"I'm not comfortable being preachy, but more people have to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court. If they took to the idea that they could escape poverty through education, I think it would make a more basic and long-lasting change in the way things happen. When we set up unrealistic goals and then don't achieve them, that's another example of internalized defeat. What we need are positive, realistic ideas and the willingness to work. Hard work and practical goals."

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

Sources

Kareem (1990): p. 157

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kareem_Abdul-Jabbar