A Quote by Patrick Ewing

I never knew what basketball was. I started playing on the playground. People used to laugh at me and joke at me because I was so tall and I didn't know the game and couldn't play it.

Patrick Ewing

Quote Topics

Basketball Because Game Joke Knew Know Laugh Me Never People Play Playground Playing Started Tall Used

Quote Author

Patrick Ewing
Jamaican - Athlete
Born: August 5, 1962

My father was always pushing me to become a basketball player. In Africa, when you're a kid, every kid loves to play soccer, and I loved playing soccer. But my dad didn't want me playing soccer. He would joke, 'C'mon, man, you're too tall!' Then he promised me, 'If you start playing basketball, I'm going to give you my jersey.'

Serge Ibaka

I know people that was playing basketball better than me. If they were in the NBA, they could be All-Stars, those people. They just never had the opportunity to go play professional basketball in Europe.

Serge Ibaka

You know what I think? Very few people play because they love the game. Most of them play because they make good money. They keep playing because of the money. I could care less about it. If I don't love the game, no check is going to keep me playing.

Michael Jordan

I started to make a joke that I had an imaginary friend underneath the let-out couch named Binky. I would never talk to him; I would only use him as entertainment for other people. I knew they thought that children had imaginary friends, so I was like, "I don't really believe in imaginary friends, but I want to feel like I do." I used to make a joke, "My imaginary friend Binky says this," because I knew it would get a laugh out of them.

Keke Palmer

I used to be a chemical-engineering student, but I started studying acting, and I went for a cattle call, up against hundreds of people. They tore me down because I was too tall. They said "How tall are you?" "6'5"." "Next."

Dolph Lundgren

When I was young, I never dreamed about winning a national championship. I didn't even play basketball. But I was tall. And long. And had large hands. I was made for the game. It found me later in life, compared to most collegiate athletes.

Brittney Griner

I keep on repeating something told to me by an American psychologist: "When you are making a joke about someone and you are the only one to laugh, it is not a joke. It is a joke only for yourself." If people are making a joke they have the right to laugh at me but I will ignore them. Ignoring doesn't mean that you don't understand. You understand it so much that you don't want to react.

Tariq Ramadan

I certainly knew of 'World of Warcraft'; I had never actually played because I knew that if I started playing, I would never get any work done - because it would just totally absorb me.

Michael A. Stackpole

"I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts so much... because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting" ... "But that's not all people laugh at." "Isn't it? Perhaps I don't grok all its fullness yet. But find me something that really makes you laugh sweetheart... a joke, or anything else- but something that gave you a a real belly laugh, not a smile. Then we'll see if there isn't a wrongness wasn't there." He thought. "I grok when apes learn to laugh, they'll be people."

Robert A. Heinlein

People in Wynne told me I'd never win a game at Memphis and I'd never play in a bowl game. But I knew we'd turn it around.

DeAngelo Williams

I'd never seen my father stand up. As far as I can remember, my father was always in a wheelchair. I always remembered that. And I remember my first basketball game, ever, he rolls into the gym, he stays by the door and he watches me play. And that was the only game he ever saw me play because he passed away shortly after that.

Lou Williams

It's humbling to know that you have fans all over America and all over the world and they want you to play on their respective basketball team. It's very humbling that they respect the way I play the game of basketball. I can't discredit that. I can't say I don't enjoy it because you put in a lot of hard work to have fans. And for me to be a role model and for me to have fans all over is great. It's very humbling.

LeBron James

What am I doing, just playing basketball? It was eating at me. Because basketball, you play, you retire, you're done. I wanted to do something more.

Enes Kanter

When I started playing in Sweden, there was nobody watching. No one knew who I was, so I was just playing for the love of the game. And after my first season, my coach came up to me and said, 'Of all the people you're the one who smiles the most on the field,' and that was the biggest compliment I ever received.