Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Quotes

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

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

One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.

Good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they are executed.

Five guys on the court working together can achieve more than five talented individuals who come and go as individuals.

Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.

What we need are positive, realistic goals and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals.

More whites believe in ghosts than believe in racism.

Fundamental preparation is always effective. Work on those parts of your game that are fundamentally weak.

The saying, "Those that don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it" doesn't just apply to politicians and world leaders, it applies to all of us on a daily basis.

I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.

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.

Each story, novel, poem and play presents a vision of the world that illuminates the dark cave of life we stumble through. We can see better where we're going, what sudden drop to avoid, where the cool water is running.

I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.

If ISIS represents Islam, then the KKK represents Christianity

Your mind is what makes everything else work.

Some stuff can be fixed, some stuff can’t be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing.

I don't get a big charge out of being the leading scorer. The object of competing is winning. I just try to do what has to be done for us to win. That might be anything at the time - defense, rebounding, passing. I get great satisfaction out of being a team player.

A lot of players think the game is all about individual performances when it's really all about a team game.

I think race has been a burden for black Americans. Being Muslim has also been a challenge because so many people do not understand Islam.

My biggest resource is my mind.

I could have skated by as an athlete, but the world is so much bigger and more interesting than any one thing. I didn't want to be pigeonholed as just a jock. I'm also an author, a student of history, and I collect memorabilia from the Wild West. I'm also a son, a father, and a friend.

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.

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.

I think someone should explain to the child that it's OK to make mistakes. That's how we learn. When we compete, we make mistakes.