Jermaine ONeal Quotes

I love everything about Indiana.

Any athlete can preach to this, that when things aren’t going well, you tend to bring it home, and the people that take the brunt of it is the family.

Being a part of something great is what matters to me.

I respect people’s ability to come out and perform and take care of their family based on their bodies.

I’ve always been an intense guy. Sometimes it goes over the line, sometimes it gets a team energized.

I’m continuing to figure it out every single year: Life is a challenge, and the ones that succeed in life are the tough-minded ones that are not willing to accept failure.

I cannot wait to get to Boston and start to practice with the rest of the team in pursuit of a championship.

More than anything, you want to be considered a great father and a role model, especially for your kid.

Sometimes when you have a disconnect within your team, there’s no way you can win.

I’ve always played with an edge.

People talk about the term ‘sacrificing your body’ and I’ve done that.

Maturity is everything.

I want to make it clear that I don’t want to gut a team that I come to because then it’ll be like I’m in Indiana all over again.

One part of being a leader on a basketball team is you have to be there for yourself and others.

Whether it’s this year or next year, I don’t want to leave basketball limping out of basketball. At the end of the day, we’re all men and we all look at ourselves every morning and you have to ask yourself, Did I leave the way I wanted? Did I do everything I possibly could do to leave the way I want?’

I thought Portland had a really good chance. But after we didn’t win it, I knew my time was up there. But it wasn’t a totally bad situation for me there. It was a great situation coming out of high school.

Sometimes it takes a little bit longer than you want it to take, but it’s better to catch on late than never.

I’m saying in general, the bottom line is you play to win.

One thing I can say – and anybody can say from any team I’ve ever played on – is that when I get out there I’m going to play as hard as I possibly can, whether it’s on one leg or two legs or whatever.

I’ve been down to the University of South Carolina, University of Maryland, Clemson, spent some time on different college campuses and I see that small-town family environment.

I’m going to try to give everything I’ve got, and hopefully whatever I got is good enough to help my team win.

My two years in Boston were very difficult to deal with, especially when you know that you still can play. But my knee was causing so much problems.

I love Danny Ainge.

I want to be able to function and that’s the conversation that I’m having now more than ever – playing vs. functioning while I’m finished playing.

If I had a bad game, people would point that out.

God don’t like ugly.

There are only two things that probably can stop me from playing – rapture, God coming back, and an ACL injury.

Everything else I’ve been able to enjoy, but a Finals game is something that I desperately want to do I want to feel that environment.

I made a ton of money in my career.

I wanted to get as strong as possible, as fit as possible, and I put in a lot of time.

I played almost two years with a torn meniscus.

This league is about trying to smell where the weakness is.

It comes down to personalities and style of play, and I thought Boston has all that for me.

I had a fantastic time in Boston with the city, the fans were phenomenal, the organization was phenomenal, I just don’t know if the playing situation was right to be quite honest.

I’m a player that has sat, literally, on every side of the good, of the bad, of the ugly.

I was never really healthy mentally.

Larry Bird is a hard man to deal with. He tries to make unfair trades.

Well one thing you can’t say is that I don’t know basketball.

When your team is not together, you can never win.

When people question your integrity, when people question who you are from afar, when they’ve never had a conversation with you, and don’t know the time and effort you’ve put into your communities, but then you’re kind of this thug, this out of control player, that makes no sense to me.

You want to feel a part of something that makes you feel a part of it.

It’s hard to regret stuff. You make decisions and you go with it.

I’m from Columbia, S.C., and my family is very religious. We’d go to church and Sunday school and we always had to dress up. I enjoyed that.

Going from a situation where you’re the best player on the court every time to the fourth-best player in your position, it humbled me.

You see a lot of people in sports who need to be humbled first to become who they are.

I’m very critical of myself.

If I am not physically able to play for the Celtics, then why would Miami want me?

I love suits for formal engagements. But I also like to wear jeans and button-ups.

Anytime you have issues with your heart, that’s scary, but I’ve taken every test that you can take.

The Detroit situation shocked the whole system. Obviously you don’t condone any type of fighting. But you’ve got to make the best decision for you and your family at the time, and you don’t have a lot of time to think out that process.