Top 29 Quotes & Sayings by Michael Wilbon

People here don't identify themselves by their sports team.

What we've seen this season is that if something that will enhance performance is available, some players will indulge... unless the penalty is an absolute deterrent.

Greenies have been part of the clubhouse culture longer than card games.

Sports don't define us; it is not what we live for.

Both of us played basketball, and I played tennis and my knees are done. Now if you ask us head-to-head who wins at golf, I'm asking for a couple of strokes.

Players suffer coaching changes all the time; it's life in the NFL.

Yeah, see, my view of Jordan is that he doesn't belong to Washington.

Steinberg occupies a position that is very dear to those of us who've held it over the years: sports columnist at The Post. If all he wants to do is be popular--and I think Dan is better than that--then the readers of The Washington Post sports section won't be very well served. Telling readers how great they are as sports fans was never one of my priorities. The only thing worse than people who can't stand to hear an unpopular or unflattering opinion is those that are too afraid to state one.

Whatever you paid to see Michael Jordan it wasn't enough. You knew that every night out there you were gonna get the greatest concert of your life.

Italy doesn't need American football. For what? I've been. Wine, women, song, shopping, unbelievable vistas and landscapes... You need Titans vs. Panthers? Uh, no.

Somebody once told me that whatever you're listening to at 30 years old is going to be what you listen to for life and that's largely true.

Professional football is the most violent thing your eyes have ever seen.

I don't want to sound like some grumpy old man telling you to get off my lawn.

Lombardi, Shula, Landry and Gibbs were innovators. Bill Walsh was a visionary . . . .

Nothing is a violent as football and I bet you like. Just say you don't like it, or can't identify, don't come up with excuses like "It's too violent" while you wear some team's NFL jersey.

Football can stand parity better than any of the other sports, I think. Baseball, basketball and hockey need a defining team, in essence to frame the season. Football? Not so much.

There are always late bloomers [in sport], no matter size, although big men are more often late bloomers.

If I have any attribute that serves me well, it's I don't have a long-range plan in life. I have no idea. I just don't look ahead, I really don't. You know when people get out of college and they're talking about their five-year plan. Five-year plan? I got a plan to get to Friday.

Baseball should adopt replay, plain and simple. If we can see it at home or on hand-held PDAs, the technology should be used in games.

There's no greater city between Memorial Day and Labor Day than Chicago. It's the single best summer city in America.

The coverage [of crimes] is different. It's less angry when white [athletes] are involved, less accusatory, less judgemental. I see that in the pieces that are written and reported. At times it bothers me to the point that I just stop reading...just stop.

My opinion is there should NOT be an MVP award [in hockey]. The Olympic teams sports shouldn't acknowledge individuality. And if there is going to be such an award a player on the losing team who lets in the losing goal shouldn't get it.

The thing about great athletes is that they all believe they can win the very next time.

God, I'm glad I grew up in a time when kids followed sports in the newspaper and on TV and knew every sport.

We [Americans] are a football-baseball-basketball-golf culture with some ocassional forays into tennis and less often the winter sports.

Sports executives are great at convincing themselves whatever they believe is right and simply has to be.

The great thing about media now is that you have 360 degrees worth of opinions and can find whatever you want and tune out whatever you want.

I'm 52 years old, which means I'm of an age where my reading habits are more or less set. I read plenty of stuff on line but I rely on pretty traditional sources. I'm a newspaper reader, whether in hand or on my iPad.

Chats are so new to newspapers, historically. But they're so incredibly valuable because editors/reporters/columnists get to find out what's on the minds of our readers, what you think we should be writing about, what ticks you off, what makes you happy. Sometimes it can confirm what you think readers are interested in; sometimes it can turn you around 180 degrees.