Eric Zweig

Big Guys Don't Shrink: Basketball's Best Quotes and Quips Eric Zweig

Celebrating the wit, wisdom and whimsy of playing the game well- or sometimes very badly.

Basketball players may just be the most talented athletes in all of team sports. But in truth, it's a simple game. As legendary NCAA coach Abe Lemons remarked, "There are really only two plays, 'Romeo and Juliet' and put the darn ball in the basket."

Big Guys Don't Shrink is packed with great quotes from today's top stars, insights from the legends of the game, and one-liners from a parade of coaches. Complementing them are color photos of some of the sport's best known figures.

A small sampling of the more than 400 quotes:

• Quick guys get tired. Big guys don't shrink. (University of Washington coach Mary Harshman on why he preferred size to speed)
• My biggest thrill came the night Elgin Baylor and I combined for 73 points in Madison Square Garden. Elgin had 71 of them. (Former Los Angeles Laker Hot Rod Hundley)
• I want my teams to have my personality -- surly, obnoxious and arrogant. (Marquette basketball coach Al McGuire)
• I can't really remember the names of the clubs that we went to. (Shaquille O'Neal when asked if he'd visited the Parthenon while in Greece).

These quotes mix the hilarious (intentional or not) with the sarcastic and include laugh-out-loud zingers. Among the many basketball greats quoted are Charles Barkley, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Dennis Rodman, Steve Nash, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Larry Bird.