Top 189 Quotes & Sayings by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - Page 3

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

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.

More whites believe in ghosts than believe in racism.

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

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.

The Sixties was a perfect storm of disaffection with political leaders trying to pass off the same old platitudes to maintain the status quo and an unexpected courageousness in the masses of youth. Nothing on this scale had ever happened before in U.S. history and it hasn't happened since.

When I traveled through Greece in the '90s, everything [Albert Hoxie] taught me came flooding back and I was able to appreciate the art and culture much more because of him.

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

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

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.

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

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

Ignorance is not something that lends itself to a meaningful discussion.

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

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.

In January of 1969, after a meeting to discuss the leadership of UCLA's new Afro-American Program, [Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins, Jr.] were murdered on campus by a rival black nationalist group, the United Slaves Organization. This shook up all the students, black and white, and made us all realize that what we were doing wasn't just an academic exercise, but had repercussions in the real world.

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.

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.

[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.

If I hadn't become a professional basketball player, I would have become a history teacher. There's so much to learn from history.

I think Kwame will be an asset to the Lakers.

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.

Actor Mike Warren [was my former teammate], who was in Hill Street Blues. There are more, but it's starting to sound like a team reunion at Red Lobster. They were a great bunch of guys and we accomplished a lot together. That's something you don't forget.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 only reason is that I hadn't seen The Modern Jazz Quartet perform live and a live performance is often where the real experience of jazz takes place. I'm not familiar with the Boswell Sisters.

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.

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

I was especially impressed with Pauley Pavilion [at UCLA campus ]. The floors hadn't been laid down yet, when they gave me the tour, each new room got my heart thumping. They even had a surgical operating room in case an athlete was severely injured.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

UCLA acknowledged this shift by bringing in Alex Haley (the co-author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X) and Eldridge Cleaver (Soul on Ice) as speakers.

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

The lifespan of most professional athletes is relatively short, and most have no preparation for doing anything after their career ends, which it could in an instant.

For me, the bold jazz of John Coltrane and Miles Davis reflected the bold attitude in African-Americans finding their political identity and voice.

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.

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

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

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.

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...

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

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