Charles Oakley Quotes

For as long as I remember, big men have dominated the NBA.

You look at today, it's a different situation. You have a game that has been transformed into a game where almost every shot is either an outside shot - a three-point shot - or a dunk.

A lot of times I blend in a little bit easier because I'm not like a basketball player who's going to stand out because of his height.

More and more teams are, in the vernacular, 'going small,' with only one big man down deep. Good grief, the position of power forward is in the process of going the way of short shorts.

The 3-point line has changed the game so much. The day of the big man, unless you're extraordinary good, is not numbered, but certainly you gotta be a lot more versatile to play the game today. You gotta be able to really run up and down the court.

The height of my athletic achievement was in 8th grade when I was the point guard for my Jewish day school basketball team. We played in a public school league and, amazingly, went undefeated. I say 'amazingly' because our power forward was 5 ft. 6 in.

I'm not a guy that's going to shoot 10 3s a game - I like to get to the basket. But some of those shots I do gotta take. Some of those shots I gotta let fly.

I had no idea I was going to be this tall. Had I known that, I honestly would have stuck to basketball.

If someone had told me at fourteen that I'd be six-ten, I might have stuck with basketball, in all seriousness.

I'm bigger than most two guards.

There are a lot of 7-footers that aren't good shot blockers whether it's their athleticism, their quick jump, their eye-hand coordination, their ability to get their hands on the ball. Part of it is just instinctual.

I think I'm changing the game. In that sense, I'm what Steph Curry is to basketball. Don't get me wrong: I don't necessarily think Steph Curry is the best basketball player, but he changed the game, so he's going to always go down as being remembered. Now everyone wants to shoot the 3 and shoot it from deep.

I've always been the tallest guy in my age group, which always made me go right down in the post.

Just seeing the progression, the evolution of the NBA game, I feel like you have a lot of big men shooting 3s.

It's fun down there to actually go up against a 7-footer and you know you're undersized and you know people are telling you that you can't guard this guy, you can't do that. I take it as a challenge.

Forwards are either too tall, and I'm too quick for them, or guards are too small, and I shoot over them.

I was taller than most of the kids. When I started playing basketball, my coach put me at point guard. Europeans do that sometimes.

When you are 6-11 and you play hard, you get blamed for a lot of things.

Shaq is such a load. He's so big and strong, but it's possible to play well against him.

Me being a shorter guy, I am pretty quick out of the blocks and can get up to top speed maybe a little faster than some guys.

On stage, I'm really, really tall. I'm five-foot-9, but on stage, I'm, like, six-foot-5.

I knew my chances of playing beyond college were extremely slim. You just don't see too many 5-foot-10 quarterbacks out there.

My whole life I played the point, so naturally I think as a point. Two guard, I get to score more... During the game, I like to mix it up.

Some girls are intimidated by my height, obviously. But a lot of girls do like it, so that's cool.

I liked being home playing in front of my people, but I just did not like the situation because I was playing shooting guard, and that is not my position. I would play it if someone like Rip got hurt, but to do it for an entire season, that is not my position. I got it done when I was asked to do. But inside, I know that is not me.