Teams that consistently perform at the highest levels are able to come together and be unified across the organization - staff, players, coaches, management, and ownership. When everyone is on the same page, trust develops, and teams can grow and succeed together.
— Jerry Reinsdorf
I thought I would spend the rest of my life being a good tax lawyer. The interesting thing about being a tax lawyer is, none of your clients are poor. I had clients come to me and say, 'Can you help us make investments?' That led to me getting into the real estate business.
Don't tell people you're smart; let them find out on their own.
When I got started, the Bulls weren't even that popular in Chicago. The Chicago Sting, the indoor soccer team, was outdrawing the Bulls. Now you can travel all over the world - Europe, Far East, Africa, wherever - and you see people with Bulls memorabilia or merchandise. It's incredible and the one thing I never could imagined accomplishing.
My liking for a team isn't based on just how good it was, but how good was it in relation to how good it should have been.
Perhaps the most satisfying thing occurred when Michael Jordan became a team owner and said to me, 'I owe you a lot of apologies. It's a lot harder to run a team than I thought.'
When I think about how I grew up sleeping on a cot in the hallway in a one-bedroom apartment in Flatbush, it's been a great life. I can't complain.
I coasted through high school. I was 203rd in a class of 987.
I know I could have a better public image if I were less open, if I ducked more issues and didn't speak out. But it's not my nature.
I was a Knicks fan until the day I bought the Bulls.
I just put people together. I just identified jobs that have to be filled. And then I have to go out and find the right people and make sure they talk to each other. So I'm the beneficiary of good things that other people do. I get credit for that. If they don't do a good job, I get the blame for it.
When I bought the team, I wasn't thinking about a new arena. But obviously I'm very proud of the contributions that the Bulls franchise has made to the community between Chicago Bulls Charities and the re-development of the West Side with the United Center being the catalyst.
We strongly believe that children should not be exposed to smokeless tobacco or see such products being used by their on-field sports heroes.
It's bad for baseball to have owners who can benefit another business by losing money in baseball.
If you're doing something wrong, you deserve to be caught.
If I hadn't been fair, I would never have made the $6 billion in real estate deals that I did. I mean, if you're not fair, people don't want to deal with you.
I love Mark Buehrle. He's just a fun guy.
Any other business, you want your competitors to go out of business. In sports, you just don't want them to have as good a record as you do.
The only real goal I had was, I wanted to own a car. Because my father, most of the time, he couldn't afford a car. Once in a while he would have a car, but it would be 10 or 15 years old, an old jalopy.
I've always believed certain things: You treat everybody nicely because, more than anything, it's the right thing to do. And then you also never know when someone will be in position to help you or hurt you. I know I've gotten help from a lot of people who said good things about me because I treated them well.
You get into sports with the idea that you want to win. If you aren't trying to win, what's the point in being involved?
I'm proud of the fact I was able to surround myself with great people who did great things, and it resulted in the Bulls being a global brand and winning championships and a factor in the community.
Players alone don't win championships. It takes an entire organization. Someone has to acquire the players. Someone has to coach them. Someone has to generate revenue to pay them. But at the end of the day, the players are the ones who put their minds and bodies on the line to win.
I've enjoyed being a baseball owner more because I've enjoyed owners being allowed to participate.
Everyone loved my father. He was so nice that people took advantage of him. We were lower middle class. I slept in the hallway on a cot that rolled away during the day, and my younger brother and sister slept in my parents' room. My goal as a kid was to someday have my own room and to own a car - and I wanted to be able to take care of my parents.
I do sincerely hope the Cubs win a World Series. After I die.
I don't think people realize how much I love basketball. A lot of people think because of this idiotic comment I made that I love baseball and don't like basketball. Baseball came first because if you grew up in Brooklyn in the 1940s, that was the No. 1 thing. But if you have more than one kid, you love them both.
A team is supported by the community, and a team must support its community.
I had been a basketball fan growing up, and I felt that if we brought in the proper coach, and we played basketball the old fashioned way - where defense is paramount and offense involved movement off the ball and movement of the ball - we could build a winning team, and Chicago would respond to that.
Baseball and its teams are proud of the sport's long-standing role as a change agent in American culture and society.
I haven't said anything bad about Fay Vincent publicly, and I won't. I like him personally.
My greatest moment as a jock occurred when I was 14 and playing punch ball in front of my house on Albemarle Road near East 17th Street in Brooklyn. I ran back, back for a ball, and it fell in my hands. I didn't even see it. Everyone congratulated me on the catch, and I never told them how it really happened.
Sometimes you pay a premium to get what you want.
Live every day like it's you're last because one day you'll be right.
The only thing about sports is making sure you don't read the papers too often.
I always felt if something bad happens, it can be your best opportunity. The times I was most depressed turned out to be the best things.
People say you make your own luck; I don't think that's the case, but maybe you contribute to your luck by recognizing it and taking advantage of it.
I thought that the Bulls were an undermanaged, under-operated team and that it could be a very successful franchise if run properly.
I have been blessed with a bunch of great kids, grandchildren, and daughters-in-law. It's been a great life. I know I am probably in the fourth quarter, but I am hoping for triple overtime.
A Bar Mitzvah is the time in his life when a Jewish boy realizes he has a better chance of owning a team than playing for one.
I have tremendous confidence in John Paxson.
I admire honesty more than any other trait.
There must be free and open interdepartmental discussion and consideration of everyone's ideas and opinions. These internal discussions must not be considered an invasion of turf, and must remain private... When everyone is on the same page, trust develops, and teams can grow and succeed together.
I'm a boring guy. I don't play golf. I read, but how many books can I read?
You get into sports with the idea that you want to win. If you aren't trying to win, what's the point in being involved? Once you do get involved, you realize the team draws so much from the community, and it would be nothing without the support of it. You've got to give back. It needs to be a two-way street.
They'd have to force me to take the All-Star Game. They take over the building, your season-ticket holders have to be in a lottery to see if they get tickets, and then they don't get a good ticket. Really, no good can come out of it, and all it can do is upset your fans.
I had a vision of how basketball should be played. And the vision was the Knicks teams that won the championship in 1970 and 1973. I wanted a team that emphasized defense. I wanted a team that on offense had a system where players moved off the ball, and the ball moved.
Baseball is a poorly run business.
I never heard of anyone saying they want to deploy their capital wisely and go buy a sports franchise. What you want to do is just not lose money. You see, I don't have to work anymore. I tell people I don't have a real job. On the other hand, I learned long ago that you can't go broke if you turn a profit.
The best thing for the fans is having a team with a chance to win. That's what everyone wants.
