Top 119 Quotes & Sayings by Jermaine O'Neal
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American basketball player Jermaine O'Neal.
Last updated on December 24, 2024.
I want to give myself the best chance to finish on my own terms.
I've been down to the University of South Carolina, University of Maryland, Clemson, spent some time on different college campuses and I see that small-town family environment.
Maturity is everything.
I'm from Columbia, S.C., and my family is very religious. We'd go to church and Sunday school and we always had to dress up. I enjoyed that.
Professional sports is a monster. It's not even real life. It's one of the few things in life, the economy goes bad, you still get your money.
I love everything about Indiana.
Le Jaunty offers a lot of different looks, so you can create who you want to be.
When people question your integrity, when people question who you are from afar, when they've never had a conversation with you, and don't know the time and effort you've put into your communities, but then you're kind of this thug, this out of control player, that makes no sense to me.
One thing I can say - and anybody can say from any team I've ever played on - is that when I get out there I'm going to play as hard as I possibly can, whether it's on one leg or two legs or whatever.
I played almost two years with a torn meniscus.
We can't control injuries and we can't control things like that. But physically, when it comes down to pure strength, quads, legs, core, upper body, I'm a whole lot stronger.
One part of being a leader on a basketball team is you have to be there for yourself and others.
Basketball was just secondary, and I never had the opportunity to really address the issues that I was having physically.
Look at the Seattle Seahawks. They talk it, they walk it and they play like wild animals. Sometimes you need that to win.
We don't need to block people down and get flagrants.
It's very difficult for I think any player in any sport to want to play for a guy that doesn't believe in their race or looks down upon their race, for whatever reason.
I'm saying in general, the bottom line is you play to win.
The problem is that I've never been a player who complained or let people know how bad things were.
Some of these parents in the basketball world want to be paid for their kids and want to be given this and given that. That's not what this is supposed to be. This is supposed to be about getting rewarded off of your hard work.
Not one team knew I struggled with that - not being able to pick up the phone and call my dad and ask him, Can you help me?' Or, Are you proud of me?' Or to cherish me being drafted or my kids being born.
I had a fantastic time in Boston with the city, the fans were phenomenal, the organization was phenomenal, I just don't know if the playing situation was right to be quite honest.
I just want to understand better why an age limit is coming up. That's all. I'm not playing the race card, I'm not calling anybody a racist. I'm just talking about the facts. The product and economic reasons can't be the reason, because the league is doing well and the prime faces of the NBA are of high-school players.
I have so much love and respect for the Indiana Pacers, for the NBA, for fans, because they do support us in many ways.
The Warriors have an old-school work ethic.
The one thing I get asked about weekly when people see me who have never met me before is about the damn brawl and I'm tired of talking about it.
I'm very critical of myself.
I was never really healthy mentally.
As an African-American athlete, you get discouraged that this type of thing is still condoned in people's lives. You look at a situation where we're good enough to work for you, but not good enough to be around you. To build a franchise, good enough to build business for you, but not good enough to mingle amongst your circles.
Sometimes you can't be a champion. That doesn't determine who you are. But you can be a champion father, and that means everything.
It was very tough to be patient.
You want to feel a part of something that makes you feel a part of it.
I remember Kenny Anderson. He's got these huge stacks of Fed Ex envelopes. They were super-packed and he'd open it up and it would be all checks. He was always signing his own checks. He would always call me Kid.' He'd say, Kid, always remember to sign your own checks. Don't allow anybody to sign your checks.'
I'm getting to the point, I'm in my 11th year, I don't want to play 82 games and then exit to watch somebody else pop champagne I'm tired of that. I want to compete for a championship.
I love Danny Ainge.
It's important to know that there's a reason why I won the federal case. It's important to know there's a reason why I got reinstated to play. I'll just leave it at that, but the biggest thing is that my relationship with the Pacers has not wavered.
Part of me is always going to be competitive.
Whether it's this year or next year, I don't want to leave basketball limping out of basketball. At the end of the day, we're all men and we all look at ourselves every morning and you have to ask yourself, Did I leave the way I wanted? Did I do everything I possibly could do to leave the way I want?'
More than anything, you want to be considered a great father and a role model, especially for your kid.
I cannot wait to get to Boston and start to practice with the rest of the team in pursuit of a championship.
Even though I was still able to make some All-Star teams, mentally I was worn out. And once I wore out mentally, physically I started to wear down.
When we can reach out as coaches and give back to these kids and touch them with the knowledge and with the thought process to give them the opportunity to do something that they dream about doing, that's what God put us here for.
I thought Portland had a really good chance. But after we didn't win it, I knew my time was up there. But it wasn't a totally bad situation for me there. It was a great situation coming out of high school.
Well one thing you can't say is that I don't know basketball.
I'm very open to Portland.
Some guys come in and they're super-humble and they get some success and then they change, everything changes. They become too big for other people.
If I had a bad game, people would point that out.
I've always been into fashion.
I'm going to try to give everything I've got, and hopefully whatever I got is good enough to help my team win.
It comes down to personalities and style of play, and I thought Boston has all that for me.
You see a lot of people in sports who need to be humbled first to become who they are.
Being a part of something great is what matters to me.
The Detroit situation shocked the whole system. Obviously you don't condone any type of fighting. But you've got to make the best decision for you and your family at the time, and you don't have a lot of time to think out that process.
I love suits for formal engagements. But I also like to wear jeans and button-ups.
If I am not physically able to play for the Celtics, then why would Miami want me?
You can look back on a lot of things and things that could have been changed, but ultimately those things make you who you are. It builds character. I'm OK with that.
I'm continuing to figure it out every single year: Life is a challenge, and the ones that succeed in life are the tough-minded ones that are not willing to accept failure.
I didn't meet my father until he was 30, and he died nine months after that.
Sometimes you wish things would have been different. People still talk about the teams in Indiana. People can't believe we didn't win a championship.
I'll go into Ruth's Chris. They'll have my room in the back and I'd go to pay the bill and somebody had paid the bill already. That happened multiple times. That's the love people give you.
When the opportunity arose for me to join an organization like the Celtics, I could not refuse.
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