You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go… Dont ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Your mind is what makes everything else work. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Im 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
Sports and entertainment are the only places where inner-city kids see themselves being able to succeed. Their intellectual development is something they dont relate to. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
You cant win unless you learn how to lose. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. Thats a terrible burden. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
In athletics theres always been a willingness to cheat if it looks like youre not cheating. I think thats just a quirk of human nature. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Music rhythms are mathematical patterns. When you hear a song and your body starts moving with it, your body is doing math. The kids in their parents garage practicing to be a band may not realize it, but theyre also practicing math. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
My mother had to send me to the movies with my birth certificate, so that I wouldnt have to pay the extra fifty cents that the adults had to pay. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I didnt really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
A lot of young players dont really know much about the history of the game and a lot of them are missing out on what the game is all about, especially the whole concept of sportsmanship and teamwork. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
In a typical history book, black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. Theres so much more to the story. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Black people dont have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The 80s made up for all the abuse I took during the 70s. I outlived all my critics. By the time I retired, everybody saw me as a venerable institution. Things do change. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Todays youth are told to get rich or die trying and they really shouldnt take that attitude forward with them. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I was getting hot flashes and sweats on a regular basis. Thats not normal, even for my age. – 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
I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
