Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Quotes

I've never been a person to share my private life, but I can help save lives.

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

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

Video games just can't compare with the variety and intensity of reading.

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

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.

What I have is P.H. positive chronic myeloid leukemia, which is an aberration in your white blood cells.

This is what I would have done if I had to have a real job: I would have been a history teacher.

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.

In the Western standards of modesty, there are different guidelines.

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.

The Lakers fans have been great, even folks in the supermarket are welcoming me back.

I needed to go to class; I needed to go to practice; I needed to have a life away from basketball.

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

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.

I love basketball, but playing basketball doesn't fully define who I am. I was always a good student, too.

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

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.

Even when there are adverse circumstances, I try to do my job. And I usually do.

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

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

I think a lot of people, if they get the opportunity to do some acting, they think, 'I might be a star.'

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...

If not for the success that medicine has made, I might be part of a much different story right now.

I feel like I've always been a full-time historian, but nobody knows it.

I got all A's and was hated for it; I spoke correctly and was called a punk.

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.

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

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

I listen to jazz mainly. Mainstream jazz.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I think Kwame will be an asset to the Lakers.

I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.

In a typical history book, black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There's so much more to the story.

I have always thought that writers come with any variety of attributes. Some are capable and some aren't.

Today's youth are told to get rich or die trying and they really shouldn't take that attitude forward with them.

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.

The constant expansion has diluted the talent. Other than that, it's still the same game.

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

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

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.

LeBron James can get a shot off under any and all circumstances and he makes them.

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.

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.