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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.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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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
Places
Able
Intellectual
Something
Succeed
City
Development
Relate
Cities
Entertainment
Sports
Inner
Kids

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Pride was his life force for us it was a live nerve that he could teach us to brush. One stroke, a good practice, and we could tingle for days ... First, he found the pride in each of us, then he taught us how good it could feel. What he was ultimately after was for every one of us to learn to light our own fires and glow our brightest.
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I wanted to play baseball!
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More whites believe in ghosts than believe in racism.
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I'm not going to emphasize the sky-hook as much as work with the specific skills of the guys.
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The first time I shot the hook, I was in fourth grade, and I was about five feet eight inches tall. I put the ball up and felt totally at ease with the shot. I was completely confident it would go in. I've been shooting it ever since.
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OK, I'll put it like this: I doubt if we will see another All-American basketball athlete who is a Rhodes Scholar.
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There are rap groups that have a positive outlook in their art. These groups should be shown as an alternative to gangsta rap.
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A team will always appreciate a great individual if he's willing to sacrifice for the group.
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Center is a very tough position to play.
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Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.
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Ignorance is not something that lends itself to a meaningful discussion.
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Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath that's the essence of yoga, too. So, I consciously began using yoga techniques in my practice and playing. I think yoga helped reduce the number and severity of injuries I suffered. As preventative medicine, it's unequaled.
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You're never really cancer-free and I should have known that.
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What I learned in my time isn't necessarily being taught now, and I'd like to help impart that knowledge to a new generation of players.
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I think black Americans expect too much from individual black Americans in terms of changing the status quo.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
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The type of leukemia that I am dealing with is treatable. So if I do what my doctors tell me to do - get my blood checked regularly, take my meds and consult with my doctor and follow any additional instructions he might make - I will be able to maintain my good health and live my life with a minimum of disruptions to my lifestyle.
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I didn't really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
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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.
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Your mind is what makes everything else work.
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I was a baseball fan myself, I wanted to play baseball.
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