Magic Johnson

“I tell people to look at me and understand that everybody first told me that I couldn't be a 6-foot, 9-inch point guard, and I proved them wrong. Then they told me I couldn't be a businessman and make money in urban America, and I proved them wrong. And they thought I couldn't win all these championships, and I proved them wrong there as well.”

“When you face a crisis, you know who your true friends are.”

“I'm building shopping centers and movie theaters in the inner cities. So that means supplying jobs and letting blacks understand that we have to build our communities back, not looking to anybody else.”

“Sometimes friends move apart from each other for whatever reason.”

“As an athlete, I understood the value of my health insurance. I knew that in my profession, injuries were common and could happen at any time.”

“If somebody says no to you, or if you get cut, Michael Jordan was cut his first year, but he came back and he was the best ever. That is what you have to have. The attitude that I'm going to show everybody, I'm going to work hard to get better and better.”

“I'm the one who will take chances, not worry about the backlash.”

“I respect women to the utmost.”

“All kids need is a little help, a little hope and somebody who believes in them.”

“Manhood is taking care of your family and being able to bless other people. Not yourself - but whether you can bless other people.”

“ObamaCare is working. I talk to a lot of CEOs of hospitals. It is working.”

“I try to hire people I don't have to motivate. But I do motivate the people working with and for me.”

“People don't stop eating, and they don't stop drinking coffee.”

“Young people want you to be real with them.”

“No one plans to get sick or hurt - I certainly didn't - but most people will need medical care at some point in their lives.”

“I got blessed from my mom. She's the personality; she's the one who smiled, so I took on part of her, and who also wanted to help and save the world. Then I took on part of my dad, who is tough.”

“Urban America is like a foreign country in a sense.”

“My dad was my hero. And I got my personality from my mother.”

“I motivate others by making sure that they understand to go after their dreams and don't let anyone tell you you can't. If you are motivated enough and put the work in that you can achieve anything in life that you set your mind to.”

“The best doctors and medicine in the world can't save you if you don't do what you're supposed to do.”