Julius Erving

If you don't do what's best for your body, you're the one who comes up on the short end.

One of the most predictable things in life is there will be change. You are better off if you can have a say in the change. But you are ignorant or naive if you don't think there will be change, whether you want it to or not.

When I get a chance to power jump off both legs, I can lean, twist, change directions and decide whether to dunk the ball or pass it to an open man. In other words, I may be committed to the air, but I still have some control over it.

I demand more of myself than anyone else could ever expect.

When I played, the owners had the power. The prisoners are running the prison now, not the warden. The warden is strong and he has say so but, the balance of power is definitely with the players.

Right up until the time I retired at age 37, I felt like there were still things that I could do better.

I keep both eyes on my man. The basket hasn't moved on me yet.

That was just my own personal program: I didn't want to get too high over the good moments because I didn't want to be saddened and depressed when things didn't go as I had planned.

I've always tried to tell myself that the work itself is the thing, that win, lose, or draw, the work is really what counts.

So much of becoming a good athlete involves bringing other things to the table, other than physical skills. It involves intelligence, it involves many of the things that you learn during the process of being educated. How to analyze, how to assess, how to equate, how to reason.

I think I was chosen by basketball, although I never really physically got drafted to any team that I played for.

It's better to stay too long than to leave too soon.

I wanted to undertake the challenge of daring to be great.

To be great we need to win games we aren't supposed to win.