Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

"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."

"I saw Islam as the correct way to live, and I chose to try to live that way."

"You can't win if you don't play as a unit."

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

"I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify."

"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."

"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."

"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."