For me to be here tonight, everything had to be perfect. I had to get drafted by Utah, had to play with a point guard like John Stockton, and had to be coached by Jerry Sloan and Frank Layden.
— Karl Malone
Did you really think I would sell you out?
You take the good with the bad and try not to listen to everything said about you because you know it's not good.
Forget the technique. Hit the guy across from you. Don't let somebody come in your space.
I spent a lot of time doing things other people wanted me to do, so I'm doing what I want to do now.
You work for whatever you get in life.
They changed the floor back to old school. They changed the uniform back to old school. Somebody tell the damn players to start playing like old school.
At some point in time I will be honored if I would be mentioned as a coach.
I can do something physically the other guy can't. I know the other guy has not dedicated himself the way I did.
I don't know what my label is. I just think of myself as a plain forward. I like to think I have some finesse to my game, but inside the paint is where men are made. If you can't play there, you should be home with your mama.
I hope I did it the way my peers did it before me. I didn't do anything but try to play hard.
If I could have come in for $10m, I would have done that. I've been pretty smart with my money. I'm playing because I want to play this game here - I want the opportunity.
You don't try to do more than you should.
I just think we want to stay healthy, and I don't think we think about a sense of urgency. We realize how old we are, we realize we've been playing this game for a long time, but you know what? We're not done yet.
I have many friends and family members who have served (or are currently serving) in our nation's Armed Forces. I have such a profound respect for what they do day in and day out.
I just work out hard enough that, if I'm craving something, I eat it and know I'm going to burn it off the next day with extra intensity.
Look at this, scabs and cuts all over me, I get these every night, every game. They can't tell you that you're not at risk, and you can't tell me there's one guy in the N.B.A. who hasn't thought about it.
Everything I've been through, everything I'm about to go through in my career and my life, if my family wasn't with me and didn't support me, it would be really tough.
To catch the ball, face up, look at all of my options and then pass. I was playing hot potato. I didn't want to be the guy to stall the triangle.
All records are not made to be broken.
I just want to make a name for myself and get to the next level.
Misery loves company. This is a Hollywood soap opera, and I'm not going to be a star in another Bryant soap opera.
You're a professional. You don't need for me to break a film down for you. If you want to stop the guy you're playing, they pay you millions of dollars. You get you a TV and break the player down yourself.
I realize that things happen for a reason.
I have my life on a track that I want it on, and I don't want to get off.
Somebody tell the damn players to start playing like old school.
It takes people a while to trust you.
I have such a profound respect for what they do day in and day out. This USO tour is especially meaningful because of the friends I have met and I am honored to be apart of it.
You have injuries that bother you when you're not playing. When that horn blows, you don't feel it.
But I think anybody who believes I could force coach Sloan to resign is crazy. He's stronger than that and personally if I said that to him, he'd probably go tell me to go do something.
If I got something to say or do to a man, I'm going to look that man in the eye and tell him what is going to happen. That's just me now.
I have to be working, doing things. That's the way I grew up and the way I was taught.
I never felt I had the kind of relationship with Magic that I could just pick up the phone and call him at home.
Marijuana is not tested for, and yet that is the big thing guys are getting in trouble with in the league. It's terrible.
When I said I retired from basketball playing, I have retired. You will not see me play again. That is a promise.
Even though I left for a year, I grew here as a Jazz man. If I'm fortunate enough to go into the Hall of Fame, I will go as a Jazz man.
I'll make the right decision, whichever one it is. I have to be 100 percent, not 95 or 99.
Sometimes, you follow your dreams. I say to the young people, 'If you have a dream, chase it.'
Some people might not like him because he's my son. But be respectful, go out there and enjoy the game.
I think we're a deeper team, a better team, we still have work to do... nothing is guaranteed, but hopefully we got the mentality to play on the road, and we're starting to get our home thing back in order now-if we can do that we'll be just fine.
