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Music Rhythms Are Mathematical Patterns. When You Hear A Song And Your Body Starts Moving With It, Your Body Is Doing Math. The Kids In Their Parents' Garage Practicing To Be A Band May Not Realize It, But They're Also Practicing Math.

-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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Music Rhythms Are Mathematical

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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Music Rhythms Are Mathematical Patterns. When You Hear A Song And Your Body Starts Moving With It, Your Body Is Doing Math. The Kids In Their Parents' Garage Practicing To Be A Band May Not Realize It, But They're Also Practicing Math.

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I Listen To Jazz Mainly. Mainstream Jazz.

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I Got All A's And Was Hated For It; I Spoke Correctly And Was Called A Punk.

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If Not Shown Appreciation, It Gets To You.

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Acknowledgement

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Music Rhythms Are Mathematical Patterns. When You Hear A Song And Your Body Starts Moving With It, Your Body Is Doing Math. The Kids In Their Parents' Garage Practicing To Be A Band May Not Realize It, But They're Also Practicing Math.

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Ignorance Is Not Something That Lends Itself To A Meaningful Discussion.

The Game Has Basically Not Changed Since I Ended My Career.

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A Lot Of Players Think The Game Is All About Individual Performances When It's Really All About A Team Game.

I Did A Book In 1996, An Overview Of Black History. In That Process I Became More Aware Of A Lot Of The Black Inventors Of The 19th Century.

When I Was A Kid, No One Would Believe Anything Positive That You Could Say About Black People. That's A Terrible Burden.

If I Hadn't Become A Professional Basketball Player, I Would Have Become A History Teacher. There's So Much To Learn From History.

I Was Especially Impressed With Pauley Pavilion [at Ucla Campus ]. The Floors Hadn't Been Laid Down Yet, When They Gave Me The Tour, Each New Room Got My Heart Thumping. They Even Had A Surgical Operating Room In Case An Athlete Was Severely Injured.

Some Stuff Can Be Fixed, Some Stuff Can’t Be. Deciding Which Is Which Is Part Of Maturing.

I Had A Moment Like That With Wilt (chamberlain). He Knocked Me Out Of Bounds, I Came Back And Faked Him, Came Across The Middle And Dunked On Him.

Alexander Hamilton Realized That Warfare Was Part And Parcel Of Human Nature, And It's Something We Had To Prepare For.

When I Traveled Through Greece In The '90s, Everything [albert Hoxie] Taught Me Came Flooding Back And I Was Able To Appreciate The Art And Culture Much More Because Of Him.

I Totally Alienated Some Reporters As I Retreated.

Each Story, Novel, Poem And Play Presents A Vision Of The World That Illuminates The Dark Cave Of Life We Stumble Through. We Can See Better Where We're Going, What Sudden Drop To Avoid, Where The Cool Water Is Running.

You Got Guys Now Declaring They're Ready To Play Pro Ball In Their Second Or Third Year Of High School. It's Crazy! They're Missing So Much.

I Have Always Thought That Writers Come With Any Variety Of Attributes. Some Are Capable And Some Aren't.

Great Players Are Willing To Give Up Their Own Personal Achievement For The Achievement Of The Group. It Enhances Everybody.

The '80s Made Up For All The Abuse I Took During The '70s. I Outlived All My Critics. By The Time I Retired, Everybody Saw Me As A Venerable Institution. Things Do Change.

Center Is A Very Tough Position To Play.

People Still Cheat On Their Wives, That Hasn't Fallen Out Of Fashion. We All Speak Of It Badly, But It Has Not Fallen Out Of Fashion.

Michael Jordan And Magic And Myself, All Learned How To Play The Game In College Programs That Emphasized The Team.

Pride Was His Life Force; For Us It Was A Live Nerve That He Could Teach Us To Brush. One Stroke, A Good Practice, And We Could Tingle For Days ... First, He Found The Pride In Each Of Us, Then He Taught Us How Good It Could Feel. What He Was Ultimately After Was For Every One Of Us To Learn To Light Our Own Fires And Glow Our Brightest.

We Don't Have Selfish Guys Here, Which Sometimes Leads To Problems.

I Expect More People From China And Asia To End Up In The Nba.

I Wanted To Play Baseball!

Elgin's Game Was An Incredible Performance, Also. I Don't Think There's Any Comparison. Elgin Did It Without Three-point Lines. His Game Was Attacking The Hoop And Hitting Jumpers Inside 20 Feet. Kobe's Range Is Unreal, And He Does It His Way.

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.

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.

The 3-point Shot Has Created A Situation In The Game Akin To 'lotto' Fever.

He Doesn't Necessarily Have To Learn The Sky Hook. He Just Has To Learn How To Be An Effective Post Player. I Think I Can Help Him Do That.

I Think Black Americans Expect Too Much From Individual Black Americans In Terms Of Changing The Status Quo.

During 1866 And 1922, Native Americans And Black Soldiers Often Intermingled In The American West, On The Frontier.

Native American

In January Of 1969, After A Meeting To Discuss The Leadership Of Ucla's New Afro-american Program, [alprentice "bunchy" Carter And John Huggins, Jr.] Were Murdered On Campus By A Rival Black Nationalist Group, The United Slaves Organization. This Shook Up All The Students, Black And White, And Made Us All Realize That What We Were Doing Wasn't Just An Academic Exercise, But Had Repercussions In The Real World.

Black And White

I Was Latching On To Something That Was Part Of My Heritage, Because Many Of The Slaves Who Were Brought Here Were Moslems.

I Don't Really Care Who's Doing Drugs In The Nba As Long As The Scene Isn't Adversely Affecting My Team And Teammates. I've Known Enough Drug Users-going As Far Back As Grade School And The Streets Of New York-not To View Them As Pariahs Or Lost Souls. I've Certainly Smoked More Than My Quota Of Weed.

When You're A Coach You've Got To Go Up The Ladder, You've Got To Be Ready To Travel. That's The Nature Of Coaching

Few Players Have Cast A Spell Across The Game Like Yao Ming, Before Or Since.

I Was Just Starting Out Acting [doing "airplane"] And Wanted To Be Taken As A Professional, Not As An Athlete Doing A Cameo.

I Read That Hollywood Wanted To Film Fences Years Ago With A White Director, But [august] Wilson Refused. He Thought That The Director Needed To Have Lived The Culture Of Black Americans.

Reporters Used To Ask Me The Same Inane Questions Year-in And Year-out, City-to-city, And It Would Drive Me Crazy.

My Most Memorable Moment Came In 1985 As We Beat The Boston Celtics.

Practices Were Tough.

The Sixties Was A Perfect Storm Of Disaffection With Political Leaders Trying To Pass Off The Same Old Platitudes To Maintain The Status Quo And An Unexpected Courageousness In The Masses Of Youth. Nothing On This Scale Had Ever Happened Before In U.s. History And It Hasn't Happened Since.

I Feel That Dennis Rodman Has Become A Problem. He Will Be More Of A Problem Than An Asset. Of Course, He Can Prove Me Wrong.

I Think I Did Very Well Against Everyone Who Tried To Defend Me.

I Needed To Go To Class; I Needed To Go To Practice; I Needed To Have A Life Away From Basketball.

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