"The NBA is the strongest professional sports league in the world. The league and the game is bigger than any one person, Michael Jordan included, and they always will be.  I hope that today players, especially our young players, continue to recognize that simple fact.  Nothing is more important than the game itself and the fans who support it."

"I am privileged to have played basketball."

-- Michael Jordan at his Retirement (1/13/99)                    

Hey Charles were there any thoughts that 'I don't want it to end like this...?'.   "We'll you never want it to end like that but I do think it was supposed to happen like that, it was supposed to end it Philadelphia, I really believe that in my heart.  You know I might be stubborn and think about coming back but, I think, if I look at reality I think God always sends us little subliminal messages that we don't want to listen to and I do think in my heart he wanted it to end here in Philadelphia where it started.  And I really believe that."

"I can't imagine working 9 to 5, I think that would suck."

"What I told [my teammates] after the game was I'm just fortunate [for] my 16 years because, this [injury] can happen every single night you go out and play...  It can be over in one instant, so you should appreciate everyday."

--  Charles Barkley                         

“You can’t stop father time… but you can show [him] down.” -- Karl Malone

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

-- Michael Jordan    

I'm tired of hearing about money money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok. -- Shaquille O'Neal

"I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don't do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results."

-- Michael Jordan    

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. -- John Wooden

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life. -- Isiah Thomas

Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates. -- Magic Johnson

There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either IN or you’re OUT. There’s no such thing as life in-between.

When you’re playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you’ll fight for the winner’s circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor.

Each Warrior wants to leave the mark of his will, his signature, on important acts he touches. This is not the voice of ego but of the human spirit, rising up and declaring that it has something to contribute to the solution of the hardest problems, no matter how vexing!

-- Pat Riley                    

If you don’t do what’s best for your body, you’re the one who comes up on the short end. -- Julius Erving

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."  -- John Wooden

I’ll always be Number 1 to myself. -- Moses Malone

“Sometimes I wonder what it will be like to look back on all this. Whether it will seem real.” -- Michael Jordon

“Basketball can serve as a kind of metaphor for ultimate cooperation. It is a sport where success, as symbolized by the championship, requires that the dictates of community prevail over selfish impulses.” “How should we Democrats select the next presidential nominee? Smoke filled rooms? Brokered convention? National primary? Personally, I prefer jump shots from the top of the key.” -- Bill Bradley

Nobody roots for Goliath. -- Wilt Chamberlain

"I'm like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. If I'm not ready, the sled isn't going to go." -- Kevin Garnett

I know that I’m never as good or bad as any single performance. I’ve never believed my critics or my worshippers, and I’ve always been able to leave the game at the arena.

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                                

I recognize that I have a problem with my temper. For those times it has ever caused me to do anything that gave anyone understandable and justifiable reason to be upset, I am sincerely sorry."

-- Bob Knight, while coaching Indiana University                        

This is the second most exciting indoor sport, and the other one shouldn't have spectators. -- Dick Vertleib

When I dunk, I put something on it.  I want the ball to hit the floor before I do.  -- Darryl Dawkins

I always tried to make clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior. Until that is done, we are on an aimless course that runs in circles and goes nowhere.

-- John Wooden                  

“Now, the time for suddenly looking back is here, If you choose to, you can sum up Jordan’s career with numbers--championships won, points scored, records set. But numbers are dry, numbers are cold. Numbers are not what this has been about. Funny thing: He is in all likelihood the best basketball player who ever lived, yet he was never really in the business of basketball. Jordon’s business was the business of making people happy. No matter what was troubling you in your own life, no matter what worries were on your mind, for two and a half hours on a winter night you could push all of that aside and watch something great. For those two and a half hours the meanness and the chill of the outside world could disappear, for those two hours, you could find some warmth.”

-- Bob Green, author of Hang Time    

One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team. -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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