Quotes from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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

I am highly offended by the total lack of acknowledgement of my contribution to Laker success.

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.

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

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.

If not for the success that medicine has made, I might be part of a much different story right now.

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

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

The lines I'm referring to, Lewis, are that Triumph and Disaster are the same. They're both impostors because they are momentary. More important is becoming a man of convictions. Lasting joy comes from that.

In truth, all inventors only improve on what's come before them. They should be called innovators rather than inventors.

twenty percent of all the electricity in the U.S. comes from nuclear energy. That is thanks to Dr. Henry T. Sampson, who invented the gamma electric cell, which makes it possible to convert nuclear radiation into electricity.

Black Thomas Edison' because of all his inventions. In fact, Edison even tried to hire Woods. Alexander Graham Bell's company bought Woods's 'telegraphony' invention.

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. —Desmond Tutu2

I'm an unwavering supporter of labor unions and understand that they are currently in a death struggle with corporate overlords grinding workers' rights under their tasseled Gucci loafers.

Despite Coach's admonishment, some of us on the team smoked marijuana. I had been exposed to it back in New York and had occasionally indulged with my friends. At college, though, using it seemed hipper and more of a counterculture statement than just a way of getting high. Plus, it helped with my migraines, which were becoming more frequent.

neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen

Many of the people I write about were deliberately left out of the history books that we were forced to read in school. For me, that history was "written wrong" and needed to be corrected. My intention was to make them visible so they could be role models for others. To show how each, in his or her own way, dribbled gracefully around that obstacle in the narrow corridor.

The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.

The person who has some awareness of the past knows how to fashion a rudder and which direction land is.

Every step of the way throughout my life as an athlete and activist, I felt my father's large hand on my shoulder guiding me down a path of service and justice. When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him. -Bayard Rustin

Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible — even if you're choking on it — until you let the sun in. As long as we keep shining that light, we have a chance of cleaning it wherever it lands.

Racist police, no matter what their rank, have to be weeded from every department and not allowed to work in law enforcement again anywhere.

political backlash has resulted in Republican-controlled legislatures across the country passing laws to make voting more difficult for minority voters. Punishment for raising your voice is to silence that voice.

The good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.