“I’m a fan and a friend, I met them in 1974 when I first joined the NBA and my life has never been he same since. I became the basketball player I was because of the Grateful Dead.”

I believe in science and evolution. I’ve been to the Grand Canyon.

Life is about growth. People are not perfect when they’re 21 years old.

The joy, the optimism, the teamwork, the experimentation, the exploration, the curiosity. No band has inspired more artwork, no band has inspired more books. No band has ever inspired a more loyal following and I’m involved in all of that stuff.

That’s what I tried to share in this book, Back From The Dead, the ability to learn, to dream, to hope. In a world that is far too often selling fear and death, I’m selling hope and life and success and that’s why I chose to be part of the Grateful Dead.

In basketball, you can be the greatest individual player in the world and still lose every game, because a team will always beat an individual.

During the course of my life, Grateful Dead played all the time. There were constantly concerts you could go to.

Being a broadcaster encompasses the business of sport, which is my life today, and it encompasses the skills of being a history student, and the ability of being a performer.

No one missed more basketball in the history of NBA than I did. I played 14 seasons, on the roster for 14 years, and I missed more than nine-and-a-half full seasons.

Winning is about having the whole team on the same page.

There are four pillars to happiness, which is the ultimate goal in life-to be happy. Health is first, family is second, home is third. That safe place where you can go to and regroup, be in a safe place by yourself start over.

I love to play music. I’m terrible at it, but I love learning about it .

I lived to play basketball. Growing up as a kid, Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics were my favorite team. The way they played, the teamwork, the sacrifice, the commitment, the joy, the camaraderie, the relationship with the fans.

I’m a different person today than I was yesterday. I live for the moment and everything that happens in my life changes me.

Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Beatles, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Rolling Stones, Carlos Santana. So many of them are still around and still going strong. I go out to see them all the time.

When I think of Boris Diaw, I think of Beethoven in the age of the romantics

When I’m at a show, I’m yelling and cheering. I’m with those guys [the Grateful Dead].

That’s actually a massive step away from his original position, and he’s taking a lot of heat in his world just for being my friend, just for hanging around with me.

But such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend.

I’ve taken it from feminist friends, and I’ve taken it from lefty friends too. But that reassures me. If the right is attacking us and the left is attacking us, that’s exactly where we want to be.

Got just enough room to be a friend of yours. Oh I hope you got room to be a friend of mine.

One time there was a student at Punjab University in Lahore who came down with cancer and his friend came to me for help. I stood outside on the street in Lahore and asked the people in that city for help. Within four or five hours, I received more than 40 million rupees [more than US $670,000].

My car is my best friend. My office. My home. My location. I have a very intimate sense when I am in a car with someone next to me. We’re in the most comfortable seats because we’re not facing each other, but sitting side by side.

Dear friends, have you begun to sing the “new song? ” Loved ones are singing it in the heavenly home, and we may sing it here; and by and by we shall join them, gaze with them on the risen, glorified Lord

I think that the pageant world overall is pretty spectacular, it just makes you feel good about yourself and leaves you with great friends.