Top 120 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Featured in: Loss Quotes

2. “I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

3. “Good thoughts are no better than good dreams, unless they are executed.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Featured in: Being Strong Quotes

4. “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

5. “My biggest resource is my mind.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

6. “Your mind is what makes everything else work.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

7. “Islam is about finding your own space.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

8. “One man cannot make a team.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

9. “Justice should be blind especially color-blind and able to fairly deal with the very real need for honest law enforcement.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

10. “I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

11. “I’ve had enough success for two lifetimes, My success is talent put together with hard work and luck.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

12. “I try to do the right thing at the...”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

13. “I’m the baddest among the bad guys.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

14. “High school dropouts are forfeiting their opportunity to pursue the American Dream.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

15. “What we need are positive, realistic goals and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

16. “The word ‘leukemia’ is a very frightening word. In many instances, it’s a killer and it’s something that you have to deal with in a very serious and determined way if you’re going to beat it.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

17. “Yoga is somewhat hard to quantify in terms of benefits because you see them in all the injuries you don’t get.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

18. “With 300 million people in America, you can fail to impress 299 million of them and still go platinum.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

19. “I needed to go to class; I needed to go to practice; I needed to have a life away from basketball.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

20. “You won’t win until you learn how to lose. I don’t like to do it, to lose, but I can stand it. Along with everything else, you have to acquire the ability to accept defeat. No one makes it without stumbling.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

21. “In athletics there’s always been a willingness to cheat if it looks like you’re not cheating. I think that’s just a quirk of human nature.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

22. “Great players are willing to give up their own personal achievement for the achievement of the group. It enhances everybody.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

23. “There’s a ball. There’s a hoop. You put the ball through the hoop. That’s success.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

24. “If ISIS represents Islam, then the KKK represents Christianity.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

25. “A team will always appreciate a great individual if he’s willing to sacrifice for the group.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

26. “You play with your soul as well as your body.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

27. “All the courage and competitiveness of Jackie Robinson affects me to this day. If I patterned my life after anyone it was him, not because he was the first black baseball player in the majors but because he was a hero.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

28. “The game has basically not changed since I ended my career.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

29. “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.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

30. “I expect more people from China and Asia to end up in the NBA.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

31. “Your best athletes might give basketball a try just when they think, geez, this might be something that pays off for me in the end.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

32. “A lot of young players don’t really know much about the history of the game and a lot of them are missing out on what the game is all about, especially the whole concept of sportsmanship and teamwork.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

33. “OK, I’ll put it like this: I doubt if we will see another All-American basketball athlete who is a Rhodes Scholar.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

34. “In a typical history book, black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There’s so much more to the story.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

35. “When a rap song glorifies violence, death and sadness and loss is inflicted because of the violence.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

36. “Today’s youth are told to get rich or die trying and they really shouldn’t take that attitude forward with them.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

37. “I’m not going to emphasize the sky-hook as much as work with the specific skills of the guys.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

38. “You’re never really cancer-free and I should have known that.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

39. “I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

40. “I feel that there has been progress made since I was a boy on matters of race, but we have a long way to go.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

41. “I’ve always tried to stay out of the fray and not be an object of controversy.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

42. “I feel that Dennis Rodman has become a problem. He will be more of a problem than an asset. Of course, he can prove me wrong.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

43. “I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

44. “Elgin’s game was an incredible performance, also. I don’t think there’s any comparison. Elgin did it without three-point lines. His game was attacking the hoop and hitting jumpers inside 20 feet. Kobe’s range is unreal, and he does it his way.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

45. “There are rap groups that have a positive outlook in their art. These groups should be shown as an alternative to gangsta rap.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

46. “My most memorable moment came in 1985 as we beat the Boston Celtics.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

47. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that the 761st was Patton’s best tank unit and nobody knew about it.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

48. “The disconnect lasted too long. I think people got the idea I was sullen and couldn’t communicate, which wasn’t true.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

49. “The first time I shot the hook, I was in fourth grade, and I was about five feet eight inches tall. I put the ball up and felt totally at ease with the shot. I was completely confident it would go in. I’ve been shooting it ever since.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

50. “I enjoy seeing new places.”

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar