NBA great Gary Payton — 1/23/13
“Every time I played [Michael Jordan], I didn’t give him respect like that. When you give a basketball player respect, that defeats the purpose of guarding him because you respect him too much. I never respected anybody. I thought I could guard anyone in my era. That was just the way I played basketball.”
UNLV legend Larry Johnson — 3/5/11
“I was coming out of UNLV which is a big time Nike school and that’s all we ever wore. I couldn’t wait to sign with Nike coming out of college. And believe it or not, Nike did not sign me. They flat out told me they didn’t think I was going to be a good pro.”
Adam Schefter/NFL Network — 6/25/07
“I called the Network and I told them that Reggie Bush to Houston was not a lock. They were dismissive of me at my own network! I said there were signs that the Texans were thinking of taking someone other than Reggie Bush, and that that someone was Mario Williams, not Vince Young. I got calls from people saying I got hoodwinked. Here’s the thing — they didn’t know where I was getting my information from.”
Jennie Finch/Olympic softball player — 6/4/12
“I definitely have so many great memories of playing. Just with the camaraderie with my teammates — I think I miss that the most, along with competing. Just competing, training with teammates, and working toward that common goal is what I miss.”
Curt Menefee/FOX Sports — 11/23/11
“When we sit down in front of those cameras on Sunday, it’s not five guys who took separate limos there and just showed up, and now we’re going to pretend we like each other and we’re going to joke around. We’re five guys who are genuinely friends, who have dinner together, who talk during the week, and we’re sitting there and you turn the cameras on, and we’re talking football.”
Karina Smirnoff/Dancing With the Stars — 4/28/08
“Honestly, I got to see a side of Floyd [Mayweather] that was completely different from what you see in all the 24/7 series or in the boxing ring. He does have a big heart, but he kind of plays a lot into the character he’s portrayed as in the boxing world.”
Michael David Smith/FanHouse, Pro Football Talk, Fox Sports — 10/15/07
“I know some people find it strange that I write seven days a week and hardly ever take a day off (I’ve taken one day off so far in 2007), but honestly, if you like what you’re doing, I don’t know why you’d want to take a day off. … I like writing, so I do it every day.”
Rachel Specter/RGX Commercial Girl, Actress — 9/17/07
“Growing up I never really got any attention from guys at all. I was very much into reading and that was pretty much it. I remember the first day I got to high school, guys started paying attention to me. I was so confused because that had never happened before.”
Brian Powell/Awful Announcing, The Sporting Blog — 8/14/07
“Newspaper reporters will realize they are a dying medium, there will be more blogs every than before, and credibility issues will be running rampant. I think the toughest part about the whole thing is convincing the public that an unbiased and honest opinion is more important than any local/national writer can give you. Most [writers] aren’t fans of the sport they are assigned to, and some are so bitter that they just don’t even try anymore.”
Ben Maller/Fox Sports Radio Host, Foxsports.com — 5/23/07
“I don’t take myself or the athletes I talk about too seriously. I’ve been called a cynical, sarcastic jackass. I love my teams and enjoy watching sports, but I like to kid around and have a good time. Some hosts seem to think they are changing the world with a sports opinion. Everyone has a different style but mine would tend to fall on the sarcastic side with lots of hot sports opinions.”
Chuck Giampa/World Class Boxing Judge — 5/8/07
“The most important thing is effective aggressiveness. Now effective aggressiveness, some people think that’s the person moving forward — that’s not necessarily the most effective person, that’s just aggression. It’s who’s landing the most effective punches, whether it’s just boxing or jabbing, or it could be somebody counter-punching, taking a punch and countering with a harder punch.”
Sean Foreman/Baseball-Reference.com Founder — 5/3/07
“I wanted to be able to find Ty Cobb’s stats online. I had done some web design and really enjoyed it, and I thought that the web would be the perfect place for a baseball encyclopedia. The linkability, the infinite amount of storage space and the rest of it really made an on-line encyclopedia a good fit.”
