I need a hobby, and I don't want it to be basketball. I want it to be music. So to get away from music, I do other music.
But the point of using the number was to show that sex was a great part of my life as basketball was a great part of my life. That's the reason why I was single.
I had a basketball net that my dad had put up outside. I went out there and dribbled all day long. I wanted to play basketball. Then I'd go baseball, and then I'd go to football. I remember playing football in a plowed field. I grew up going from one thing to the next wanting to play something.
I don't know how tall I am or how much I weigh. Because I don't want anybody to know my identity. I'm like a superhero. Call me Basketball Man.
Stephen A. Smith is the hardest-working man in sports show business. The ubiquitous basketball pundit appears on ESPN about 10 times a day as a regular on the show 'NBA Fastbreak,' a guest commentator on 'Sports Center,' and a pundit on 'ESPNEWS.'
I had never made any plans beyond basketball.
Seven years ago, my father and I realized that our relationship was extremely unique, especially in the African-American community. He raised me to not only understand the fundamentals of basketball and to try to be a player with a high basketball IQ, but he wanted me to understand that my image and my name meant more than stats.
I never knew what basketball was. I started playing on the playground. People used to laugh at me and joke at me because I was so tall and I didn't know the game and couldn't play it.
I think I was a good student, because I jumped over a school. My main interest was basically history and literature. Sports were basically basketball and swimming at a pool. I was so happy.
As much as I enjoy TV, I've always loved radio. And I love doing the NFL games, the Monday night games, on radio. Because you are the game. I really enjoyed calling basketball and hockey on the radio, but the presentation is more specific - you're talking all the time.
I originally was more into baseball and football, but being in Los Angeles, you just couldn't help but to fall in love with the game of basketball because they had such a winning tradition.
You know, God gave me a gift to do other things besides play the game of basketball.
That's what I do now: I lead and I teach. If we win basketball games from doing that, then that's great, but I lead and teach. Those are the two things I concentrate on.
I was a baseball player at North Central High School in Spokane, Washington even though I was all-city in basketball, even when I signed a letter of intent to play quarterback at Washington State.
Basketball players want contact to get a foul called. Slaps on the wrist and bumps on the shoulder are big time to them, and they don't like that. In football, you get that all the time. The whole mental makeup is different.
Basketball is basketball.
I'm much more starstruck by athletes than I am by actors, and I think I saw Kobe Bryant at a basketball party, and I just kind of froze. He's monstrous.
Trying to take money out of politics is like trying to take jumping out of basketball.
The cast gets along pretty well, it's a good work environment. I hang out a lot with Brett Claywell, he plays Tim Smith on the show. We play plenty of basketball.
I had no experience with broadcasting basketball games, so I took a tape recorder and went to a playground where there was a summer league, and I stood up in the top of the stands and I called the game.
I could maybe coach kids' basketball. I know enough about basketball where I feel like I could coach 12-year-olds pretty effectively.
I think it's a travesty that the NBA can't just tell these guys to play basketball two days in a row. It's just a joke to me. We flew commercial, and we were able to play back-to-back.
I think probably one of the coolest things was when I went to play basketball at Rucker Park in Harlem. First of all, who would think that Larry the Cable Guy would go to Harlem to play basketball? And I was received like a rock star. It was amazing! There were people everywhere. There were guys walking by yelling, 'Git 'r done!'
Now I love hoops. I'm a diehard UCLA fan, have been since my freshman year. But basketball is the '1812 Overture.' Pomp and circumstance, fireworks and cannons, lots and lots of fun, and in the end, still Tchaikovsky.
I love basketball.
My mother was a champion high-jumper. My three brothers are basketball players. We've all been very athletic.
I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place.
When I was drafted by the Colts, Indianapolis was a basketball and a car racing town, but it didn't take long for the Colts to convert the city and state of Indiana into football evangelists.
I think the greatest all-around athlete ever was Jim Brown. He played lacrosse, basketball and ran track at Syracuse. He played professional football for the Browns.
Basketball, in America, is like a culture. It is like a foreigner learning a new language. It is difficult to learn foreign languages and it will also be difficult for me to learn the culture for basketball here.
I was born to sell it as a kid. I think it's partially innate, and partly it's because my parents were always very clear: if I needed anything that wasn't a necessity, I was going to have to save my money and buy it myself. That meant not only did I have to buy basketball shoes, but I had to figure out how to pay for college as well.
There's a tipping point that happens with soccer in which you just kinda get it. I was drawn to it because the best soccer teams play similarly to my favorite basketball teams - like the eighties Lakers or eighties Celtics - teams that emphasized teamwork over individualism and relied on passing as their biggest ongoing edge.
Sitting behind the bench at games is the hardest thing I've ever had to go through because basketball is really most of my happiness. So when I can't go out there and exert energy and have fun and things like that, it kind of puts everything else into perspective.
In 2013, the 76ers hired Sam Hinkie as general manager and president of basketball operations.
Few would deny that blacks have become very dominant in athletics: football, basketball, track, now dominant in tennis and dominant in golf.
Handball, swimming, running, jumping, basketball, and boxing were as much a part of me as breathing.
