“My name’s been on this check for a week now.”

The one thing that always bothered me when I played in the NBA was I really got irritated when they put a white guy on me.

I really don’t like talking about money. All I can say is that the Good Lord must have wanted me to have it.

You can make all the excuses you want, but if you’re not mentally tough and you’re not prepared to play every night, you’re not going to win.

Who in their right mind wouldn’t listen to what Larry Bird tells them? He knows what it takes to be a successful player, and he’s letting us do the things to have the success.

First master the fundamentals.

I always know what’s happening on the court. I see a situation occur, and I respond.

I wasn’t real quick, and I wasn’t real strong. Some guys will just take off and it’s like, whoa. So I beat them with my mind and my fundamentals.

Anytime you’ve got an opportunity to play for your country and win a gold medal,

But it is a black man’s game, and it will be forever.

When I go to the line I’m thinking ‘All net.’ When I don’t think that, I’m likely to miss.

I just shoot until I feel good.

Practice habits were crucial to my development in basketball.

Whether it’s a tie game or down by 1 or up by five, it was always the same shot. So I always felt comfortable with the ball in my hands because it was in there a million times before.

I don’t think that once you get to one level, you can relax. You’ve got to keep pushing.

I’m a firm believer in that you play the way you practice.

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

I’ve been around a while. I kinda know these things.

Any time three New Yorkers get into a cab without an argument, a bank has just been robbed.

If I was freer than I had ever been in my life, I was not yet entirely free, for I still hung on to an idea that had been set deep in me by all my schooling so far:

Anyway, I just haven’t been able to find any humanity in any Republican candidate ever in my entire life.

Of any place that I have ever been to, it speaks such high volumes about God and creation.

I’ve been so lucky to work with such great people: people that are such hard workers and have such a respect and appreciation for one another.

For years the league has thought I’ve been on drugs. I would have burned out a long time ago if that was true.

It has been women who have breathed gentleness and care into the hard progress of humankind.