“Guys like Larry Bird — he played so hard, he wants everybody else to play hard. That’s not unreasonable. Any coach would want that and demand that.”

I wanted to compete at the highest level again – and that’s the NBA.

I didn’t play against the toughest competition in high school, but one reason I was able to do well in college was that I mastered the fundamentals.

You never make any of the shots you never take. 87% of the ones you do take, you’ll miss too. I make 110% of my shots.

Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It’s being able to take it as well as dish it out. That’s the only way you’re going to get respect from the players.

Basketball was always a game to me. One of the greatest things in life for me was to be able to play what I loved dearly and get paid for it. So it was always a game to me and that’s how I perceived everything.

The best players will play. That’s the way it will always be.

I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-American.

Once you are labeled ‘the best’ you want to stay up there, and you can’t do it by loafing around.

I like being by myself.

When I was a player, I didn’t expect my teammates to play the way I did. I did expect them to work hard every day and get better. And I never learned anything by losing.

Maybe it’s God disguised as Michael Jordan.

I think it’s good for a fan base because as we all know the majority of the fans are white America. And if you just had a couple of white guys in there, you might get them a little excited.

If you tell a teammate you’re ready to play as tough as you’re able to, you’d better go out there and do it.

My opinion about basketball, the way I was taught, was when you step on the court, you play to win.

The best basketball announcer is one who allows you to close your eyes.

I think you have to work very hard and dedicate yourself and have the respect of your teammates before you’re about to go out and just try to take a game over by yourself.

What we’re thinking about is a peaceful planet. We’re not thinking about anything else.

To get really high is to forget yourself. And to forget yourself is to see everything else. And to see everything else is to become an understanding molecule in evolution, a conscious tool of the universe.

I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.

I understand aggressiveness in only one way: being prepared to hurt yourself, not someone else.

I’ve had enough of worrying about everybody else. Now I’m taking care of me.

I think that the revolution in music is over, and what’s left is a mop-up action. It’s a matter of the news getting out to everybody else.

A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.

Music is a universal language insofar as you don’t need to know anything else about a musician that you are playing with other than that they can play music.