A Quote by Jimmy Connors

Tennis was always there for me, which was lucky. I would go play baseball, basketball, football, hang with my brother, do whatever, and at the end of the day I'd come back and say, 'Hey, Mom, would you hit 15 minutes worth of balls with me?'
I spent a whole year when I was injured just trying to get my arm back to the point where I could hit a tennis ball for more than 30 minutes a day. I'd hit for 15 minutes and it would feel as if my arm was going to fall off.
When I wasn't in the band, Korn management hit me up every year or two asking me to rejoin. I would do book signings, and they would send someone to say, 'Hey, it would be cool to have you back one day.'
My grandfather built a basketball court for me when I was 3 years old as a Christmas present, and I would go back there every day all day and just play basketball.
I was texting with someone the other day and they asked me a question, 'What would do you if you didn't play basketball, or if you didn't play baseball? What would you want to do as a job?' My answer was, 'I've never even thought about it.'
When I was growing up, we would play a 10-over or 15-over game, and the asking-rate would always be high, and I would end up scoring 30 or 40 runs in 15 balls, so I built that mindset right from the beginning and still continue to bat in the same manner.
We lived in Colorado, and my parents were outdoorsy mountain people. My father would always say, 'Go out and don't come back until you have something to show me.' Which meant he wanted me to come back with a scraped knee or an injury. When I went out to play, I felt like I'd better get hurt.
On an awards-show day, I can play basketball, go in, take a shower and put on a tux - it takes me three minutes to put on a tux - and be out the door in 15 minutes.
When I was a baby, I was on a tennis court every day with my mom and with my brothers, so I would pick up the balls for them when they'd play, and then sometimes I'd play with them, but not very often.
Honestly, I was a troublemaker. The environment I grew up in, my mom and my sister, they decided they were going to sign me up in every single thing to keep me busy. I played football, basketball, baseball. Anything, whatever was in season, I was signed up for it. Basketball was one of the things that just stuck.
One day my dad would say, 'OK, if you want to play tennis I can help you out.' And that's how it started. And I had a goal. I wanted to beat my mom first. And my parents and my brother. And that was the ultimate goal.
My brother-in-law was a Tottenham fan. He introduced me to football and brought me to Tottenham. At the time I just wanted to play football so I would go anywhere to play.
I had a basketball net that my dad had put up outside. I went out there and dribbled all day long. I wanted to play basketball. Then I'd go baseball, and then I'd go to football. I remember playing football in a plowed field. I grew up going from one thing to the next wanting to play something.
My workout was playing other sports and I always played tennis, football, basketball, threw a baseball - I was always doing something to keep me active. That's how I kept my body going.
One thing my dad always told me, was he would make sure I always had what he didn't have. He couldn't play basketball because he didn't have tennis shoes - so I had five pairs of tennis shoes.
I had a basketball net that my dad had put up outside. I went out there and dribbled all day long. I wanted to play basketball. Then Id go baseball, and then Id go to football. I remember playing football in a plowed field. I grew up going from one thing to the next wanting to play something.
Roles came to me. I was very, very lucky in that respect. Great directors, great writers, great producers - they saw something in me that they wanted for their picture or their play or whatever it was, whether it was Edward Albee or whether it was - or Peter Hall, directors. They would come to me, thank God. I was lucky. Lucky, lucky, lucky.
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