Quotes from Penny Hardaway

I believe in giving back.

I don't know who Rick Barnes thinks I am, but I'm not a dude that likes to just mess around about anything.

If I've learned anything, it's that you can't take anything for granted.

I want to contribute in any fashion to a great team.

I wasn't able to explode, jump, run - not even walk without pain being in the back of my leg. Every time I bent my leg, even in a walking motion, I was wondering what was wrong with me. But I stuck with it.

To be able to bring an entire city together is not easy, and we definitely have one thing in common in the city - that's the Tigers. The history of the school is well-noted around town. It is an SEC kind of country with all the SEC schools, but Memphis trumps all of that in the city. I embrace that.

The college kids are recruiting each other. When they go to a school, they start recruiting each other.

Recruiting is tough because you have to stay in the battle. You've got so many guys that are going after a certain amount of kids.

Playing the game at a high level, understanding what it's like to get to where I've already been and where they want to go. I tell those kids that we're going to develop you, we're going to teach you, and we're going to have you ready off the court and on the court to be an NBA player.

I didn't care about titles unless they were championship titles. I don't care about who the man is on the team.

I made it real clear I wanted to play in Orlando. Part of it was Shaq. But I also just liked Orlando. It's not all glitzy and reminds me of Memphis.

I am used to the hype because I played in the NBA.

Injuries made people lose confidence in me, but I never lost confidence in myself.

I was an introvert.

It's just hard to watch isolation basketball.

I can scream and yell that I can still play, but unless I prove it, people will say, 'Yeah, Penny, whatever.'

I was into 'In Living Color,' 'Martin,' the 'Ace Ventura' movies. I love slapstick stuff, too: 'Naked Gun' and 'Caddyshack.'

People didn't want to accept that I was injured. I played on a bad knee, a really bad knee, for a long time. I actually put team before me and played when I was hurt, but people still would dog me.

There's the hardest thing - when you cannot be as athletic or perform at a level you really want to. Your mind is telling you, but your body is not allowing you.

People think I'm soft and bailed out on basketball. But it was five knee surgeries.

Talk about full circle, I never saw this coming. It wasn't like I said, 'Someday, I want to be the head coach at the University of Memphis.'

You wanted to compete against Michael Jordan, because they were the best. You wanted to beat them. Never once in my mind, I went, 'I would love to play with him.' I was always like, 'Man, we've got to beat them.'

I've coached grassroots for eight years, I coached middle school, and I coached high school.

I have two people that I mainly look up to: Magic Johnson is one of them. He just blew everything out of the water. He didn't make much money in basketball, but since basketball has been over, he's investing in the community and making a lot of money at the same time. The next one I look up to is Sean Combs, who has always been a hustler.