Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm a leader. I'm the leader of this team, and they look for me at any point in the game, and that's not just scoring-wise, I do other things.
We got almost the entire team coming back; we only had two seniors last year. We plan not just on making it back, but on taking the next step.
It was a cheap shot. They won the game, move on. My thing is, I don't ask for a lot, but I demand my respect, especially from a guy like that.
Being a superstar means you've reached your potential, and I don't think I've reached my potential as a basketball player and as a leader yet.
A lot of people look at a basketball team as an anchor tenant for an arena. I look at an arena as the anchor tenant for a much larger program.
I'm just getting better and better. It's just like a bunch of worker bees protecting the king bee, because I'm not a queen bee. I'm a king bee.
If people are well paid for reality television and cotton candy and dunking a basketball, why can't they be well paid for changing young minds?
You take those little rascals, talk to them good, pat them on the back, let them think they are good, and they will go out and beat the biguns.
Baseball is the only game left for people. To play basketball, you have to be 7 feet 6 inches. To play football, you have to be the same width.
In basketball, you can be the greatest individual player in the world and still lose every game, because a team will always beat an individual.
Kerner decided to trade my rights to the Chicago Stags, which sounded better to me than Tri-Cities, but the Stags folded up almost immediately.
I've been captivated by the idea of being on a basketball court and being surrounded by people who made me look a little bit less like a freak.
I play basketball all the time. Me and my band play every week on the road. That's something that I've never really given up since high school.
I don't know how tall I am or how much I weigh. Because I don't want anybody to know my identity. I'm like a superhero. Call me Basketball Man.
That's all our team is about. If we stop people, we're the most athletic team in this whole tournament and we can get out and get easy buckets.
In the tennis world, there weren't a whole lot of Asians playing. You see it a little bit more now. The same can really be said for basketball.
Make it a point to be around those with positive energy - people who want what's best for you, people who understand your goals and priorities.
After Michael Jordan had scored a play-off record 69 points - I'll always remember this as the night Michael and I combined to score 70 points.
I think planning to be a "professional adventurer" is about as realistic as planning to be a basketball player, so I don't usually encourage it.
Going into a game against Lew Alcindor [later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar] is like going into a knife fight and finding there's no blade in your handle.
I also wanted my basketball players to know that I really cared about them. Forget basketball; as a person, I cared, I cared about their family.
There are only so many hours you can sit on the bus and watch TV or play basketball or whatever we do to pass the time before we go out onstage.
My role model was my grandfather. He instilled in me the feeling that no matter how successful you are you have a responsibility to help others.
In the closing seconds of every game, I want the ball in my hands for the last shot - not in anybody else's, not in anybody else's in the world.
Regard your team as a family. Give the same attention to the bottom guy as you do the top guy. You have a responsibility to all of your players.
Anyone can win a slam-dunk contest. The real Superman is dead. He was assassinated by Pat Riley. I'm the Big Cactus now and ready to roll again.
Football's another sport I absolutely despise. Along with baseball. Really, for me, basketball's the only real sport, the only one that matters.
Basketball requires discipline. So does writing. Basketball requires practice. So does writing. Basketball requires resilience. So does writing.
But it's still a coach's game. Make no mistake. You start at the top. If you don't have a good one at the top, you don't have a cut dog's chance.
I also tell them that your education can take you way farther than a football, baseball, track, or basketball will - that's just the bottom line.
If universities want to save a little money, they ought to make some cutbacks in administration and in faculty people who teach one class a week.
I never think about missing a free throw. All that goes through my mind when I'm at the line is seeing the ball go through the bottom of the net.
I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place.
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 wasn't real quick, and I wasn't real strong. Some guys will just take off and it's like, whoa. So I beat them with my mind and my fundamentals.
I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me.
As athletes, we're used to reacting quickly. Here, it's 'come, stop, come, stop.' There's a lot of downtime. That's the toughest part of the day.
Growing up, I always thought of Detroit as a basketball town because of the Pistons, but everyone says it's really, at its core, a football town.
I said what I felt, and people try to control people. But you can never control me. I'm a 31-year-old juvenile delinquent. Nobody can control me.
There's more to life than basketball. The most important thing is your family and taking care of each other and loving each other no matter what.
I've worked my butt off. That keeps my feet on the ground - I'm the same Luis Fonsi onstage and at home cooking an omelette in basketball shorts.
I'm just trying to be the best basketball player, the best student, the best son, friend, etcetera. I'm just trying to get better in every facet.
You're always going to face criticism, you're always going to face challenges, but those things are there to make you stronger and more committed.
I just can't recruit where there's grass around. You gotta have a concrete lawn before I feel comfortable enough to go in and talk to you parents.
I would never recruit a player who yells at his teammates, disrespected his high school coach, or scores 33 points a game and his team goes 10-10.
Basketball came to me and for some reason it gave me an opportunity to live a life that I didn't dream possible. But it did let me live my dreams.
Winning games, titles and championships isn't all it's cracked up to be, but getting there, the journey, is a lot more than it's cracked up to be.
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.
There's always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning.
There is nothing wrong with dedication and goals, but if you focus on yourself, all the lights fade away and you become a fleeting moment in life.