2. “If you do the work, you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.”

3. “I’ve never been afraid to fail.”

4. “To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.”

5. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed.”

6. “I want to play for years.”

7. “I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it.”

8. “I can accept failure but I can’t accept not trying.”

9. “When I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it’s time for me to move away from the game.”

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10. “All I knew is that I never wanted to be average.”

11. “Be true to the game, because the game will be true to you. If you try to shortcut the game, then the game will shortcut you. If you put forth the effort, good things will be bestowed upon you. That’s truly about the game, and in some ways that’s about life too.”

12. “Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.”

13. “Even when I’m old and grey, I won’t be able to play it, but I’ll still love the game.”

14. “My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.”

15. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”

16. “I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win.”

17. “To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.”

18. “I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era.”

19. “I want to be perceived as a guy who played his best in all facets, not just scoring. A guy who loved challenges.”

20. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”

21. “I’m not out there sweating for three hours every day just to find out what it feels like to sweat.”

22. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”

23. “I want to wake up every day and do whatever comes in my mind, and not feel pressure or obligations to do anything else in my life.”

24. “If you quit once it becomes a habit. Never quit.”

25. “The more you sweat in practice the less you bleed in battle.”

26. “I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.”

27. “Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”

28. “The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I’ve always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It’s been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It’s a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game.”

29. “Practice like you’ve never won. Play like you’ve never lost.”

30. “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

31. “I play because I love the game. I work hard because I love winning.”

32. “Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.”

33. “You have competition every day because you set such high standards for yourself that you have to go out every day and live up to that.”

34. “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”

35. “I never thought a role model should be negative.”

36. “If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.”

37. “Sometimes you need to get hit in the head to realize that you’re in a fight.”

38. “I will not quit this game because of what the media has done to me.”

39. “I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot… when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result.”

40. “There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don’t believe there is only one greatest player either.”

41. “My heroes are and were my parents. I can’t see having anyone else as my heroes.”

42. “I built my talents on the shoulders of someone else’s talent.”

43. “When I was young, I had to learn the fundamentals of basketball. You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you still have to know the fundamentals.”

44. “Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.”

45. “I want to be the bridge to the next generation.”

46. “The game has its ups and downs, but you can never lose focus of your individual goals and you can’t let yourself be beat because of lack of effort.”

47. “I hope the millions of people I’ve touched have the optimism and desire to share their goals and hard work and persevere with a positive attitude.”

48. “Live the moment for the moment.”

49. “Enjoy every minute of life. Never second-guess life.”

50. “Heart is what separates the good from the great.”

51. “My father used to say that it’s never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said you never know what you can accomplish until you try.”

52. “I know the signs of scaredness.”

53. “I would tell players to and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you’ve lost your focus.”