Shaun Livingston Quotes

I wouldn't say I'm a phenomenon, just a great athlete.

I had jumped about 6.40 metres with no training, no run-up, and certainly no skill, when this big, good-looking guy came up to me and told me I could be great.

I never thought I'd make the pages of 'Sports Illustrated', because I've always been skinny.

If it wasn't for finding out that my right leg could kick a ball really far, which is what I did, I am 100 percent certain that I would be attempting to be or would be a professional wrestler.

Anytime I'm involved with anything that's well-received, it's a surprise to me.

Nike was the essence of sports, transcendence through sports.

I didn't know I could even be a professional tennis player, honestly. All this is actually very, very unexpected.

I was a two-star athlete. I got looked over.

Nobody can tell me that if players are good enough, they will come through. That is not true. There are plenty of players who are good enough.

I always knew and my parents always knew I was destined for greatness. I didn't know what sport it was going to be in. I played football, baseball and wrestling.

When I look at the way I was able to play in my 17th year, I feel like I earned the right to play in the NFL for another one.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would accomplish what I have in the sport

I've run the marathon several times, so I definitely don't look like the Great Ancestor!

And there is such a thing as a decathlon high. It's like a rock rolling down hill, picking up momentum. You get better and better.

There is no correlation between a childhood success and a professional athlete.

It took me time to realize that the men who won Olympic gold medals in the decathlon are just men, just like me.

I am slightly shocked to have gone as far as I have.

I don't know about whether I thought I would make it this big.

Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and someone else's brain, who knows how good a player I might have been.

I started wrestling at ten. I played a lot of other sports: soccer, football. I really enjoyed skiing. But wrestling just took off for me. It seemed to be the sport I had an affinity for; I liked the individual, combative nature. There's something special about that. It took me all the places I wanted to go.

People may remember something I did on the field for a couple of days, maybe a week.

My brother David was a great athlete and I knew there was no way I could live up to that.

I didn't ever imagine, except in the most idle, obviously wish-fulfillment, ego-gratification fantasies, that anything I wrote would ever win awards, let alone so many.

The great thing with Usain Bolt is he fell into great coaching, so his talent was exceptional from Day 1. You can coach technique and structure, but not talent.

Amazingly enough, athletic achievement is one of those things that seems larger than life at points. I think we all look to sport for inspirations.