“I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.”
Great
“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.”
MoviesAll Quotes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
“I have been coaching recently. I coached high school basketball in Arizona, and I hope that more opportunities become available.”
Hope“When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.”
Positive“If not for the success that medicine has made, I might be part of a much different story right now.”
Success“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.”
Music“Today's youth are told to get rich or die trying and they really shouldn't take that attitude forward with them.”
Attitude“I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.”
Hope“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.”
Change“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.”
Sports“You can't win unless you learn how to lose.”
Sports“I am highly offended by the total lack of acknowledgement of my contribution to Laker success.”
Success“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.”
Nature“I have to say I have an incredible musical education because of my father.”
Education“Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary.”
Equality“I did a book in 1996, an overview of black history. In that process I became more aware of a lot of the black inventors of the 19th century.”
History“I was getting hot flashes and sweats on a regular basis. That's not normal, even for my age.”
Age“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.”
History“I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.”
Dreams“My grandfather and my uncle both died from colorectal cancer, my dad almost died from it and I have the gene for it.”
Dad“I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify.”
Teacher