairly deal with the very real need for honest law enforcement.

If not shown appreciation, it gets to you.

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

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