Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

A team will always appreciate a great individual if he's willing to sacrifice for the group.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

Black people don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

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

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

I expect more people from China and Asia to end up in the NBA.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

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

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

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

Center is a very tough position to play.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I didn't really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

The extra pass and the extra effort on defense always get the job done.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

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

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

My most memorable moment came in 1985 as we beat the Boston Celtics.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

I saw Islam as the correct way to live, and I chose to try to live that way.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

I listen to jazz mainly. Mainstream jazz.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

I think the NBA will certainly survive without Michael Jordan.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I wanted to play baseball!
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

It's hard for young players to see the big picture. They just see three or four years down the road.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

My choosing Islam was not a political statement; it was a spiritual statement.
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.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I'm not going to disappear.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The game has basically not changed since I ended my career.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

You can't win if you don't play as a unit.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

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

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

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.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

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

You can't win unless you learn how to lose.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar