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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've had enough success for two lifetimes, my success is talent put together with hard work and luck.
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
If they took the idea that they could escape poverty through education, I think it would make a more basic and long-lasting change in the way things happen. What we need are positive, realistic goals and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals.
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
You can't win unless you learn how to lose.
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
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.
– 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
What I have is P.H. positive chronic myeloid leukemia, which is an aberration in your white blood cells.
– 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
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
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
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
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
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
My health is fine.
– 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
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
Music is really something that makes people whole.
– 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
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
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
If not for the success that medicine has made, I might be part of a much different story right now.
– 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 was getting hot flashes and sweats on a regular basis. That's not normal, even for my age.
– 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
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 think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.
– 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
I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
I have to say I have an incredible musical education because of my father.
– 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
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
I am highly offended by the total lack of acknowledgement of my contribution to Laker success.
– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Black people don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.
– 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