Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Quotes

I didn't do any football stuff when I was a kid... Mostly baseball and basketball the whole time. That's all I did. I played football starting in seventh grade. As I got older, I started playing a little bit more. Then in high school, I really fell in love with it.

I didn't play JV because I went straight to varsity and started as a 10th grader - that was back in the day when you could not play varsity as a ninth grader. I went right from playing junior high football to varsity.

So, growing up myself, I played flag all the way up until seventh grade. So, we didn't tackle until I was 12, 13 years old or whatever it was.

HIL has provided a wonderful platform for Indian youngster to showcase their skills, gain experience of playing top players, and can be serve as a good supply line for the national team.

I was wrestling all the way to high school, but it kind of came in the same season as basketball, so I had to pick and choose one, and I decided to go all the way with basketball.

Earlier, professional wrestling happened only abroad, but now the youngsters are getting a good platform here in India as well.

I ran track. I ran cross country. But I did not play organized basketball in high school, at least on our team. But I played a lot of sports.

We're doing a lot of work in schools getting girls to play football, breaking down any taboos there might be, and we're seeing them get interested and bring their families along, where they have such a good match day experience that they're coming back.

Back in 2011, I was kind of shy. I wasn't as good because that was the year, also, when I started playing basketball.

Since I was 15 or 16 years old, my grandfather was my high school football coach and my life's been ball. Dinners we're talking about ball and college we're talking about ball.

My dad used to do it when we were little, and I tried it when we played around in the back yard. Eventually, I got a bat and a real ball and played around to see if I could hit left-handed.

I started to play at four years old. I went to Corinthians at nine years old. Then, it started to become more serious.

I played varsity in high school as a 9th grader. I came off the bench during the first game of the season and had 25 points. Well, I became a starter after that and in the second game I scored 53 points.

You don't want an 18-year-old girl who's very talented thinking: 'I want to play for the first team but I've got to give up my education to do so.' That has happened a lot in the past.

There was definitely no time in grades 11 and 12 to do any other sports. That was one downside; I really enjoyed playing other sports.

From a small age, we used to play a lot of school cricket: 30-35 games in a year in school cricket, then Under-16 games.

I turned six in 1977. Youth athletics then was nothing like this, and I wondered how things changed so much. I started looking at our societal emphasis on sports, using the most tangible metric by which we measure emphasis: money.

I went to a lot of college camps when I was younger... You just admire those players because they're at a higher level than you at that time.

I was a million miles from being a Premier League player. You see some people, at 18 they are ready. At 21, I wasn't. Physically nowhere near.

When I started playing ball as a junior, I'm kind of glad that I was never good enough to be highly recruited.

When I first got to college, in my mind, I was going to end up playing professional football. When I tell people this story, they always end up laughing, and I chuckle about it at my own expense. I was a big fan of American football; I played in high school, and I ended up earning the opportunity to play in college.

Ever since I was a young kid, I've been playing for an academy with scouts all over the world that are looking for top players to come in.

I've practically grown up with FC Bayern Munich since the age of 11. In my case, a talent scout noticed me when I was playing for a local youth team at Gern in Munich.

Everyone in Norman knew our block. There were five kids in our neighborhood who started at QB in high school. We had Division-I athletes from a number of sports available to play at any moment.

I think burnout is a big thing. If I could do it over again, I'd probably do it the same way, playing other sports when I'm younger. I see a lot of parents really push their younger kids really hard, and you want to see your kids do stuff, but there's a point where they really should have fun at that age.