Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Many people are born into their religion. For them it is mostly a matter of legacy and convenience. Their belief is based on faith, not just in the teachings of the religion but also in the acceptance of that religion from their family and culture. For the person who converts, it is a matter of fierce conviction and defiance. Our belief is based on a combination of faith and logic because we need a powerful reason to abandon the traditions of our families and community to embrace beliefs foreign to both. Conversion is a risky business because it can result in losing family, friends and community support.

Many of the people I write about were deliberately left out of the history books that we were forced to read in school. For me, that history was "written wrong" and needed to be corrected. My intention was to make them visible so they could be role models for others. To show how each, in his or her own way, dribbled gracefully around that obstacle in the narrow corridor.

You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go. Don__ ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body.

My grandfather and my uncle both died from colorectal cancer, my dad almost died from it and I have the gene for it.

I am highly offended by the total lack of acknowledgement of my contribution to Laker success.

What I have is P.H. positive chronic myeloid leukemia, which is an aberration in your white blood cells.

When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. That's a terrible burden.

In a typical history book, black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There's so much more to the story.

A lot of young players don't really know much about the history of the game and a lot of them are missing out on what the game is all about, especially the whole concept of sportsmanship and teamwork.

When I was 17, I worked in a mentoring program in Harlem designed to improve the community. That's when I first gained an appreciation of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when African-Americans rose to prominence in American culture. For the first time, they were taken seriously as artists, musicians, writers, athletes, and as political thinkers.

I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing.

Jackie Robinson, as an athlete and as someone who was trying to make a stand for equality, he was exemplary.

I would suggest that teachers show their students concrete examples of the negative effects of the actions that gangsta rappers glorify.

This is what I would have done if I had to have a real job: I would have been a history teacher.

Islam is about finding your own space.

Sports and entertainment are the only places where inner-city kids see themselves being able to succeed. Their intellectual development is something they don't relate to.

You can't win unless you learn how to lose.

I tell kids to pursue their basketball dreams, but I tell them to not let that be their only dream.