Free Throw Quotes - Page 2

In this millennium that we live in, the 'Hack-a-Shaq'has proven not to work. It might work a couple games every now and then, but when it comes to the playoffs or a championship series, it doesn't work - not at all.

Shaquille O'Neal

Basketball, Couple, Games

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That game was dedicated to Rick Adelman. I'm at home, in the bathroom, trying to take a dump, flipping through the channels and he's complaining (on TV) about how I'm stepping over the line. I can't even do a No. 2 in peace. I'm sitting there grunting at 12:30 at night. Can I go one day without somebody saying something negative about me?

Shaquille O'Neal

Basketball, Home, Night

"Shaq's Top 10 NBA Finals quotes" by Marc Stein, www.espn.com. June 12, 2006.

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Me having a beautiful wife and great family and friends around me, all the money I've got, all the things that I've got, a Ferrari that I just ripped the top off of and turned into a convertible, the rings I got, the two mansions on the water, a master's in criminal justice, I'm a cop, plus I look good. So me shooting 40 percent at the foul line is just God's way of saying that nobody's perfect. If I shot 90 percent from the line, it just wouldn't be right.

Shaquille O'Neal

Basketball, Beautiful, Two

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I'm upset at myself. I should have had 50. I missed 13 free throws. That's unacceptable. If I want to be accepted by Wilt and Kareem and Russell I've got to start playing better than that. Right now I'm still in the class of Hakeem and David Robinson and that's not good enough for me. I want to be out there with the immortals.

Shaquille O'Neal

Basketball, Should Have, Class

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Yeah, D-Wade called me up last night and said that he saw some film of me in high school and thinks that my form then was better and that I should shoot like that. I told him I'd think about it and then my pops called and said something like that so I decided to revert back and then.

Shaquille O'Neal

Basketball, School, Night

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Coach (Pat) Riley told us on June 8 we'd win the title on June 20.

Shaquille O'Neal

Winning, June, Titles

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Athletes often start life at the opposite end of the wealth and prestige spectrum, but as soon as they exhibit an unusual talent for swinging a bat or sinking a free-throw they may find that the rules have been suspended for them. They are waved through school and into the pros, and incidents of bad behavior are overlooked or covered up.

Jeffrey Kluger

Athlete, School, Covered Up

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We changed our rules. If a player does not have some sot of altercation on or off the court once each month, we fine him...The guys that are our top four scorers, each of them will be required once every two months to appear on MTV. The guys who shoot the worst free throws over a one-month period, next time we have a TV game they're required to look into the camera and beat their chests after they make a good play.

Gregg Popovich

Sports, Player, Mtv

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The designated hitter rule is like letting someone else take Wilt Chamberlain's free throws.

Rick Wise

Baseball, Chamberlain, Designated Hitter

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Reading old travel books or novels set in faraway places, spinning globes, unfolding maps, playing world music, eating in ethnic restaurants, meeting friends in cafes . . . all these things are part of never-ending travel practice, not unlike doing scales on a piano, shooting free-throws, or meditating.

Phil Cousineau

Book, Reading, Practice

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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.

Chris Solinsky

Basketball, Running, Attitude

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When I was a freshman, I fooled around with shooting free throws this way: For some reason, I thought you had to stay within the top half of that free-throw circle, so I would step back to just inside the top of the circle, take off from behind the line and dunk. They outlawed that, but I wouldn't have done it in a game, anyway. I was a good free throw shooter in college." Actually he was a 62% free throw shooter, which is poor except in comparison to his 51% as a pro.

Wilt Chamberlain

College, Games, Circles

"The Leaping Legends of Basketball" by Scott Ostler, The Los Angeles Times, February 12, 1989.

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I don't think you ever want to be too settled, because once you become settled, you lose a lot of your drive. I mean, I am settled off the court; the business side of things, the papers, contracts and all of that, but there are a lot things that I need to work on, on the court, like my free-throw shooting, which has been terrible. I need to work on being more demanding in the post. My teammates are going to come to me and I just need to go out there and score in the post, which will open up things for our guards.

Andrew Bogut

Sports, Mean, Thinking

Interview with Bobby Ciafardini, www.insidehoops.com. November 10, 2008.

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A lot of coaches play percentages when it comes to me, but that's just a way of saying that you can't stop me.

Shaquille O'Neal

Basketball, Play, Way

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(The Hack-A-Shaq is) just a way of telling me that you can't stop me. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Shaquille O'Neal

Basketball, Appreciate, Way

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I think everything happens for a reason. With my game being the way it is, if I did shoot 80 percent, I'd be a harder person to deal with. It just keeps me humble. Just imagine me in my game shooting the same percentage that Reggie Miller shoots. I wouldn't even talk to you guys because I wouldn't have to.

Shaquille O'Neal

Basketball, Humble, Thinking

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I'd shoot zero percent before I'd shoot underhanded.

Shaquille O'Neal

Basketball, Zero, Percent

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I nodded. I liked Augustus Waters. I really, really, really liked him. I liked the way his story ended with someone else. I liked his voice. I liked that he took existentially fraught free throws. I liked that he was a tenured professor in the Department of Slightly Crooked Smiles with a dual appointment in the Department of Having a Voice That Made My Skin Feel More Like Skin. And I liked that he had two names. I’ve always liked people with two names, because you get to make up your mind what you call them: Gus or Augustus? Me, I was always just Hazel, univalent Hazel.

John Green

Names, Two, Voice

John Green (2012). “The Fault in Our Stars”, p.26, Penguin

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