Top 40 Charles Oakley Quotes

A shirt look good when you iron it but if you iron too much, it gonna get burned.

I guess I’m going to have to go Google myself and see why people think I shouldn’t be coaching.

I ask everybody, who’s the best between Magic and LeBron? Everyone says Michael’s greatest. But, OK, well, we’ll give him his props. But LeBron is a better athlete, and he can do more than Michael on the basketball court.

I’m like a toll booth. Sooner or later, you have to come to me.

Every team has a main guy.

I’m just a piece of the pie, a slice of the pound cake.

I love New York, gave my whole heart.

I just don’t like when you preach one thing and do something else.

Potential is like a summer crop. If it don’t rain, it don’t grow.

One guy can’t make a team better.

Every superstar in this league, if you don’t go through adversity, if you try to duck and dodge it, it’s gonna damper your team.

A gentleman pays his debt within a week or two.

David Stern is the mastermind behind a lot of stuff, he controls a lot of stuff, he dictates a lot of stuff so he’s going to make himself look good.

My thing was I had attitude every night. No matter who I played, who I went against, what team, you’ve got to have an attitude.

Most coaches are mostly small guards because they think guards have more knowledge.

Your offense might not be great every game, but defense is just about working hard and outworking your opponents.

I don’t have any specialties. Anything I cook, I just make it special.

People hate to go out to eat with me because they know I’m going to send it back. Like, I’m trying to order simple. But don’t blame me if you bring out the wrong stuff.

I’m in New York every two weeks. I don’t have to ring a bell when I come to the city. I just do what I’m supposed to do when I’m in the city. I don’t shy away.

You can’t say, ‘You’re a scorer, you score. You rebound, you rebound.’ Basketball is more than that. Basketball is knowing the next step, knowing the next play, knowing how to make things happen.

I’m not a troublemaker. People say, ‘You got into a lot of incidents.’ Yeah, but it was on the basketball floor.

You can’t throw a hook on the side of the road and expect to catch a fish in the grass.

I’m not the kind of guy you threaten.

Coming from the inner city of Cleveland and growing up you never expected a street to be named after you or anything. It’s a special honor.

I just want to let the fans know I don’t hate the Knicks. I love the Knicks.

In Chicago, they wanted Michael to do his thing and me to be just rebound. I’m more than a rebounder.

I’m a trendsetter. I’m a leader, not a follower.

I’m cool with whatever. I’ll just keep eating my bread, sipping my soup and serving my time. But the chicken is going to lay some more eggs one day.

I’m always willing to work stuff out, because I’m that type of guy.

You put in what you get out. If you don’t put time into your game, you’re not going to get better.

I’m not a high jumper, but you don’t see guys intimidating me or posting me up.

A lot of guys do the pretty things. Dunking, tattoos, earrings, sagging jeans. That’s the league now. They have athletic ability, but they don’t know the game.

It’s been so overwhelming, the people in New York. That’s why they call New York, New York – because they care about things and know real situations. My love for the fans, it’s mouth-dropping.

When you play 40 minutes a game, you’re going to average a lot of rebounds.

In the old days Michael Jordan and Larry Bird worked for everything they got. They worked hard on their game.

We had guys come out of high school, Moses Malone, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, but all these guys could play.

My thing is, when Barkley played basketball, he didn’t practice, he wasn’t a leader, he wasn’t this or that, he just had natural talent so he got chosen to the Dream Team, All Star team because he had the talent and he was the franchise player on the team.

I don’t play mind games.

When you walk out here with the Bobcats logo, stand for something. Not wearing your hat to the back, sagging jeans. Be a professional, that’s how I present myself to them.

I just tried to go out there and play with attitude, doing what I was supposed to do and knowing my role on the team. Doing what my team expected me to do every night, not just once a week. It was all about work and I was just a tough guy who would knock somebody down.