Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbaris an American retired professional basketball player who played 20 seasons in the National Basketball Associationfor the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers. During his career as a center, Abdul-Jabbar was a record six-time NBA Most Valuable Player, a record 19-time NBA All-Star, a 15-time All-NBA selection, and an 11-time NBA All-Defensive Team member. A member of six NBA championship teams as a player and two as an assistant coach, Abdul-Jabbar twice was voted NBA Finals MVP. In 1996,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth16 April 1947
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.
One man cannot make a team.
One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
You can't win unless you learn how to lose.
Even when there are adverse circumstances, I try to do my job. And I usually do.
Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath; that's the essence of yoga, too. So, I consciously began using yoga techniques in my practice and playing. I think yoga helped reduce the number and severity of injuries I suffered. As preventative medicine, it's unequaled.
The Lakers were able to maintain a certain level of talent and success, and so were the Celtics. It became part of people's sports lore.
Sports and entertainment are the only places where inner-city kids see themselves being able to succeed. Their intellectual development is something they don't relate to.
What we need are positive, realistic goals and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals.
Pride was his life force; for us it was a live nerve that he could teach us to brush. One stroke, a good practice, and we could tingle for days ... First, he found the pride in each of us, then he taught us how good it could feel. What he was ultimately after was for every one of us to learn to light our own fires and glow our brightest.
You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go... Don't ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.
I don't get a big charge out of being the leading scorer. The object of competing is winning. I just try to do what has to be done for us to win. That might be anything at the time - defense, rebounding, passing. I get great satisfaction out of being a team player.
Yoga is just good for you.
I allowed him far too much space in my own head, ... of these moves worked more than once.