Quotes from Scottie Pippen

As a young player, I always thought I was doing everything I could. But the longer you play, the more you learn, and the better you're prepared for what this game throws at you.

It had been a long journey for me just to get drafted. I had to work very hard as a collegiate player just to get recognized, being at a small school.

I'm never going to leave my family hanging out to dry.

I wasn't really that interested in playing. I had gone through some hard times not playing in high school, but my coach had it in his mind that basketball was the way I would get an education.

I wasn't given a scholarship out of high school, and that allowed me to learn what hard work was early on.

Sometimes as a player, you're not there yet. The doctor can tell you the headache is gone, but he don't totally know that it is gone unless he can get in your head.

Every team deals with obstacles throughout the course of the season, and it's as a unit that they need to be worked through. Injuries are part of the game, just like facing tough teams on the road or having one of your best players get into foul trouble.

As a player, you experience so many different moments, but you never truly sit back and reflect on them. You enjoy them, but with the championships, we were so busy celebrating with everyone that we didn't really realize what we had accomplished as individuals and as a team.

I don't really have any regrets.

No matter how well you do in the regular season, it has to be capped off with a championship to really mark your legacy in the game.

It's an honor to have kids. It's a responsibility.

I was a guy that had a lot of tools and could do a lot of other things, but my main thing was controlling the defensive end of the court.

As a player that has played this game, I know, at the end of the day I've had numerous amount of surgeries, and the doctors released me at numerous amount of times to go and play. But a lot of those times didn't mean go and play against the best in the world right now, but to get yourself ready to compete again.

We grew up in a small house with four bedrooms. I shared a bedroom with three brothers. But I enjoy the way that I was brought up. It kept me hungry. It kept me humble.

If I could have written a script of how I wanted my career to be, I couldn't have done it any better.

I thought the lanes opened up when Michael Jordan used to drive. I used to be like, 'Wow.'

When I was four or five, I had an older brother who got paralyzed from the neck down in junior high school. Some kid did a wrestling fall on him and hit his spine. We had to take care of him. I went from being the baby to not really being the baby anymore.

I went to a small school, so I had to be a jack of all trades and master a few.

For me, getting your number retired is the greatest accomplishment. There is no accolade with more significance that you can receive from an organization or school. Whether it was my four years at Central Arkansas or all my seasons with the Bulls in Chicago, it's a sign of respect for what I have done.

Fans are demanding. They want to win. They want it now. If you have an injury, they want you back the next day.

The key about playing internationally is the confidence that you gain. Not only do you train with some of the best players in the NBA, but you compete against some of the best players in the world.

Don't disrespect me, lie about it, and then come smile in my face and act like nothing's wrong.

The respect I had to give my brothers and sisters growing up I think has helped me. I want my kids to be raised the same way.

I was LeBron James before LeBron James.