It was the Michael Jordan/Nike phenomenon that really let people see that athletes were OK, and black athletes were OK. Defying a previous wisdom - not only that black athletes wouldn't sell in white America, but that the NBA as a predominantly black sport could not sell in white America.
When I travel around the globe, I try as hard as I can to represent the NBA and the game of basketball to the best of my abilities. I get to go around the world and not only share the game but also my philanthropic work. Building a hospital in the Congo is one of the proudest achievements of my life.
I feel like when it comes to rap - like, real rap music - and knowing the pioneers of rap, I feel like there's no competition for me in the NBA. Other guys can rap, but they're not as invested or as deep into actual music as I am and always have been. I think that might be what the difference is. I'm more wanting to be an artist.
I did 21 years of hard labor in the NBA, invested my money right, so I'm set. I earned the right to relax and enjoy, you know?
The last game I played in college was in the NIT against St. Mary's. That was the first time I had come to the Oakland area. So, the last game I played in college and the first game of my NBA career were out here in the Bay Area. It's pretty cool.
I played college basketball in West Virginia for two years, and then I graduated from NYU with a sports management degree because I realized the NBA's not going to happen.
I'm actually a fan of all of the EA Sports titles like 'Tiger Woods,' 'Madden,' and I'm really looking forward to buying 'NBA Street V3.'
In the NBA, you're taking a bunch of different talents, and you're managing them. You have to give them a system; you have to give them a belief. That's why coaches like Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich are so great: because they gave the team confidence in the system and in their ability to execute night in and night out.
I'm a classically trained painter, and I was an illustrator in New York working with Fortune 500s companies as well as the NBA and the Olympics. I first got into sculpting when I created a sculpture based on a painting I had done for the 1984 Olympics.
If you want to make films, you'll watch Kurosawa. If you want to play a violin, you listen to Seghetti. Same with somebody who has the ambition to play in the NBA. I watch a basketball game; I enjoy it. Somebody who really wants to learn to play is studying whatever is most magnificent that's going on out there.
In the summer of 1963, my second with 'Sports Illustrated,' Jerry Tax, the basketball editor, got the Celtics' Frank Ramsey, the NBA's first famous sixth man, to do a piece for the magazine revealing some of the devious little tricks of his trade. Things like surreptitiously holding an opponent's shorts - nickel-and-dime stuff.
I met wonderful people playing in the NBA. Whether it is the officials, the scorekeepers, all the people who work for the NBA, not just for the Lakers, but I'm talking about just for the league itself.
We used to play 'Double Dribble' on Nintendo. Later, in high school, it was more 'NBA Live' and 'John Madden Football.'
We really have some of the best fans in the NBA, in sports in general. Here, you get a consistent base, people support. People love the Spurs, and that's special. That's not everywhere.
I don't come from any type of entertainment. I come from a basketball family. My dad still says, 'Trevor, are you sure don't want to play basketball? You can play in college and go to the NBA!' But I did play.
I want to thank the NBA and U.S.A. Basketball. Words can't describe my feeling. I was a small town kid from Hamburg, Arkansas, and you provided me a platform to live out my passion, the game of basketball, on the world's grandest stage.
I spent 50 years in the NBA. Can you imagine doing something that you love the most in the entire world and doing it for your entire life and, besides that, getting a pile of money for it? It's unbelievable. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. And I know it.
You look at the NBA: there's all these young kids that are drafted on potential. They go to bad teams, they're in bad locker rooms, and now we got this analytics stuff that doesn't teach kids how to play. We've got these workout coaches that don't teach kids how to play basketball.
It was a blessing just to play one NBA basketball game.
I am always amazed at how many guys in the NBA have never met an owner much less ever been to an owner's house. We bought the team so that we would be able to be a positive force, so that they in turn would be a positive force to young people everywhere.
An NBA game in L.A., the Lakers - I'm a Clipper fan - it's to be seen as much as seeing the game.
Several NBA teams got their best gates every season when they scheduled a doubleheader and booked the Globetrotters and their stooges for the opening game.
I remember I'd be sleeping in the airport at 5 o'clock in the morning, traveling three hours, and playing a game that day. We never even chartered until my third year in the NBA.
The swimming community is really small, but why can't it be as big as the NBA or the NFL?
My good friend Yao Ming was the first big player in the NBA to come from China. He gave himself to the game and was successful. That inspired the NBA to invest more and do more for the game of basketball. We're building academies not just in China, but in India, Africa, Europe and South America as well.
Coming in, I had no idea basketball would be a career for me, but I grew 7 inches in college and was fortunate to have a great career in the NBA. The experience taught me about service, what our great country was built on, the sacrifices people have made, how to work together and trust the people around you to accomplish a great goal.
The Commissioner was correct to ban Mr. Sterling from all official NBA business, to levy the stiffest allowable fine, and we will support his recommendation to press for Mr. Sterling to relinquish his ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers franchise.
I want the kids to know that it's not a myth that somebody from their city plays and wins in the NBA. I just want to influence them to work hard and do whatever they want to do in life, whether it's to be a basketball player or scientist... if they believe in themselves, they can do anything.
When you're bad in the NBA, you're in the lottery. When you're great in college, you get multiple lottery picks.
I don't fit into the mold of the NBA man, and I think I've been punished financially for it.
I always dreamed of playing the NBA, but along the way, the road got a little cloudy.
In college, everything's structured. In the NBA, it's like, you have a lot of free time, and you have to use it wisely. A lot of the time, you're in a hotel room all day. And rest is really the most important thing. Then, just trying to enjoy yourself and have fun.
I want to do the best I can in the NBA. After three or four years, I want people to know who Scottie Pippen is.
Playing in the NBA has been a dream of mine for a long time, so to finally get to do that is amazing.
I've really gotten into fashion, and ever since I got into the NBA, I feel like players are walking billboards.
I went through ups and downs as a young player dealing with criticism and things of that nature. To finally win that first NBA championship, it was definitely a relief of a lot of pressure and frustration we dealt with as a team. It was great to bring a championship to the city of Chicago.