Sonny Vaccaro Quotes

#1. Things may look different to you than they did before. I've had that experience myself. But don't let appearances fool you. There's only one reality.

Haruki Murakami

#2. Paternalistic is a very good word. They think they have to look out for these guys? Don't worry about it. Why? Because of history. Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant. They did okay.

Sonny Vaccaro

#3. You can always find an evolutionary quotation for anything. But the question is whether it's functional, which is not the same as being evolutionary.

Daniel Kahneman

#4. I can't imagine a worse kind of hell than seeing you in front of me again and not being able to touch you.

Kate Stewart

#5. Maybe. Because he's got to try. Because she is too interesting, too beautiful not to even do anything.

Joe Meno

#6. There are no limits - I endeavor to make clothes that didn't exist before.

Rei Kawakubo

#7. The rule of thumb is that if someone is able to be verbally or physically abusive, he or she is able to understand that the behavior is wrong.

Edward T. Welch

#8. Very unfairly, there's a negative image of the kid, which really stems from the greed and selfishness of the NBA and NCAA. They're forcing these kids to go to school.

Sonny Vaccaro

#9. One should learn from the past, but one should not live in the past. My concern is to look to the future, learn from the past, and deal with the present.

George Fernandes

#10. NBA has a selfish rationale. It saves the owners money by delaying the time a player gets to a second, more lucrative contract. Even the player's union is on board. There are only 450 jobs in the NBA, and the one-and-done protects veterans' jobs.

Sonny Vaccaro

#11. I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents.

Edward Snowden

#12. In terms of my work with Nike, obviously signing Michael Jordan to a $500,000 contract in 1984 set a new precedent for the business side of the game.

Sonny Vaccaro

#13. These albums were thick with babies, but my replicas thinned out as I grew older, as if the population of my duplicates had been hit with some plague.

Margaret Atwood

#14. One-and-done is the most damaging thing in college basketball. It brings money into the college game, because it kickstarts the bidding war. When you know a kid can't turn pro and is going to go to school for one year and then go pro, that's when you see everyone going to games and courting players.

Sonny Vaccaro

#15. Within a few months in 2008, household finances were crushed as asset values fell, millions of jobs were lost, countless credit cards were canceled, and thousands of homes were foreclosed on.

Roger Altman

#16. I have very distinct things that I like. I have very distinct opinions. Just because I choose to be a little less overt out on the campaign [trail] doesn't mean I'm anything less than very opinionated and very intelligent.

Cindy McCain

#17. Now the kids are portrayed as dirty when they talk to an agent, a shoe guy, some hanger-on. Well, it's only natural that people are circling them - there are millions of dollars involved.

Sonny Vaccaro

#18. After the NBA and ABA merged, players could come out after high school. Still, there were only a few cases prior to Kevin Garnett coming out in 1995, so Nike and the other companies were only involved in the college game.

Sonny Vaccaro

#19. The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence.

Nhat Hanh

#20. If a man has a very decided character, has a strongly accentuated career, it is normally the case of course that he makes ardent friends and bitter enemies.

Theodore Roosevelt

#21. Beginning in 1978, Nike paid coaches to put their shoes on the team.

Sonny Vaccaro

#22. Kobe [Bryant] had the biggest contract for a high school kid. He was the first one to get more than a million a year.

Sonny Vaccaro

#23. To care passionately for another human creature brings always more sorrow than joy; but at the same time, Elinor, one would not be without experience. Anyone who has never really loved has never really lived..

Agatha Christie

#24. There's Brandon Jennings. The NBA told him to go to college for a year, and he said, "Screw that. I'll go to Europe and make a million bucks and then come back." And he's proven to be a pretty damn good player. He's done as much for the game as Michael [Jordan] by forging a different route.

Sonny Vaccaro

#25. People will always go to games. And not just Duke versus North Carolina. Even Appalachian State against Chatworth.

Sonny Vaccaro

#26. What would be wrong with letting a kid go pro, and if it doesn't work out he can come back to college? What's the harm in that? The reason is the word "amateurism." The NCAA has to protect colleges' tax exemption.

Sonny Vaccaro