“You can't win unless you learn how to lose.”
Sports
“Today's youth are told to get rich or die trying and they really shouldn't take that attitude forward with them.”
AttitudeAll Quotes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
“I didn't really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home.”
Home“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.”
Time“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“Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary.”
Equality“This is what I would have done if I had to have a real job: I would have been a history teacher.”
History“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.”
Time“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“When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.”
Positive“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“I am highly offended by the total lack of acknowledgement of my contribution to Laker success.”
Success“Music is really something that makes people whole.”
Music“Today's youth are told to get rich or die trying and they really shouldn't take that attitude forward with them.”
Attitude“My health is fine.”
Health“I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify.”
Teacher“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“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.”
Movies“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 was getting hot flashes and sweats on a regular basis. That's not normal, even for my age.”
Age“If not for the success that medicine has made, I might be part of a much different story right now.”
Success