Top 99 Quotes & Sayings by Larry Johnson

New York fans want a winner. They strive for a winner.

Yeah, we've made beautiful strides, but what percentage of black people has made that stride when I go back to my neighborhood and see the same thing? I'm the only one who came out of my neighborhood. All of them dead, on drugs, selling drugs. Am I supposed to be honored and happy just by my success?

I can remember my jersey being the No. 1 seller for like two years, and I think it was the color of the jersey.

When I was in Vegas, people asked, 'Did you ever regret not going to SMU?' What? I'm in Vegas. I'm on TV every Saturday. I'm winning titles. Did I regret it? That's a silly question.

Charlie Ward was the best dude ever.

No one man can rise above the masses or the condition of his people.

My plan is to go back to Dallas and build my house. I want a spread 50, 60 or 70 acres. 'Cause Dallas is where everybody's at' that I can really relate to.

Maybe I'm a little biased, but I thought I could always play defense.

After I signed my big contract, I expected to be in Charlotte for the rest of my career. Things just didn't work out. Now I'm with the Knicks.

When you think about the Knicks, you associate Patrick Ewing with the Knicks, you associate Walt Frazier with the Knicks. If I do all the right things and perform up to my capabilities, I hope you associate Larry Johnson with the Knicks someday, too.

If I put on any pressure. I put it on myself. Nobody else puts pressure on Larry Johnson.

I'm not going to take too much credit for what's happened in my life. When we're playing, the things I do are because of my teammates. So I'm not going to take too much credit.

It hurts to lose night after night.

I have always wanted to spend my entire career in the Charlotte community and concentrate on bringing the city a championship.

Saw the best boxer, pound for pound: Roy Jones. Not a lot of hype, though.

My five years in New York were unbelievable.

My main goal is to win me a championship.

My back is terrible, man. I mean, you're always going to have some pain, but nothing that will stop me from doing what I want to do.

Vegas is my town, my people.

I only won one national championship.

You'll hear guys talk all the time about coaches being a father figure. Well I'm 45 years old and I've never met my father. I consider Jerry Tarkanian my father.

JC was good for me. I had a coach who kept me into things and thinking positive. It was good basketball, but more than that it prepared me for the academic scene at a university.

If I don't like a person and a person doesn't like me fine, that's mutual respect.

For me to lose weight or maintain my weight is all about my diet, because I can come here and work two-and-a-half hours twice a day and if I get off my diet and eat like I normally eat, which is bad, I will gain weight.

This is a beautiful country, the best country, but it's not holy, it's not righteous.

Don't come to me and smile and then stab me behind my back.

I hope people understand that Jerry Tarkanian gave young black males a chance to better themselves and the lives of their families when no one else would. The way Coach talked to me, he spoke my language. I needed that type of voice in my life.

Most of the power forwards in the NBA are 6'10', 6'11', making it difficult for a player at 6'7', 6'8' to the play the position.

When it comes to the younger generation, anything on the floor I'll criticize - not playing hard, not doing this, fighting, not giving your all. Off the floor, you guys are on your own.

You can't ever get to the point where you don't think you can learn anything more.

MSG is the world's greatest arena, and New York is so competitive.

It's important to get some balanced scoring on the floor. For me, I've got to make shots.

I just play the game. Stats aren't a big issue with me. I've been around six or seven years, and I've had stats in this league. I've had individual accomplishments. To me, it's overrated.

I want to play 11, 12 years right here and then retire - and win us some national championships, and be the Michael Jordan of Charlotte. This is the place that drafted me, that paid me. This is the place I should be loyal to.

I feel I was born to play basketball.

Coach Tarkanian is a fighter.

If I'm going to get suspended, I want to hit the guy.

There's a roller coaster effect when you're playing good. Everything seems to go your way. But once you start playing bad, you're playing bad.

I think I'm caught up in playing in New York. Here, my mind is cluttered worrying about things.

You can be totally focused on the game and all of a sudden at the Garden, you'll snap and go, 'Whoa!' It's super loud and you can't help but take a second to admire what's going on.

I don't know nothing about the restaurant business, but I've been around a barber shop all my life. That's where I used to get my dates in high school.

I love to drive and run the floor.

I'm an Oakley fan.

I'm always on the players' side, of course. The owners are going to take their fill, but I'm always on the players' side.

I definitely don't look at myself as a 3-point shooter, but when we're playing three big guys, I find myself on the perimeter a lot, and they leave me alone. I've got to knock it down or do something with it.

Most people lose weight during the season, but I tend to gain weight during the season.

As far as me going out to a movie or going out to eat, and people coming up, that's fine. I love that. I'd rather have it than not have it.

I've turned down several assistant jobs in the NBA that I just didn't feel good about. I would love it at UNLV.

In Charlotte, I thought we were on the right track. It didn't happen.

The UNLV championship game against Duke, I didn't shoot the last shot. Choked. It took 10 years for me to say that. I had to be in the NBA five, six years for me to say that aloud.

That was fun with the Grandmama. But it's something I can live without.

We never played ball for money. We played because it was fun and I was good at it. But a lot of guys get paid big money to play this game, and I have a family I want to help out. But basketball will always be a game to me.

Since this basketball thing has started, some way or another I've become the most handsomest man in the world, because everybody's like, 'Oh!' I think, 'What's happened to me?'

What I want to do for Mom - I want her to be able to understand that she can do anything she wants. I want her to be able to say, 'I've never been to so-and-so,' and go. She deserves that.

In Dallas, I eat bean soup and bean pies every day. On Saturdays, I treat myself to a veggie pizza.

Girl-wise, I never got the girl. Because of my mother and our economy, I never had clothes. And I never - like I said - dated. I didn't date at all. I was never a guy who had girlfriends.

When people talk to me, they want to know about Grandmama, they want to know about UNLV, and how was it playing with Muggsy. You don't have to be a basketball fan to be a Muggsy fan. The shortest guy to ever play in the league, I get that question all the time.

The key for me is the way I take care of myself off the floor.

If I'm on fire, don't spit on me. I won't spit on you. That's respect. You go your way, and I'll go mine.

I just have to keep working, just stay on top of my game, stay on top of my weight and stay prayed up.