But I like to think an athlete is an athlete.

It's like all guys want to do is make a dunk, grab their shirt and yell out and scream - they could be down 30 points but that's what they do. Okay, so you made a dunk. Get back down the floor on defense!

The Olympics were great, because you had to make the team, and then go to the games. Now, I don't know, these guys today don't want to do anything like that.

It's a sad commentary when I have to say that sometimes in our country we are real sensitive to race.

The thing about it is almost everyone could pass that way, but we were kept from doing it by our coaches.

I think that basketball players should get the job done no matter how it looks on the screen.

You look at today, it's a different situation. You have a game that has been transformed into a game where almost every shot is either an outside shot - a three-point shot - or a dunk.

But I think the image that's thrown out on television is a bad image. Because you see players who want to imitate hip-hop stars. And the NBA is taking advantage of the situation.

You've got to learn the footwork, the positioning, how to box out, how to pass, how to shoot your free throws. All these things are necessary, not to be the No. 1 player in the world, but maybe you can play against him.

This is where young players today want to land. They want to be NBA players because of the money.

I don't blame David Stern because a player gets on the court and he doesn't put out competitively. No one can make you play if you don't want to play.

I was taught to play that way when I was in high school and even before I got to high school.

Basketball is basketball.

You don't cut anywhere, don't pick down anywhere, don't double screen, no weak side picking. All these things that should happen in a game of basketball don't happen anymore.

I think that teaching coaches are the norm now.

Some players are more physical than others, some play with more finesse. Some are just really great all-around players. So you have to change your game.

We're all Americans trying to compete. Magic was competing for his team and Larry for his team.

You need a teaching coach who understands the game of basketball, not just some guy coming on the court talking about Xs and Os.

When you play guard, you're not going to block a lot of shots. Inside, you're going to block shots.

I don't think that players learn how to play any other aspect of the game in high school or college.

When you play against different people from all walks of life you can't do the same thing against every player defensively or offensively. You have to change up the way you go at a player.

When you go into a game on offense, you make a couple moves and see what the defender is going to do. Then you pretty much can figure out what he is going to do against you - whether he carries his hands low or high, whether he is bumping or pushing, those type of things.

I think that everyone should be able to dribble. Everyone should be able to pass. Otherwise, why are you out there?

But I like to think an athlete is an athlete.

I'd like to think that the nature of the two teams - Boston being a championship team over the years and the Lakers, same thing - was a lot bigger than Larry Bird or Magic Johnson.

You see what happens in college and high school games today - a three-point shot or a dunk. I think that's the reason that you see a lot of that in the pros today.

But if people are buying the products, naturally they're gonna use them.

They should have a rule: in order to be a sportswriter, you have to have played that sport, at some level; high school, college, junior college, somewhere. Or, you should have had to have been around the game for a long time.

Who do I think was the greatest? This might shock you: Elgin Baylor. He did so many great things. Nobody could guard him, playing in the forward spot. I'd love to see some of today's greats playing against Elgin. They couldn't guard him. Nobody could.

If you're a basketball player, you've got to shoot.

Now, I guess, people want stars. People are trying to invent stars.

Whatever solutions there are for flood control need to be bipartisan.

Fear is better than apathy because fear makes us do something.

I think you have to have a jazz pedigree to be on jazz radio.

Arrogance is the obstruction of wisdom.

The mistakes made by Congress wouldn't be so bad if the next Congress didn't keep trying to correct them.

A "modern" man has nothing to add to modernism, if only because he has nothing to oppose it with. The well-adapted drop off the dead limb of time like lice.

The contention that a standing army and navy is the best security of peace is about as logical as the claim that the most peaceful citizen is he who goes about heavily armed.

There is much boasting among the young men about their teams as their horse and carts in Cleveland. Most of the Yorkshire men take as much delight in their ox draught as they used to do in their Horse Draught.

I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.

Do you think that I or anybody else who cares about the NHS would stand by and do nothing if we thought the NHS was going to be privatised in Scotland and its funds were going to be cut? Would we stand back and do nothing without a fight? Of course not.

Domestic violence is the front line of the war against women.

Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.

I think it was the fact that I liked it so much that made the writing just come out of me automatically.

I'm finishing my Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance history.

I just thank God for all of the blessings.

Also a portion of my sales go directly to Greenpeace.

We're in Manila. Come on, gorilla; this is a thriller.

In the mornings, I use a good moisturiser and a colouring lip balm. In the evenings, though, I like to go a little glam.