Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – 32 Quotes

32 Quotes by 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 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

I am highly offended by the total lack of acknowledgement of my contribution to Laker success.

– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

– 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

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

– 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

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

Music is really something that makes people whole.

– 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 they’re also practicing math.

– 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

I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.

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

– 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

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

– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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.

– 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

A lot of young players don’t 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

My health is fine.

– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The type of leukemia that I am dealing with is treatable. So if I do what my doctors tell me to do – get my blood checked regularly, take my meds and consult with my doctor and follow any additional instructions he might make – I will be able to maintain my good health and live my life with a minimum of disruptions to my lifestyle.

– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

– 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

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

– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I have to say I have an incredible musical education because of my father.

– 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

My grandfather and my uncle both died from colorectal cancer, my dad almost died from it and I have the gene for it.

– 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

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

– 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