The best thing for the fans is having a team with a chance to win. That's what everyone wants.Collection: Chance
Discrimination and prejudice of any kind have no place in sports or in our society.Collection: Sports
Players alone don't win championships. It takes an entire organization. Someone has to acquire the players. Someone has to coach them. Someone has to generate revenue to pay them. But at the end of the day, the players are the ones who put their minds and bodies on the line to win.Collection: Alone
When I think about how I grew up sleeping on a cot in the hallway in a one-bedroom apartment in Flatbush, it's been a great life. I can't complain.
I have been blessed with a bunch of great kids, grandchildren, and daughters-in-law. It's been a great life. I know I am probably in the fourth quarter, but I am hoping for triple overtime.
I'm proud of the fact I was able to surround myself with great people who did great things, and it resulted in the Bulls being a global brand and winning championships and a factor in the community.
My liking for a team isn't based on just how good it was, but how good was it in relation to how good it should have been.
I thought that the Bulls were an undermanaged, under-operated team and that it could be a very successful franchise if run properly.
You get into sports with the idea that you want to win. If you aren't trying to win, what's the point in being involved?
When I got started, the Bulls weren't even that popular in Chicago. The Chicago Sting, the indoor soccer team, was outdrawing the Bulls. Now you can travel all over the world - Europe, Far East, Africa, wherever - and you see people with Bulls memorabilia or merchandise. It's incredible and the one thing I never could imagined accomplishing.
People say you make your own luck; I don't think that's the case, but maybe you contribute to your luck by recognizing it and taking advantage of it.
I always felt if something bad happens, it can be your best opportunity. The times I was most depressed turned out to be the best things.
The only real goal I had was, I wanted to own a car. Because my father, most of the time, he couldn't afford a car. Once in a while he would have a car, but it would be 10 or 15 years old, an old jalopy.
I thought I would spend the rest of my life being a good tax lawyer. The interesting thing about being a tax lawyer is, none of your clients are poor. I had clients come to me and say, 'Can you help us make investments?' That led to me getting into the real estate business.
Any other business, you want your competitors to go out of business. In sports, you just don't want them to have as good a record as you do.
Teams that consistently perform at the highest levels are able to come together and be unified across the organization - staff, players, coaches, management, and ownership. When everyone is on the same page, trust develops, and teams can grow and succeed together.
O'Malley wanted to move the Dodgers out of Brooklyn because he saw the promised land. He was right about that, but to this day I think he was wrong to take the Dodgers out of Brooklyn.
You get into sports with the idea that you want to win. If you aren't trying to win, what's the point in being involved? Once you do get involved, you realize the team draws so much from the community, and it would be nothing without the support of it. You've got to give back. It needs to be a two-way street.
I've said this over the years publicly - this is not a lucrative business. My goal every year is to break even with the White Sox.
A Bar Mitzvah is the time in his life when a Jewish boy realizes he has a better chance of owning a team than playing for one.
The Commissioner was correct to ban Mr. Sterling from all official NBA business, to levy the stiffest allowable fine, and we will support his recommendation to press for Mr. Sterling to relinquish his ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers franchise.
Perhaps the most satisfying thing occurred when Michael Jordan became a team owner and said to me, 'I owe you a lot of apologies. It's a lot harder to run a team than I thought.'
I've always believed certain things: You treat everybody nicely because, more than anything, it's the right thing to do. And then you also never know when someone will be in position to help you or hurt you. I know I've gotten help from a lot of people who said good things about me because I treated them well.
We completely support Commissioner Silver's decision today regarding Clippers owner Donald Sterling, and praise him for his prompt investigation and action.
I never believed in pushing my kids. My dad was very unhappy I wasn't going to be a doctor, but I couldn't stand to see the sight of blood. And I wanted to be a lawyer since I was in seventh or eighth grade.
When I gave up law to go into real estate, my mother said, 'How can you give up the law?' But she lived long enough to see the Bulls win all six championships. She would wear all six pendants at the same time. She could barely stand up.
I think every parent takes more pleasure in seeing their child succeed than seeing themselves succeed.
Losing is not fun. I know the fans don't like it, but they don't have to watch it every day. I have to watch it every day. I don't like watching bad teams.
I only had one player in my 33 years of sports that couldn't be traded. He wore No. 23 - and 45 when he played baseball.
Don't write us off. Nobody thought we'd win the World Series in 2005, but we did. There are years when we think we're great, and we're bad. I mean, the funny thing about this game is that you can't figure it out.
Making the Hall of Fame has long been considered the top individual honor that one can achieve in any sport, but for me, I feel it is a culmination of all the input and effort afforded me from so many other people over the years that put me in this position today.
I don't see any baseball expansion right now. If it were up to me, I would contract two teams. But I certainly don't think expansion on the horizon.
The team was supported by the fans, and the city was committed to a new building. But that wasn't good enough for Walter O'Malley. He had a better deal, and he passed up a good deal for a better one. I don't think that was right, because ownership of a ballclub is at least a semi-public trust.
Chicago seems to follow New York, and coming from New York and being in real estate, I worry about things happening in Chicago that have happened in New York. I've seen a great city like New York go downhill. It has a wonderful financial downtown, but the rest of the city is not very nice.
It's not uncommon for a big free agent to come to a new club with a big contract and not perform up to his standards.