Quote

OK, I'll put it like this: I doubt if we will see another All-American basketball athlete who is a Rhodes Scholar.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Age: 77
Born: 1947
Born: April 16
Actor
Author
Basketball Coach
Basketball Player
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Television Actor
New York City
New York
Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor
Jr.
Lew Alcindor
Scholar
Athlete
Basketball
Doubt
American
Inspirational
Another
Like
Rhodes

More quotes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Image
Either because I was an athlete or because I was black - probably both - there seemed to be a clear assumption that I wouldn't be up to the work.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
I've kept in touch with many of my former teammates: Bob Marcucci was our team manager and we bonded over our passion for baseball.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
Actor Mike Warren [was my former teammate], who was in Hill Street Blues. There are more, but it's starting to sound like a team reunion at Red Lobster. They were a great bunch of guys and we accomplished a lot together. That's something you don't forget.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
[Coaching] is a difficult job which everyone who owns a TV thinks they can do better at.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
Common decency demands that [NCAA athletes] should be paid, but the only way it will happen is the same way workers got paid throughout American history, through a strong union.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
Your mind is what makes everything else work.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
When the line started to blur between the fans and the players, sometimes things can get ugly.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
As a parent, I have a job as a role model to my children, and by extension, to other young people.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
Some stuff can be fixed, some stuff can’t be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
When I was at UCLA, the Harlem Globetrotters offered me a million dollars to come play for them. I turned it down because my education was just as important as playing ball.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
Yoga is somewhat hard to quantify in terms of benefits because you see them in all the injuries you don't get.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
What I have is P.H. positive chronic myeloid leukemia, which is an aberration in your white blood cells.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
But all was not sunshine and Marvin Gaye songs. [UCLA] also recruited black students as part of a High Potential Program that was meant to bring diversity to the campus. Two of the students that were part of that program were Alprentice Bunchy Carter and John Huggins, Jr., both members of the Black Panther Party's Southern California Chapter.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
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
Image
When I was 17, I worked in a mentoring program in Harlem designed to improve the community. That's when I first gained an appreciation of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when African-Americans rose to prominence in American culture. For the first time, they were taken seriously as artists, musicians, writers, athletes, and as political thinkers.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
A team will always appreciate a great individual if he's willing to sacrifice for the group.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
I'm still my parent's child, I'm still me, but I made a choice. I evolved into Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I think it has to do with evolution.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
Justice should be blind especially color-blind and able to fairly deal with the very real need for honest law enforcement.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
I think Kwame will be an asset to the Lakers.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Image
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