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I don't know nothing about the restaurant business, but I've been around a barber shop all my life. That's where I used to get my dates in high school.
I used to run the streets, my mom used to be crying all the time, coming to get me out of the police station all the time. Sports took me off the street.
My plan is to go back to Dallas and build my house. I want a spread 50, 60 or 70 acres. 'Cause Dallas is where everybody's at' that I can really relate to.
If I'm hurting the team with my play, then maybe I have to sit out a game. If I think I can be effective knowing what I can and can't do, I'll keep going at it.
When you first come to a team, no one wants to come down and take three or four shots in a row. You want to pass the ball around and get the feel of each other.
You'll hear guys talk all the time about coaches being a father figure. Well I'm 45 years old and I've never met my father. I consider Jerry Tarkanian my father.
In Vegas we thrived on being the hated team, on being the bad boys. That's definitely not my personality. If that helps my team, helps me play better, then so be it.
I was a bad person. I needed to change. I wasn't bringing anything into my life, but negative. I needed to bring some positive and to do that I've got to start within.
I've been in the frame of mind in Charlotte that, O.K., I'm going to play defense. But I've never been in a frame of mind that my defense is going to generate my offense.
I'm not going to take too much credit for what's happened in my life. When we're playing, the things I do are because of my teammates. So I'm not going to take too much credit.
JC was good for me. I had a coach who kept me into things and thinking positive. It was good basketball, but more than that it prepared me for the academic scene at a university.
The UNLV championship game against Duke, I didn't shoot the last shot. Choked. It took 10 years for me to say that. I had to be in the NBA five, six years for me to say that aloud.
It's hard to get guys going and get team morale up when you're over there sitting in a coat and tie. But when you suit up and you go out there and battle with the guys, it's easier.
You can be totally focused on the game and all of a sudden at the Garden, you'll snap and go, 'Whoa!' It's super loud and you can't help but take a second to admire what's going on.
When I was in Vegas, people asked, 'Did you ever regret not going to SMU?' What? I'm in Vegas. I'm on TV every Saturday. I'm winning titles. Did I regret it? That's a silly question.
When it comes to the younger generation, anything on the floor I'll criticize - not playing hard, not doing this, fighting, not giving your all. Off the floor, you guys are on your own.
Girl-wise, I never got the girl. Because of my mother and our economy, I never had clothes. And I never - like I said - dated. I didn't date at all. I was never a guy who had girlfriends.
I just play the game. Stats aren't a big issue with me. I've been around six or seven years, and I've had stats in this league. I've had individual accomplishments. To me, it's overrated.
But when a black player calls a white owner a slave master that's dangerous. It's one thing to say an owner is a good owner or a bad owner, but you have to be careful when you bring race into it.
I remember in Charlotte, they looked to me every day. I'm 30 now. And now it's, 'Let's just win.' Maybe when I was 26 there would have been ego. Now, I just appreciate the recognition for the defense.
I definitely don't look at myself as a 3-point shooter, but when we're playing three big guys, I find myself on the perimeter a lot, and they leave me alone. I've got to knock it down or do something with it.
For me to lose weight or maintain my weight is all about my diet, because I can come here and work two-and-a-half hours twice a day and if I get off my diet and eat like I normally eat, which is bad, I will gain weight.
We never played ball for money. We played because it was fun and I was good at it. But a lot of guys get paid big money to play this game, and I have a family I want to help out. But basketball will always be a game to me.
I want to play 11, 12 years right here and then retire - and win us some national championships, and be the Michael Jordan of Charlotte. This is the place that drafted me, that paid me. This is the place I should be loyal to.
If I have to score baskets then I have to try to score baskets and stop missing shots, but even if it's not going, I need to be able to have another phase of the game and not let my offense take away from my defense or rebounds.
I think we sometimes think, 'it is just preseason. These games are for the fans mostly.' It's for ourselves to get in shape and play against more competition. Let's face it, this is preseason, but you can develop bad habits during preseason.
I hope people understand that Jerry Tarkanian gave young black males a chance to better themselves and the lives of their families when no one else would. The way Coach talked to me, he spoke my language. I needed that type of voice in my life.
What I hate more than sitting out is being on the floor and not being 100 percent. You know you can make this move, or guard this guy better, but something is hampering you from doing it, and in the NBA. finals I hate that more than sitting out.
When you think about the Knicks, you associate Patrick Ewing with the Knicks, you associate Walt Frazier with the Knicks. If I do all the right things and perform up to my capabilities, I hope you associate Larry Johnson with the Knicks someday, too.
I picked it up just for relaxation. I can sit down and get into the game and escape that it's a big game tomorrow, escape that we need a win, or whatever. My wife knows, after a game I get home at 12:30, I'm playing chess till 3 o'clock in the morning.
When people talk to me, they want to know about Grandmama, they want to know about UNLV, and how was it playing with Muggsy. You don't have to be a basketball fan to be a Muggsy fan. The shortest guy to ever play in the league, I get that question all the time.
Yeah, we've made beautiful strides, but what percentage of black people has made that stride when I go back to my neighborhood and see the same thing? I'm the only one who came out of my neighborhood. All of them dead, on drugs, selling drugs. Am I supposed to be honored and happy just by my success?