Quotes About Basketball

It's always been a passion of mine to come out and share some of my knowledge about basketball and the experiences I've had with the younger generation.

I'm the youngest of eight kids in my family. All tall, we all played basketball, so at my earliest memory, I was bouncing a ball in the backyard.

You walk into the playgrounds in Shanghai and Beijing, and you see youngsters who are shorter, shaking and baking and having attitude. And Jeremy Lin is going to inspire all of them.

In basketball, the legs are the most important part of your body. A lot of people think it's the upper body because you shoot with your arms, but your legs are always carrying you, so if you don't lift leg weights, your muscles will be easily fatigued.

When you have the chance to go against a brother of yours on the court, you're always looking at each other like, If you score, we're looking at each other. If I score, I'm looking at him.

By delivering a wide array of programming to YouTube, the NBA will be able to connect with its existing worldwide fan base and reach a vast new audience that is passionate about basketball.

Once I got 13 or 14 years old, I started watching a lot of videos on YouTube and NBA.com and I started following the NBA ball.

I hope that basketball gains momentum and kids understand that you can actually make a living from it. Not just the N.B.A. You can get a scholarship, a free degree - like, no student loan you have to pay off. That's huge in life. Once they realize that in New Zealand, I hope they get inspired.

When I'm on the court, I feel at peace, really. It feels like my home. I'm always thinking of something creative to do, like trick shots or something like that. It's just something about the basketball court that touches me; it makes me feel like nothing is wrong on the court.

A friend told me about a Nike competition, where they give you one minute to do tricks with a basketball. I wasn't going to go, but they were giving away free sneakers. I ended up coming in second place.

In the summer of 1963, my second with 'Sports Illustrated,' Jerry Tax, the basketball editor, got the Celtics' Frank Ramsey, the NBA's first famous sixth man, to do a piece for the magazine revealing some of the devious little tricks of his trade. Things like surreptitiously holding an opponent's shorts - nickel-and-dime stuff.

For me, it's just finding ways to create shots. I feel like if I got a shot off, it has a good chance of going in. So it's finding ways of creating different shots. Being smart. I watch film a lot, and different tricks that I can do to get my shot off the ball and creating ways to get shots off of pick-and-rolls or one-on-one situations like that.

My favorite player growing up was Julius Erving, because I loved the way he played above the rim, all of the tricks with the ball, big hands, and just phenomenal showmanship.

Yugoslavia was a kind of superpower. Great movies. Beautiful novels. Great rock-and-roll. We became a superpower in basketball. The problem is that people needed to identify more strongly with it after Tito and his awful, tricky way of leading the country.

I usually just speak in English when I'm on the basketball court. For some reason, my mind never even tried to cross any other language when I'm playing basketball.

Coach K tried to implement a style where we passing, moving the ball, the open guy gets the open shot, running in transition.

I've always appreciated basketball. I never tried to disrespect the game.

Of course my goal at Duke was to win the national championship, but we were shorthanded, and lost one of our big guys that was very important to the team. By the end of the season we only played about six guys. But we tried our hardest and did our best and overall had a successful season.

I pride myself by being a player that plays in the flow of the game, and tries to get the offense created through other teammates.

If I get a chance, high pick and roll more. I want some triple doubles. I've got to get my handle right so I can pass and get it to guys where they can make shots.

No matter whether you're hurting or it's just a precaution, you gotta eat right, make sure that you're protecting your body because 82 games and all those road trips - it's going to be a lot.

I remember dreaming about playing professional basketball as a kid in the gyms of Tbilisi, and now, after a journey across continents that began when I was a teenager, I am coming home with the championship trophy.

I'm not a troublemaker. People say, 'You got into a lot of incidents.' Yeah, but it was on the basketball floor.

I mean, this is basketball, you have a lot of different teammates and you move around a lot, to find true friends is something special.