Basketball Quotes: Inspirational Words for Hoop Lovers

"Nobody cared about swimming. You could draw a crowd for basketball"

"I think I have the skills. I'm a great judge of talent. I just know basketball"

"In football, there were drinks available everywhere you looked. On a golf tournament, you could find one free anywhere you wanted it. In tennis and NBA basketball, everybody had a hospitality suite, and so you could go there and load up if you wanted to"

Pat Summerall, Celebrity

"If I weren't earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming"

Charles Barkley, Athlete

"I enjoy the last quarter of all basketball games"

Sarah Silverman, Comedian

"I was homecoming queen. I was star of my basketball team"

Marla Maples, Actress

"Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps"

Tiger Woods, Athlete

"And my father didn't have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn't have black quarterbacks, and I don't think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5' 11". So I just picked baseball"

Willie Mays, Athlete

"When it gets down to it, basketball is basketball"

Larry Bird, Coach

"I play basketball on Sundays and I'm a very spiritual guy; I read a lot of Eastern philosophy and I meditate"

Garry Shandling, Comedian

"What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player"

John Wooden, Coach

"It took me a while to realize that basketball wasn't football"

Merlin Olsen, Athlete

"Someday I might have to put down a basketball and have a regular 9-to-5 like everybody else"

Shaquille O'Neal, Athlete

"Michael Jordan was a tremendous basketball player"

Lee Trevino, Athlete

"I wanted to do two things when I was growing up, about your age. I wanted to play in the NBA, and I wanted to be a businessman after my basketball career was over, and that is what I am doing now"

Magic Johnson, Athlete

"I started out as a football player. I liked to inflict pain. In basketball, it was the same thing"

Shaquille O'Neal, Athlete

"The basketball coach cut me within two days, so I was back in the pool. I was the first one in the wall after the first 25 yards, but the last one out because I didn't have a flip turn"

Merlin Olsen, Athlete

"Michael Jordan changed so much in basketball, he took his power to make a difference. It's so much going on in music right now and somebody has to make a difference"

Kanye West, Musician

"And I want to do it the right way, like everybody else, not just a famous figurehead that gets a job because he is a famous basketball player. I want to really learn the business"

Shaquille O'Neal, Athlete

"I had no experience with broadcasting basketball games, so I took a tape recorder and went to a playground where there was a summer league, and I stood up in the top of the stands and I called the game"

Ed Bradley, Journalist

"My life had no meaning at all. I found only brief interludes of satisfaction. It was like my whole life had been about my whole basketball career"

Pete Maravich, Athlete

"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, Athlete

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

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Athlete

"Handball, swimming, running, jumping, basketball, and boxing were as much a part of me as breathing"

Gene Tunney, Athlete

"Trying to take money out of politics is like trying to take jumping out of basketball"

Bill Bradley, Politician

"I enjoy listening to classical music and heavy metal. I play basketball and try to go diving at least once a year. I don't really have hobbies in the traditional sense... I engage in too many activities already through the actions of my characters"

Alan Dean Foster, Author

"I think I was a good student, because I jumped over a school. My main interest was basically history and literature. Sports were basically basketball and swimming at a pool. I was so happy"

Shimon Peres, Statesman

"I have been coaching recently. I coached high school basketball in Arizona, and I hope that more opportunities become available"

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Athlete

"In sixth grade, my basketball team made it to the league championships. In double overtime, with three seconds left, I rebounded the ball and passed it - to the wrong team! They scored at the buzzer and we lost the game. To this day, I still have nightmares!"

Zac Efron, Actor

"For example, Michael Jordan earns $100million a year but continues to play basketball and remains a modest human being"

Franz Beckenbauer, Athlete

"I also tell them that your education can take you way farther than a football, baseball, track, or basketball will - that's just the bottom line"

Bo Jackson, Athlete

"I'm not a role model... Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids"

Charles Barkley, Athlete

"My personal life is the same. At the end of the day, this is just a job. I love what I do, and it's a great job. But it's like my alter ego. There's Chris Brown the singer. And there's Christopher Brown, the down-home Tappahannock boy that plays video games and basketball and hangs out"

Chris Brown, Musician

"I like low-maintenance girls, but at the same time, classy. She needs to take care of herself. But also be a girl who isn't afraid to get sweaty and play basketball, so it's cool if she's a tomboy"

Chris Brown, Musician

"We've got to play better basketball"

Tim Buckley, Musician

"I think we have our sports within our own culture that are huge with baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Those are the sports in America that we grow up with and soccer isn't really there yet"

Claudio Reyna, Athlete

"Baseball happens to be a game of cumulative tension but football, basketball and hockey are played with hand grenades and machine guns"

John Leonard, Poet

"Then I went to UCLA - so of course I became a huge Bruin basketball fan... and later came to football"

Leigh Steinberg, Businessman

"I always dreamt of being a basketball player. A dream that only I believed in"

David Duchovny, Actor

"Every little kid that steps on the court or the field has aspirations to go pro. I think being a pro basketball player is the best job. The thing I had to realize was that I can't do every dream that I have"

Brian McKnight, Musician

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