Quotes About Basketball

I disagree that an athlete can't be intelligent. Some people think that, in basketball, we have a bunch of masculine adults who don't know how to control themselves. They're feeble-minded and can't engage or articulate ideas. That's a narrative they keep trying to paint.

I made a lot of big threes throughout my career, but it was the 3-point shot that allowed me to maneuver inside the paint, post-up, mid-range game and so forth.

I think mid-range shooters are hard to get to a lot of times. Guys are going at you all the way to the paint or looking to swat it at the 3-point line.

Being a big guy, I've got to shore up the paint a lot more. It's my job.

I always pride myself on being an inside and outside player and pride myself on what I can do inside the paint.

I was always trying to get in the paint and get the easiest shots I can.

You don't have to get all the way into the paint to still draw attention or get contact.

When I'm in the game, in the paint, I try to use my height and help the team.

Getting into the paint is easy. Seeing if the help comes is easy - they either come or they don't. The hard part for me is seeing early where it's coming from and when - and if I can still finish, or if I should pass it off. Deciphering all that without overcomplicating it has been a challenge.

You know the secret to dunking a ball? Big hands. You've got to be able to palm it, and I couldn't.

Growing up in L.A., every kid wants to play for the Lakers. As a kid I went to their championship parades, bought a Kobe jersey - I went to the gym and made everybody call me Kobe - loved Shaq, loved the three-peat.

It's a parent's dream come true to watch your sons play at the highest level of college basketball.

I always loved playing basketball. That was never a problem for me. You want to go to the park or the gym, I'll play with you all day, but working out, I didn't love. I hated it.

Basketball is basketball. I don't think people realize that. No matter what city, overseas, D-league, park league - I just want to play.

I've played more park games than NBA games, and I had a 10-year NBA career.

I've played at Rucker Park a couple of times. It's cold blooded. It's hype in there, real hype.

First time we played together was when I was in seventh grade, he was in eighth. There was a lot of buzz in the city about Jabari Parker, rightfully so. He's obviously a major player. I was just blessed to have him one year ahead of me, so everything I did, he already finished. I've been really blessed to have him by my side.

My first love was basketball, but that wasn't gonna launch me, and I knew I had to get into other things. So me and my friends, we started making mix CDs and going down to South Beach or to the parking lot at Pitbull concerts to spend all night hustling.

I've always been a part-time model since I graduated from high school. I was hired by one of the major agencies, Wilhelmina in New York, so I modeled there and played basketball during the school season.

I'm much more starstruck by athletes than I am by actors, and I think I saw Kobe Bryant at a basketball party, and I just kind of froze. He's monstrous.

I learned how to pass when I was real young. That's one thing I always knew how to do was find the open man.

If a director brings a guy to their movie who does improv, they've got to let him do what he does - otherwise it's like bringing Michael Jordan to your basketball team and telling him to just pass the ball and don't shoot.

Basketball players want to be comfortable, they want to be lackadaisical, they want to make the right passes and take the right shots.

It's night by night, just figuring out watching film on different passes I can make, and the ball will find you and it comes back to you, but it opens up the floor for other guys too.