Top 100 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Quotes
#1. The disconnect lasted too long. I think people got the idea I was sullen and couldn't communicate, which wasn't true.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#2. I have to say I have an incredible musical education because of my father.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#3. Justice should be blind especially color-blind and able to fairly deal with the very real need for honest law enforcement.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#4. Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#5. A team will always appreciate a great individual if he's willing to sacrifice for the group.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#7. LeBron James can get a shot off under any and all circumstances and he makes them.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#8. The constant expansion has diluted the talent. Other than that, it's still the same game.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#9. A lot of young players don't really know much about the history of the game and a lot of them are missing out on what the game is all about, especially the whole concept of sportsmanship and teamwork.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#10. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the 761st was Patton's best tank unit and nobody knew about it.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#11. 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.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#13. Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#14. People still cheat on their wives, that hasn't fallen out of fashion. We all speak of it badly, but it has not fallen out of fashion.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#17. The Lakers fans have been great, even folks in the supermarket are welcoming me back!
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#19. The first time I shot the hook, I was in fourth grade, and I was about five feet eight inches tall. I put the ball up and felt totally at ease with the shot. I was completely confident it would go in. I've been shooting it ever since.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#20. I was getting hot flashes and sweats on a regular basis. That's not normal, even for my age.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#23. Good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they are executed.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#24. When you're a coach you've got to go up the ladder, you've got to be ready to travel. That's the nature of coaching
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#25. One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#26. My choosing Islam was not a political statement; it was a spiritual statement.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#28. When a rap song glorifies violence, death and sadness and loss is inflicted because of the violence.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#29. Elgin's game was an incredible performance, also. I don't think there's any comparison. Elgin did it without three-point lines. His game was attacking the hoop and hitting jumpers inside 20 feet. Kobe's range is unreal, and he does it his way.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#30. I didn't really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#31. What I learned in my time isn't necessarily being taught now, and I'd like to help impart that knowledge to a new generation of players.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#33. When we went up against teams that were better, I just hoped that we could steal the victories.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#34. What I have is P.H. positive chronic myeloid leukemia, which is an aberration in your white blood cells.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#35. Each story, novel, poem and play presents a vision of the world that illuminates the dark cave of life we stumble through. We can see better where we're going, what sudden drop to avoid, where the cool water is running.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#36. 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.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#37. I needed to go to class; I needed to go to practice; I needed to have a life away from basketball.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#38. OK, I'll put it like this: I doubt if we will see another All-American basketball athlete who is a Rhodes Scholar.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#39. As a parent, I have a job as a role model to my children, and by extension, to other young people.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#40. If not for the success that medicine has made, I might be part of a much different story right now.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#41. I had a moment like that with Wilt (Chamberlain). He knocked me out of bounds, I came back and faked him, came across the middle and dunked on him.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#43. When the line started to blur between the fans and the players, sometimes things can get ugly.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#45. I was latching on to something that was part of my heritage, because many of the slaves who were brought here were Moslems.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#46. My grandfather and my uncle both died from colorectal cancer, my dad almost died from it and I have the gene for it.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#47. You got guys now declaring they're ready to play pro ball in their second or third year of high school. It's crazy! They're missing so much.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#51. 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.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#52. If there is moral insanity," he said in a conspiratorial whisper, "then there may be the reverse, immoral sanity, if you will, that comes upon one suddenly, like a fever.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#54. Your best athletes might give basketball a try just when they think, geez, this might be something that pays off for me in the end.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#55. Reporters used to ask me the same inane questions year-in and year-out, city-to-city, and it would drive me crazy.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#56. Either because I was an athlete or because I was black - probably both - there seemed to be a clear assumption that I wouldn't be up to the work.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#57. I want people to understand that I intend to continue living and doing all the things that I love to do up until the end. And the end is by no means rushing up on me.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#58. Music rhythms are mathematical patterns. When you hear a song and your body starts moving with it, your body is doing math. The kids in their parents' garage practicing to be a band may not realize it, but they're also practicing math.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#59. I've always tried to stay out of the fray and not be an object of controversy.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#60. I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#62. The word 'leukemia' is a very frightening word. In many instances, it's a killer and it's something that you have to deal with in a very serious and determined way if you're going to beat it.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#65. I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#66. We want to show how hip-hop, which kind of fuels today's basketball stars, is directly related to jazz.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#67. When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#70. I need about three seats lengthwise to sleep on a plane. It's not easy for me to curl up.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#71. He doesn't necessarily have to learn the sky hook. He just has to learn how to be an effective post player. I think I can help him do that.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#72. Five guys on the court working together can achieve more than five talented individuals who come and go as individuals.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#73. I don't know if I was the baddest. People kind of saw me in that light.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#74. As brilliant an individual that Michael Jordan was, he was not successful until he got with a good team unit.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#76. I saw Islam as the correct way to live, and I chose to try to live that way.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#77. The 3-point shot has created a situation in the game akin to 'Lotto' fever.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#78. I got all A's and was hated for it; I spoke correctly and was called a punk.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#79. Some stuff can be fixed, some stuff can't be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#80. The '80s made up for all the abuse I took during the '70s. I outlived all my critics. By the time I retired, everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#81. During 1866 and 1922, Native Americans and black soldiers often intermingled in the American west, on the frontier.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#82. Fundamental preparation is always effective. Work on those parts of your game that are fundamentally weak.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#83. I think the NBA players have to be held accountable in a reasonable way, just like any other professionals.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#84. It's hard for young players to see the big picture. They just see three or four years down the road.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#85. I have been coaching recently. I coached high school basketball in Arizona, and I hope that more opportunities become available.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#87. If they took the idea that they could escape poverty through education, I think it would make a more basic and long-lasting change in the way things happen. What we need are positive, realistic goals and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#89. All the courage and competitiveness of Jackie Robinson affects me to this day. If I patterned my life after anyone it was him, not because he was the first black baseball player in the majors but because he was a hero.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#90. The Lakers were able to maintain a certain level of talent and success, and so were the Celtics. It became part of people's sports lore.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#91. I feel that Dennis Rodman has become a problem. He will be more of a problem than an asset. Of course, he can prove me wrong.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#92. Black people don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#94. Even when there are adverse circumstances, I try to do my job. And I usually do.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#95. There's a ball. There's a hoop. You put the ball through the hoop. That's success.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#99. There are a lot of authors in the world, so it's difficult to find a unique niche to present your take on things. That is always a challenge for any author.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#100. 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.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
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