Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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.

Your mind is what makes everything else work.

I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.

Michael Jordan and Magic and myself all learned how to play the game in college programs that emphasized the team.

When the line started to blur between the fans and the players, sometimes things can get ugly.

I expect more people from China and Asia to end up in the NBA.

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.

It’s hard for young players to see the big picture. They just see three or four years down the road.

I saw Islam as the correct way to live, and I chose to try to live that way.

Center is a very tough position to play.

I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify.

Black people don’t have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.

My choosing Islam was not a political statement; it was a spiritual statement.

I listen to jazz mainly. Mainstream jazz.

You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.

When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That’s a terrible burden.

As a parent, I have a job as a role model to my children, and by extension, to other young people.

Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary.

I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.

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.

As brilliant an individual that Michael Jordan was, he was not successful until he got with a good team unit.

Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.

One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.

You can’t win if you don’t play as a unit.

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.

The game has basically not changed since I ended my career.

When we went up against teams that were better, I just hoped that we could steal the victories.

I didn’t really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home.

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.

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.

A team will always appreciate a great individual if he’s willing to sacrifice for the group.

I’m not going to disappear.

I felt that a number of people might have questioned my loyalty, but I continue to be a patriotic American.

I think the NBA players have to be held accountable in a reasonable way, just like any other professionals.

Fundamental preparation is always effective. Work on those parts of your game that are fundamentally weak.

I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.

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.

Five guys on the court working together can achieve more than five talented individuals who come and go as individuals.

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.

The extra pass and the extra effort on defense always get the job done.

I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.

The transition was difficult. It’s hard to stop something that you’ve enjoyed and that has been very rewarding.

I think black Americans expect too much from individual black Americans in terms of changing the status quo.

I think the NBA will certainly survive without Michael Jordan.

My most memorable moment came in 1985 as we beat the Boston Celtics.

I have been coaching recently. I coached high school basketball in Arizona, and I hope that more opportunities become available.

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.