Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“Today's youth are told to get rich or die trying and they really shouldn't take that attitude forward with them.”

“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.”

“My grandfather and my uncle both died from colorectal cancer, my dad almost died from it and I have the gene for it.”

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

“I have to say I have an incredible musical education because of my father.”

“Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary.”

“I want to do as little as possible when I finish playing ball - just spend a lot more time with my family.”

“I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.”

“My health is fine.”

“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.”

“A lot of young players don't really know much about the history of the game and a lot of them are missing out on what the game is all about, especially the whole concept of sportsmanship and teamwork.”

“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.”

“Black people don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.”

“I did a book in 1996, an overview of black history. In that process I became more aware of a lot of the black inventors of the 19th century.”

“This is what I would have done if I had to have a real job: I would have been a history teacher.”

“I didn't really seek attention. I just wanted to play the game well and go home.”

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

“I hope to be involved in a successful movie script.”

“My mother had to send me to the movies with my birth certificate, so that I wouldn't have to pay the extra fifty cents that the adults had to pay.”

“Music rhythms are mathematical patterns. When you hear a song and your body starts moving with it, your body is doing math. The kids in their parents' garage practicing to be a band may not realize it, but they're also practicing math.”

“Music is really something that makes people whole.”

“In athletics there's always been a willingness to cheat if it looks like you're not cheating. I think that's just a quirk of human nature.”

“When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.”

“What I have is P.H. positive chronic myeloid leukemia, which is an aberration in your white blood cells.”