I'm not a role model... Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids.

I don't think of myself as giving interviews. I just have conversations. That gets me in trouble.

My family got all over me because they said Bush is only for the rich people. Then I reminded them, 'Hey, I'm rich'.

I don't care what people think. people are stupid.

I think that the team that wins game five will win the series. Unless we lose game five.

The only difference between a good shot and a bad shot is if it goes in or not.

If I weren't earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.

The main thing to do is relax and let your talent do the work.

We don't need refs, but I guess white guys need something to do.

Sometimes that light at the end of the tunnel is a train.

Poor people cannot rely on the government to come to help you in times of need. You have to get your education. Then nobody can control your destiny.

Kids are great. That's one of the best things about our business, all the kids you get to meet. It's a shame they have to grow up to be regular people and come to the games and call you names.

This place? Nothing positive. OK, I want to say something positive. It's positively a dump.

Somebody hits me, I'm going to hit him back. Even if it does look like he hasn't eaten in a while.

If somebody hits you with an object you should beat the hell out of them.

You know it's going to hell when the best rapper out there is white and the best golfer is black.

My initial response was to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized that I had no character.

I'm no role model.

I don't know what that gas is made of, but it can't smell any worse than Ernie Johnson 's gym bag.

I know that I'm never as good or bad as any single performance. I've never believed my critics or my worshippers, and I've always been able to leave the game at the arena.

I'm not a role model... Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids.

These are my new shoes. They're good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only make you have shoes like me. That's it.

I love New York City; I've got a gun.

I know I'm never as good or bad as one single performance. I've never believed in my critics or my worshippers, and I've always been able to leave the game at the arena.

Any professional league that goes on strike right now - that's just suicide.

But when I see a story on welfare on television, they only show black people.

I never would say a player stinks. Ever. I'll tell you their team stinks, and first of all, they know their team stinks. And the fans know their team stinks.

I think anybody who is racist is an idiot whether they are black or white.

I'm not paid to be a role model, parents should be role models.

It ain't like we're curing cancer or anything, we're watching basketball.

Just because you say something doesn't make it controversial, and it doesn't make you a bad person.

One thing about being famous is the people around you, you pay all their bills so they very rarely disagree with you because they want you to pick up the check.

If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful!

If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful.

If you are afraid of failure you don't deserve to be successful.

If you are afraid of failure you don't deserve to be successful!

They run like deer jump like deer and think like deer.

The older I get, the faster I was.

Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.

I've done a lot of basketball drills, not a whole lot of competitive stuff. I have basically been in the gym everyday working on my game, working on the time off that I've had from the game, just getting myself prepared mentally and physically for the season.

Basketball is in my blood. It is my obligation to try.

As I've said, basketball has been, I think, a real cooperative venture. There have been a lot of people that have been involved in it: coaches, administrators - not recently - fans and nobody, nobody any more so than students over the years.

It's very warm there, so we were outdoors all the time. The local people had programs for us year-round, where as kids we had the opportunity to play football, basketball, baseball, track and field - we just went from one sport to the next, year-round.

A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play.

I've tried to handle winning well, so that maybe we'll win again, but I've also tried to handle failure well. If those serve as good examples for teachers and kids, then I hope that would be a contribution I have made to sport. Not just basketball, but to sport.

My father was a soccer player. All my friends played basketball though, so I stuck with basketball.

Someday I might have to put down a basketball and have a regular 9-to-5 like everybody else.

I think we have our sports within our own culture that are huge with baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Those are the sports in America that we grow up with and soccer isn't really there yet.

If all I'm remembered for is being a good basketball player, then I've done a bad job with the rest of my life.