When I won the Golden Gloves in 1960, that made me realize I had a chance. And when I won at the Olympics, that sealed it: I was the champ.

I still enjoy watching a batter successfully cross home plate, but nothing thrills me more than seeing the Holy Spirit at work in hearts as the Gospel is carried into stadiums, across the airwaves, and around the world.

Players now have a groin injury for months and months, and I often think they don’t really give a toss whether they’re playing or not because they’re getting paid anyway.

I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense.

My uncle played rugby, and my dad played football, and they used to argue which game was the roughest – and everybody agreed rugby was. It’s a great team sport, and to be successful, every person has to play in the same level.

ESPN is a great organization to work for.

Whoever the coach is, my job is to talk to him, understand him and be a better player under him and give my best.

I’m much more comfortable and confident running out on the field in front of 70,000 people instead of standing in front of a camera trying to say some lines. The people who do that as a profession are very talented because it’s certainly not easy.

In college, a loss is pretty devastating. That feeling kind of goes away in an 82-game season. You hate to lose, but you also have a lot more games to make up for it.

In England, when an athlete gets to the top, we do our best to destroy him.

Without sounding biased, 70 days of football is not enough. Even if Messi plays 70 days he cannot be in the national team. You need to play around the year to be in contention for the national team.

Every country when they have Olympics, a lot of people come out opposed.

Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can’t talk. The man can’t fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he’s gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons.

I was a Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan fan growing up.

If you watch me during the game, I celebrate when we press the ball and it goes out.

Every time I get in the McLaren I feel more comfortable, my confidence increases and I feel more at home with the team.

When I am playing baseball, I give it all that I have on the ball field. When the ball game is over, I certainly don’t take it home. My little girl who is sitting out there wouldn’t know the difference between a third strike and a foul ball. We don’t talk about baseball at home.

Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.

I had talked to a lot of people in Golden State’s front offices before the draft. They said they liked me, but they had a lot of guards, so I didn’t think that I would end up there.

I focus on one thing and one thing only – that’s trying to win as many championships as I can.

Today, Negroes play on every big league club and in every minor league. With millions of other Negroes in other walks of life, we are willing to stand up and be counted for what we believe in. In baseball or out, we are no longer willing to wait until Judgment Day for equality – we want it here on earth as well as in Heaven.

There is no substitute for victory.

I can’t say this enough – the food that you put into your bodies can actually help you get better grades. And it can also affect your performance in sports and other activities too. You see, when you give your body the best possible fuel, you have more energy, you’re stronger, you think more quickly.

One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.

The Premier League is one of the most difficult in the world. There’s five, six, or seven clubs that can be the champions. Only one can win, and all the others are disappointed and live in the middle of disaster.

As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you – but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals.

I have long understood that losing always comes with the territory when you wander into the gambling business, just as getting crippled for life is an acceptable risk in the linebacker business. They both are extremely violent sports, and pain is part of the bargain. Buy the ticket, take the ride.

Lot of players lose hope because of lack of motivation.

I was the one who took football off the back pages and put it on to page one.

I hope the fans have enjoyed listening as much as I’ve enjoyed doing the games. I don’t ever go to the park where I don’t have a good day. I don’t like losing. But I don’t think I ever go to the park where I have a bad day. I don’t think once.

If someone told me I could play two Asian Cup finals, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Without football, my life is worth nothing.

You cannot mix sports with politics.

That feeling is so intoxicating, walking off the court holding the Larry O’Brien trophy. So I just want to do that again.

The Paralympic Games is about transforming our perception of the world.

I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ‚em out, I pick the round.

Football is a game you cannot play without making mistakes.

There are two bowlers who I think are very tough to play against – Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

I don’t think there’s been anything in the game of football in my lifetime that has changed college football more than redshirting.

We’re not going to go 82-0 and blow everybody out. We are going to be challenged.

In 1962 I was named Minor League Player of the Year. It was my second season in the bigs.

Shooting the ball is a part of the game. Everybody can shoot in their own way. Not everybody can make. But everybody can shoot.

This guy Clubber Lang, I’ve been him all my life. He’s mean and hungry just like me.

You will never know the feeling of a driver when winning a race. The helmet hides feelings that cannot be understood.

In England, football is a big thing to talk about, but Liverpool, it’s a special place. You feel it when you make your first step.

I rate Fabien Barthez and played with two great keepers in Alex Stepney and Harry Gregg.

I do understand it’s not easy to run an I-league club. I have been part of many and I know the scene.

I have warned many times about the guaranteed dangers of betting with your heart instead of your head – big darkness, soon come – but every once in a while you get a fair chance to have it both ways, and the annual NCAA basketball Tournament is one of them.

People say that I’m a boxer. I actually started with kick boxing, and then I moved onto boxing, and then I moved onto grappling.

My superhero has always been Tendulkar, and it will be Tendulkar for life. He is someone who has inspired me immensely. Just watching him play for India, I used to dream of winning games for India, because he used to do it single handedly.

As an athlete, you’d better laugh at yourself when you slip in the mud.

In war there is no prize for runner-up.

Maybe the ones burning my jersey were never LeBron fans anyway.

Even if soccer is not number one in the United States, they do things very well here. There’s much our country can learn from the U.S.A., because we all know that soccer is not the main game in India. We can still do more things, like provide better facilities for the players so they can perform well.

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

I am very happy to be signing for the best team in the world and especially proud to be the first Portuguese player to join United.

That’s what you live for as a sportsman. You have to put up a fight.

You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.

I love watching track and field – the 4×100 relay, the 100-(meter) dash, the 200-(meter) dash. To see what they’re able to do, I love watching that.

Hopefully I won’t be the last big splash at Under Armour.

I really want a movie made on Sachin Tendulkar’s life. That is something I’m looking forward to. There will be so much emotion to that movie.