“I would rather go to Baghdad than go to a professional basketball game.”

Foreword to Winning Basketball : Techniques and Drills for Playing Better Offensive Basketball (2004) by Ralph L. Pim

Then & Now: Magic Johnson http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/01/17/cnn25.tan.johnson/index.html

Sí, me apartaré. Prefiero lamentarme de tu ausencia que de ti.
Voces (1943)

Foreword to Winning Basketball : Techniques and Drills for Playing Better Offensive Basketball (2004) by Ralph L. Pim
Context: The game of basketball is one of the greatest teachers of life there is. It teaches you first and foremost to believe in yourself. You must develop physical and mental toughness in order to succeed because there's going to be many disappointments and setbacks along the way. You learn quickly that basketball is a team game. You must be unselfish and accept the role that helps the team the most. Basketball teaches you the importance of setting high standards and never accepting anything other than your best effort.

As quoted in "Cat Stevens Gives Support To Call for Death of Rushdie," by Craig R. Whitney, in The New York Times (23 May 1989), p. C18 http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/18/specials/rushdie-cat.html

Slam dunk - interview with basketball player Hakeem Olajuwon - Interview, Feb, 1994 by Spike Lee.
Sourced Quotes

Quoted by C. P. Scott in his diary (28 December 1917), in Trevor Wilson (ed.), The Political Diaries of C. P. Scott, 1911-1928 (London: Collins, 1970), p. 324
Prime Minister
Context: "I warn you", said Lloyd George, "that I am in a very pacifist temper". I listened last night, at a dinner given to Philip Gibbs on his return from the front, to the most impressive and moving description from him of what the war really means that I have heard. Even an audience of hardened politicians and journalists was strongly affected. The thing is horrible and beyond human nature to bear and "I feel I can't go on with this bloody business: I would rather resign."

Magic Johnson — reported in Alan Goldstein (February 7, 1988) "Five at the Top of Their Game; Bird, Johnson aren't alone anymore as best players in the NBA", Baltimore Sun, p. 19.
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