Quotes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

• I'm not comfortable being preachy, but more people need to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court.
• My most memorable moment came in 1985 as we beat the Boston Celtics.
• I'm not going to disappear.
• I'm still my parent's child, I'm still me, but I made a choice. I evolved into Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I think it has to do with evolution.
• In athletics there's always been a willingness to cheat if it looks like you're not cheating. I think that's just a quirk of human nature.
• It's hard for young players to see the big picture. They just see three or four years down the road.
• Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary.
• My choosing Islam was not a political statement; it was a spiritual statement.
• I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify.
• I saw Islam as the correct way to live, and I chose to try to live that way.
• Michael Jordan and Magic and myself all learned how to play the game in college programs that emphasized the team.
• I wanted to play baseball!
• I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing.
• I think the NBA will certainly survive without Michael Jordan.
• I think the NBA players have to be held accountable in a reasonable way, just like any other professionals.
• I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.
• I think someone should explain to the child that it's OK to make mistakes. That's how we learn. When we compete, we make mistakes.
• I think race has been a burden for black Americans. Being Muslim has also been a challenge because so many people do not understand Islam.
• I think I did very well against everyone who tried to defend me.
• My mother had to send me to the movies with my birth certificate, so that I wouldn't have to pay the extra fifty cents that the adults had to pay.
• I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.
• Your mind is what makes everything else work.
• I listen to jazz mainly. Mainstream jazz.
• I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.
• I feel that there has been progress made since I was a boy on matters of race, but we have a long way to go.
• I have been coaching recently. I coached high school basketball in Arizona, and I hope that more opportunities become available.
• A team will always appreciate a great individual if he's willing to sacrifice for the group.
• As a parent, I have a job as a role model to my children, and by extension, to other young people.
• As brilliant an individual that Michael Jordan was, he was not successful until he got with a good team unit.
• Black people don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.
• Center is a very tough position to play.
• Five guys on the court working together can achieve more than five talented individuals who come and go as individuals.
• Fundamental preparation is always effective. Work on those parts of your game that are fundamentally weak.
• Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.
• I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.
• You can't win unless you learn how to lose.
• I expect more people from China and Asia to end up in the NBA.
• One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
• I felt that a number of people might have questioned my loyalty, but I continue to be a patriotic American.
• You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go... Don't ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.
• You can't win if you don't play as a unit.
• When we went up against teams that were better, I just hoped that we could steal the victories.
• When the line started to blur between the fans and the players, sometimes things can get ugly.
• When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.
• The transition was difficult. It's hard to stop something that you've enjoyed and that has been very rewarding.
• The game has basically not changed since I ended my career.
• The extra pass and the extra effort on defense always get the job done.
• I didn't really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home.