Top 60 Jermaine ONeal Quotes

The Detroit situation shocked the whole system. Obviously you don’t condone any type of fighting. But you’ve got to make the best decision for you and your family at the time, and you don’t have a lot of time to think out that process.

Some guys come in and they’re super-humble and they get some success and then they change, everything changes. They become too big for other people.

I had a fantastic time in Boston with the city, the fans were phenomenal, the organization was phenomenal, I just don’t know if the playing situation was right to be quite honest.

Look at the Seattle Seahawks. They talk it, they walk it and they play like wild animals. Sometimes you need that to win.

Some of these parents in the basketball world want to be paid for their kids and want to be given this and given that. That’s not what this is supposed to be. This is supposed to be about getting rewarded off of your hard work.

Kobe’s been criticized unfairly. He’s in a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ situation. If he passes too much, they say he’s not shooting. If he shoots, he’s called selfish.

Le Jaunty offers a lot of different looks, so you can create who you want to be.

When your team is not together, you can never win.

I just don’t want to be hurt.

I know how hard it is to win a championship in this league.

It’s hard to regret stuff. You make decisions and you go with it.

I’m saying in general, the bottom line is you play to win.

Anytime you have issues with your heart, that’s scary, but I’ve taken every test that you can take.

God don’t like ugly.

More than anything, you want to be considered a great father and a role model, especially for your kid.

I’ll go into Ruth’s Chris. They’ll have my room in the back and I’d go to pay the bill and somebody had paid the bill already. That happened multiple times. That’s the love people give you.

I’m continuing to figure it out every single year: Life is a challenge, and the ones that succeed in life are the tough-minded ones that are not willing to accept failure.

I love everything about Indiana.

If I had a bad game, people would point that out.

It’s important to know that there’s a reason why I won the federal case. It’s important to know there’s a reason why I got reinstated to play. I’ll just leave it at that, but the biggest thing is that my relationship with the Pacers has not wavered.

I love Danny Ainge.

The problem is that I’ve never been a player who complained or let people know how bad things were.

I didn’t meet my father until he was 30, and he died nine months after that.

Sometimes it takes a little bit longer than you want it to take, but it’s better to catch on late than never.

I respect people’s ability to come out and perform and take care of their family based on their bodies.

One thing about me, I think, over the years I’ve walked onto the court earlier than I was supposed to and it kind of lingered into something else.

Everything else I’ve been able to enjoy, but a Finals game is something that I desperately want to do I want to feel that environment.

Being a part of something great is what matters to me.

When we can reach out as coaches and give back to these kids and touch them with the knowledge and with the thought process to give them the opportunity to do something that they dream about doing, that’s what God put us here for.

I thought Portland had a really good chance. But after we didn’t win it, I knew my time was up there. But it wasn’t a totally bad situation for me there. It was a great situation coming out of high school.

I’m getting to the point, I’m in my 11th year, I don’t want to play 82 games and then exit to watch somebody else pop champagne I’m tired of that. I want to compete for a championship.

Whether it’s this year or next year, I don’t want to leave basketball limping out of basketball. At the end of the day, we’re all men and we all look at ourselves every morning and you have to ask yourself, Did I leave the way I wanted? Did I do everything I possibly could do to leave the way I want?’

Sometimes when you have a disconnect within your team, there’s no way you can win.

You see a lot of people in sports who need to be humbled first to become who they are.

I remember Kenny Anderson. He’s got these huge stacks of Fed Ex envelopes. They were super-packed and he’d open it up and it would be all checks. He was always signing his own checks. He would always call me Kid.’ He’d say, Kid, always remember to sign your own checks. Don’t allow anybody to sign your checks.’

Sometimes you can’t be a champion. That doesn’t determine who you are. But you can be a champion father, and that means everything.

I’ve always played with an edge.

The league is getting bigger; the names are getting bigger. The league is getting younger and I really think it has some legs to it.

Professional sports is a monster. It’s not even real life. It’s one of the few things in life, the economy goes bad, you still get your money.

People talk about the term ‘sacrificing your body’ and I’ve done that.

I really wanted to focus on my legs, and get the legs strong, get the quads strong so I can control the knee.

The Warriors have an old-school work ethic.

I’m a player that has sat, literally, on every side of the good, of the bad, of the ugly.

I’m very critical of myself.

I didn’t come back to Indiana just to compete. I want to win the finals.

I have so much love and respect for the Indiana Pacers, for the NBA, for fans, because they do support us in many ways.

You want to feel a part of something that makes you feel a part of it.

I played almost two years with a torn meniscus.

I’ve been down to the University of South Carolina, University of Maryland, Clemson, spent some time on different college campuses and I see that small-town family environment.

I love suits for formal engagements. But I also like to wear jeans and button-ups.

Holding up Shaq every damn day – it’s crazy, you do it four times a year, but doing it every day in practice is difficult.

The one thing I get asked about weekly when people see me who have never met me before is about the damn brawl and I’m tired of talking about it.

You make your decisions and you stand with them.

Part of me is always going to be competitive.

I made a ton of money in my career.

Even though I was still able to make some All-Star teams, mentally I was worn out. And once I wore out mentally, physically I started to wear down.

It’s very difficult for I think any player in any sport to want to play for a guy that doesn’t believe in their race or looks down upon their race, for whatever reason.

When people question your integrity, when people question who you are from afar, when they’ve never had a conversation with you, and don’t know the time and effort you’ve put into your communities, but then you’re kind of this thug, this out of control player, that makes no sense to me.

One part of being a leader on a basketball team is you have to be there for yourself and others.

We don’t need to block people down and get flagrants.