“I learned early on the value and the power of music to inspire and to drive me.”

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.

[Peter] Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” was my first go-to song in terms of getting into the zone and getting ready and then I quickly gravitated to rock and roll music in the mid-’60s with the Grateful Dead,

Bill Russell was my favorite player of all-time.

Mick Jagger is in better shape than far too many NBA players. It’s up in the air whether the same can be said of Keith Richards.

The NCAA is working night and day trying to get Jerry, but no one from the NCAA ever questioned me during my four years at UCLA!

Growing up, my parents were very, very strict. And then I went to UCLA with John Wooden, who was just off the charts.

Basketball, Sports, Winning, Average

I was a skinny, scrawny guy. I stuttered horrendously, couldn’t speak at all. I was a very shy, reserved player and a very shy, reserved person. I found a safe place in life in basketball.

Kazemi has to understand that nobody is going to tell him he has to go back to Iran if he misses a shot.

Never rank, rate, or compare coaches, children, concerts, or championships or congratulations. Just enjoy them all.

If you’re living for today, if you’re only dreaming about yesterday, it doesn’t work. You got to know that tomorrow is going to be better. Then you’re on your way.

I like a lot of other music and listen to a lot of other music, but one of the greatest things about the Grateful Dead is they played all the time.

I went to my first show [of the Grateful Dead], got right up front and never left. The incredible excitement, the family, the spirit, the hope, the happiness, all the different things I love and live for in life are there.

There are no guarantees in life. The simple twists of fate and the breaks of the game are the two maxims that define so much of the success and failure in life.

I might be the most injured athlete in the history of sports. I’ve had 31 operations. An endless string of stress fractures.

Health is the most critical thing in our life. With your health anything is possible, without it you can’t do anything.

The ultimate test of what a truth means is the conduct it dictates or inspires.

It would appear that, on the level of individual nations and of international relations, the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs.

The first thing that inspires any song is a chord progression. When I have one I really like, I get into the lyrics even more.

If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It’s a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.

J.J. Watt, he does on defense what Andrew Luck does on offense. He inspires those around him, he makes them better.

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.

The things I see every day inspire my sound and lyrics, like certain people and situations that stick out in my mind. There are also certain musicians I love whose music and styles inspire me.

What the history of aviation has brought in the 20th century should inspire us to be inventors and explorers ourselves in the new century.