Shaquille O'Neal Quotes

I'd like to have stayed in the Scouts beyond the age of 12.

Sport for me is about inspiring kids. Here's the rules, here's the play area, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This is all about teaching kids how to approach life. If we're not playing sport to benefit kids, I'm not really sure why we play sport.

At the end of the program, I tried to talk to the kids a little bit about life skills.

I think sports are extremely beneficial for our youth. They parallel life in so many ways.

The goal for the Laureus Sport For Good Foundation is to give kids an opportunity to be involved in sports and hopefully learn some lessons along the way. We want to put them in a safe environment, help them if they need it and maybe they will get a scholarship to a school because of the skills that they learn. Sport is just a starting point.

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

One of the biggest reasons I like coaching college ball is the kids. I feel I can impact players' lives. I like the fact that they're student-athletes. I like to see those kids graduate.

Here, I have an opportunity to affect the lives of a lot of young people - and not just on my football team. I'm not kidding myself that that would be true at the professional level.

The Boys and Girls club was basically a second home for me, and I always credit it with keeping me out of trouble. From the ages of 6 to 16, I was there nearly every day.

Developing better people should be the number one goal for any coach when dealing with kids. In trying to develop better people, we are going to develop more and better pros.

The thing I like about college football so much is you can affect these guys a lot more when they are 18-22, 23 years old in terms of people and having a chance to be more successful. They are still a value type development, where you have a chance to help them mature a bit and help them be a little more successful in life.

I was a young kid, and the YMCA was my second home, where my mom was dropping me off for seven, eight hours. I'd spend the day doing what I love: hoop.

I've watched what coaches do for young people in our country.

I was always thankful for the YMCA. Of course, growing up, you don't really think about it, because when you're a kid, you're in your own world. But back then, it was just so much. I'm going to go the Y, hanging out, playing games all day, playing basketball.

I've learned a lot from my own kids. Actually, my son was the reason why I got involved in other things outside of basketball.

When I was growing up, and other people I knew were getting into trouble, I was somewhere in a deer stand or going to bed early so I could be up before dawn to hunt turkeys. My love of the outdoors kept me solid.

Yeah, football can change a person's life, it changes a lot of people's lives. You can see the kids we work with. You can you make their day just by them meeting you, that's lovely, that's great.

If you're a young man, and you're being coached by someone like Guy Lewis, you're going to become a better man.

Sports is one of the keys to my life. It definitely kept me out of a lot of trouble and gave me a lot of discipline.

We all have our issues, no one gets away from facing their own issues, so that we can advance. Nothing is given lightly, and everything has a repercussion, as you're evolving. And, if anything, the sport itself is a great training, not only physically, but the mental discipline that it requires. The gym can serve as an excellent place where kids, and young men and women can really empty their issues right on the floor. It's amazing the spirituality that you get as a result of practicing and enjoying the sport. That's another plus.

It's better to build boys than mend men.

At a really young age you just play ball and you have fun and you don't see basketball as something as a career, it just drives you crazy. But as the years went by and the goals got bigger for myself you realize that without almost being obsessed you won't reach those goals. So the older I get I think the more I realize that it's almost necessary to get to that level.

Take those kids and raise them up, teach them how to drink out of a righteous cup.

Working with all of these kids is great. It doesn't get any better than this, to come down and inspire kids who want to play the game of basketball and put smiles on their faces.

The 4-H Clubs believe in and practice the full development of our talents. They believe in physical and mental health. Beyond this there is an underlying creed of honesty of purpose. These objectives and practical projects make the 4-H Clubs a tremendous influence for the betterment of our country.