101+ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Quotes On Lebron James, Basketball Legend. And Extra

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an American former professional basketball player. He played for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on lebron james, basketball legend., extra.

Top 10 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Quotes

1. You can't win unless you learn how to lose.
2. Good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they are executed.
3. Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.
4. 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.
5. One man cannot make a team.
6. 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.
7. The saying, "Those that don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it" doesn't just apply to politicians and world leaders, it applies to all of us on a daily basis.
8. When I was at UCLA, the Harlem Globetrotters offered me a million dollars to come play for them. I turned it down because my education was just as important as playing ball.
9. Common decency demands that [NCAA athletes] should be paid, but the only way it will happen is the same way workers got paid throughout American history, through a strong union.
10. I love basketball, but playing basketball doesn't fully define who I am. I was always a good student, too.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Short Quotes

• When the line started to blur between the fans and the players, sometimes things can get ugly.
• I think Kwame will be an asset to the Lakers.
• You play with your soul as well as your body.
• I was a baseball fan myself, I wanted to play baseball.
• Ignorance is not something that lends itself to a meaningful discussion.
• When the doctor told me I had cancer, I was scared.
• Well, I'm a professional.
• You're never really cancer-free and I should have known that.
• I enjoy seeing new places.
• My biggest resource is my mind.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Famous Quotes And Sayings

I don't get a big charge out of being the leading scorer. The object of competing is winning. I just try to do what has to be done for us to win. That might be anything at the time - defense, rebounding, passing. I get great satisfaction out of being a team player. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I could have skated by as an athlete, but the world is so much bigger and more interesting than any one thing. I didn't want to be pigeonholed as just a jock. I'm also an author, a student of history, and I collect memorabilia from the Wild West. I'm also a son, a father, and a friend. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

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

What we need are positive, realistic goals and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath; that's the essence of yoga, too. So, I consciously began using yoga techniques in my practice and playing. I think yoga helped reduce the number and severity of injuries I suffered. As preventative medicine, it's unequaled. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

Culture and politics were inseparable [in the Sixties], which gave a soundtrack to political awareness and activism. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I don't really care who's doing drugs in the NBA as long as the scene isn't adversely affecting my team and teammates. I've known enough drug users-going as far back as grade school and the streets of New York-not to view them as pariahs or lost souls. I've certainly smoked more than my quota of weed. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I've had enough success for two lifetimes, My success is talent put together with hard work and luck. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Ken Heitz got drafted by the Bucks the same year I did. He went to their camp just for the experience, then dropped out to attend Harvard Law School. I always admired his combination of athleticism and brains. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

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

Alexander Hamilton realized that warfare was part and parcel of human nature, and it's something we had to prepare for. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

My English teacher, Dr. John Lindstrom, taught me an appreciation for the written word. Until his class, I'd dabbled in journalism and essay writing. But when he selected one of my essays as the best in the class, it gave me the confidence to see myself as a writer. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

But all was not sunshine and Marvin Gaye songs. [UCLA] also recruited black students as part of a High Potential Program that was meant to bring diversity to the campus. Two of the students that were part of that program were Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins, Jr., both members of the Black Panther Party's Southern California Chapter. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I read that Hollywood wanted to film Fences years ago with a white director, but [August] Wilson refused. He thought that the director needed to have lived the culture of black Americans. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The only reason is that I hadn't seen The Modern Jazz Quartet perform live and a live performance is often where the real experience of jazz takes place. I'm not familiar with the Boswell Sisters. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The lifespan of most professional athletes is relatively short, and most have no preparation for doing anything after their career ends, which it could in an instant. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

We all had a lot of fun making the film ["Airplane" ], but there weren't a lot of outtakes or cracking up because we all were focused on doing our jobs in a professional manner. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The Sixties was a perfect storm of disaffection with political leaders trying to pass off the same old platitudes to maintain the status quo and an unexpected courageousness in the masses of youth. Nothing on this scale had ever happened before in U.S. history and it hasn't happened since. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I was just starting out acting [doing "Airplane"] and wanted to be taken as a professional, not as an athlete doing a cameo. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Your mind is what makes everything else work. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Video games just can't compare with the variety and intensity of reading. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I did a book in 1996, an overview of black history. In that process I became more aware of a lot of the black inventors of the 19th century. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

My high school had been a renovated old hospital, so when I first came to the UCLA campus in the spring of 1965, I was immediately impressed by the classic northern Italian architecture that was mixed with futuristic ultra-modern buildings. The classic architecture gave it the heft of old wisdom while the modernistic look inspired hope for the future. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Initially when I stopped playing, I had accumulated some burnout. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

During 1866 and 1922, Native Americans and black soldiers often intermingled in the American west, on the frontier. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I wanted to play baseball! — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I want to do as little as possible when I finish playing ball - just spend a lot more time with my family. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

I'm not going to emphasize the sky-hook as much as work with the specific skills of the guys. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I've had a desire to coach for years. This was something I felt I should do. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

This is what I would have done if I had to have a real job: I would have been a history teacher. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

More whites believe in ghosts than believe in racism. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Some stuff can be fixed, some stuff can’t be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics endured for about eight years, and the interest grew each year. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

When a rap song glorifies violence, death and sadness and loss is inflicted because of the violence. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Sports and entertainment are the only places where inner-city kids see themselves being able to succeed. Their intellectual development is something they don't relate to. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Even when there are adverse circumstances, I try to do my job. And I usually do. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

There are rap groups that have a positive outlook in their art. These groups should be shown as an alternative to gangsta rap. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

I was getting hot flashes and sweats on a regular basis. That's not normal, even for my age. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

If ISIS represents Islam, then the KKK represents Christianity — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

In January of 1969, after a meeting to discuss the leadership of UCLA's new Afro-American Program, [Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins, Jr.] were murdered on campus by a rival black nationalist group, the United Slaves Organization. This shook up all the students, black and white, and made us all realize that what we were doing wasn't just an academic exercise, but had repercussions in the real world. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Pride was his life force; for us it was a live nerve that he could teach us to brush. One stroke, a good practice, and we could tingle for days ... First, he found the pride in each of us, then he taught us how good it could feel. What he was ultimately after was for every one of us to learn to light our own fires and glow our brightest. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

There's a ball. There's a hoop. You put the ball through the hoop. That's success. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

In the Western standards of modesty, there are different guidelines. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

[Albert] Hoxie, my Western Civilization professor. I had him in my freshman year and he opened up an extraordinary world to me that I've never forgotten. He used his extensive knowledge of art history to illustrate the development of Western culture and politics. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

We can learn from mistakes of others, whether they're kings or our parents. When we do learn those lessons, we're better equipped to make our own dreams come true. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kobe's an incredibly talented athlete, and there are many more like him among today's players. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

Few players have cast a spell across the game like Yao Ming, before or since. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I think I did very well against everyone who tried to defend me. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I've kept in touch with many of my former teammates: Bob Marcucci was our team manager and we bonded over our passion for baseball. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

We don't have selfish guys here, which sometimes leads to problems. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Lakers were able to maintain a certain level of talent and success and so were the Celtics. So after awhile it became part of people's sports lore... — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I needed to go to class; I needed to go to practice; I needed to have a life away from basketball. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

I think people that are, you know, voting in the blind are doing a disservice to America by not being better informed. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

When I traveled through Greece in the '90s, everything [Albert Hoxie] taught me came flooding back and I was able to appreciate the art and culture much more because of him. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

But people don't know if I can teach the game. I know I can. My experience in Oklahoma was positive. It opened my eyes to how the game is played - the interaction among players, fans and media, how all that works. You have to know about the business of the game and how the actions of players and coaches affect the business. I think I have it down now. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I was especially impressed with Pauley Pavilion [at UCLA campus ]. The floors hadn't been laid down yet, when they gave me the tour, each new room got my heart thumping. They even had a surgical operating room in case an athlete was severely injured. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The constant expansion has diluted the talent. Other than that, it's still the same game. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

[Coaching] is a difficult job which everyone who owns a TV thinks they can do better at. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

With 300 million people in America, you can fail to impress 299 million of them and still go platinum. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

Actor Mike Warren [was my former teammate], who was in Hill Street Blues. There are more, but it's starting to sound like a team reunion at Red Lobster. They were a great bunch of guys and we accomplished a lot together. That's something you don't forget. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

If I hadn't become a professional basketball player, I would have become a history teacher. There's so much to learn from history. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The Lakers fans have been great, even folks in the supermarket are welcoming me back. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Justice should be blind especially color-blind and able to fairly deal with the very real need for honest law enforcement. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I don't know if I was the baddest. People kind of saw me in that light. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

We want to show how hip-hop, which kind of fuels today's basketball stars, is directly related to jazz. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

UCLA acknowledged this shift by bringing in Alex Haley (the co-author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X) and Eldridge Cleaver (Soul on Ice) as speakers. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

For me, the bold jazz of John Coltrane and Miles Davis reflected the bold attitude in African-Americans finding their political identity and voice. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

Life Lessons by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar taught us that hard work and dedication can take you far, no matter the obstacles you face. He also showed us the importance of using your platform to speak up for what you believe in and to fight for social justice. Lastly, he demonstrated that it is possible to balance a successful career and personal life, as he excelled in both basketball and his other pursuits.