I was a basketball player. I'm a gym rat. I'm always in the gym playing.
It's not like being a professional basketball player where you're in a big house. Maybe three, four or five guys make a couple million bucks a year, but that's it. The rest of them have second jobs.
I feel like I'm a basketball player in a football uniform.
Michael Jordan is God disguised as a basketball player.
You don't get respect for being an Asian-American basketball player in the U.S.
Chicago was big for me as far as developing as a person and as a basketball player.
Play more than one sport in high school. If you play, say, football and basketball, you can learn to be physical and you can take those physical aspects of both sports and become better in both sports. Basketball players use some of the same skills football players do and vice versa.
Once I grew from 6'1' to about 6'6', by that time I was going into 12th grade, and that's when I started wanting to play basketball, because, pretty much basketball players always got the girl.
I'm glad I stayed in school four years. It matured me as a man and as a basketball player.
If we can take young people who excel at the highest levels, put them on the same kind of pedestal as the all-state basketball player and the all-state football player, and begin to get the same kind of recognition, it will have a profound effect, and we are finding that it does.
Being a superstar means you've reached your potential, and I don't think I've reached my potential as a basketball player and as a leader yet.
Great players never look in the mirror and think I'm a great basketball player. You ask yourself, Am I the best player I can be?
My mom always tells me that... Nobody is going to remember you for the great basketball player you are but they will remember you for the character you have off the court and how many lives you're changed.
I'm pretty fundamental when it comes to running. A basketball player doesn't practice his free throw shooting by doing slam dunks all over the place. He does it by practicing free throws. That's the attitude I take: You don't get better at running by doing everything but running. You get better by running.
A lot of times I blend in a little bit easier because I'm not like a basketball player who's going to stand out because of his height.
Coaching staff: I know there's days you look at that film and you want to kill me. I'm not playing defense, taking bad shots, getting too many techs. But you always believe that I can be the guy. Through the tough times, you guys never left my side... That's something that I really appreciate and I never want to take you guys for granted. I thank you so much for being part of my life. And not just on the basketball court, but giving me talks about growing as a man first, and a basketball player next.
You don't have to be best friends as basketball players but I do believe in chemistry. I think it makes everything different if a team is really together and they're all on that same page. They might not like each other, per se, but if you're on the same page and the chemistry is there, you can play great basketball. You can go back to teams like Detroit, the Bad Boys. Those guys had great chemistry, that's why they won.
Allah says in the Qur'an not to despise one another. So the criterion in Islam is not color or social status. It's who is most righteous. If I go to a mosque - and I'm a basketball player with money and prestige - if I go to a mosque and see an imam, I feel inferior. He's better than me. It's about knowledge.
One thing I learned in the NBA is that the No. 1 job of a general manager is to keep his job. They are only 30 positions where you make millions and hang around with basketball players all day.
Basketball players want contact to get a foul called. Slaps on the wrist and bumps on the shoulder are big time to them, and they don't like that. In football, you get that all the time. The whole mental makeup is different.
If every basketball player worked as hard as I did, I'd be out of a job
If you're a basketball player and you don't stop and take pictures with your fans, you can have an amazing game and everyone still loves you.
I wanted to avoid service, because I was on the road to becoming a professional basketball player.
I also wanted my basketball players to know that I really cared about them. Forget basketball; as a person, I cared, I cared about their family.
My goal is to let people see who I am as a person, not just a basketball player. Many people see athletes in a certain way - flat and one dimensional. I want to change that view.
Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Every day we present the best quotes! Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends
or simply: