Alan Smith Quotes

I was an underdog my whole career, but I knew I had the ability to compete with those guys.

I had teachers who said I was not good enough. So, I said I will become good enough. So I became this guy who became obsessed to become good enough. Now I sit down and tell people who I was. Now, I say, 'Do you know who I am?'

I love it when people doubt me. It makes me work harder to prove them wrong.

If they need me to score 30, I can go do it. If they need me to just rebound and defend, I can do that. I can play this game, just in case people forgot. You just carry that chip on your shoulder, and you go out there and do what I was put on this Earth to do.

I've been an underdog my whole life with the shape that I have and the way that I look. But once I get in the ring it's a whole different ball game.

I had that laser focus, identified what I wanted when I was a kid, and never let anything get in my way. If you look on paper at who I am and what I sound like, and what I look like, you wouldn't say, 'Go into broadcasting.' It's just what I wanted to do - I knew that I could do it, and I never let anyone tell me that I couldn't.

When people keep telling you that you can't do a thing, you kind of like to try it.

I always want to think of myself as an underdog.

Going in, I knew I wasn't one of the top ones, because I didn't even make the pre-season All-American team. That shows you what people thought of me right there, so I knew I had to go to work.

I remember when I was in college, people told me I couldn't play in the NBA. There's always somebody saying you can't do it, and those people have to be ignored.

I was told millions of times that I was never going to achieve what I set out to, but I decided to do it, and I did it.

I feel like I have as good a shot as anybody out there and I have gotten close in the past, so why not have the attitude that I can come out and play great tennis and maybe even win this tournament.

I was always told that I was too small, too skinny, too slow, not tough enough, and I never ever believed what people told me.

When I started acting, I was told over and over again, 'You're no good.' But I said to myself, 'You've got to keep it up.'

One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.

I've always had to prove myself to people growing up. I had to show them that I could do this and I could do that and paying no mind to what the critics said.

I was not going to let people tell me what I'm capable of.

I've never let myself give up, because I believe in myself. I want to get stronger than I have ever been, and I will continue to tell myself that I can do it, no matter what the odds.

Believe in yourself, and don't let anyone stand in your way.

The teachers told me I wouldn't amount to anything because I was a bad kid. But I knew I could still hoop.

I like being the underdog. I like turning around and shutting people up when they tell me I can't.

I just think, as a people in general, we should always look at ourselves as the underdog, so we should always go harder than the next person.

I've experienced industry politics and... people telling me I'm never going to make it. I'll never listen. I'm doing me.

I think of things as competition when people say you can't do something.

To me, I'll always be the skinny, 5-foot-6 eighth-grader on the YMCA court, trying to get grown men to choose me for pickup games. It wasn't always easy. And that's what drives me.