“No Viet Cong ever called me Ni**3r”
He Was The Greatest
He challenged the status quo.
He was fun.
He was happy.
He was a phenomenon.
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
He defeated Sonny Liston in the year that I was born.
Many of the events of my childhood and teenage years play out to the backdrop of his great confrontations. To me, he WAS the 1960’s and the 1970's.
I love all the documentaries about him, especially “Facing Ali”. They filled out so much info, so much fascinating detail, so much love. Some of these tough guys weep as they speak of him.
Was it because he was himself? Was it the way he united global manhood for the fight of the century on March 8, 1971?
Was it Don King and the spectacular rumble in the jungle on October 29, 1974?
What about the Thrilla in Manila on October 1 1975?
Was it the way everybody had to turn off the lights, draw the curtains, turn on the black-and-white TV and soak in every second. Here in Europe people would get up at all hours of the night to see his fights- and what was better- brag about it in the shops and villages and offices the next day.
He was like no one else before him and will never be again.
His spirit lives on.
He inspired me, just like a Californian gentleman once said in LA,
If I don’t say it, ain’t nobody gonna say it for me
He always said it. More quotes here.
I’m young; I’m handsome; I’m fast. I can’t possibly be beat.
If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it — then I can achieve it.
Muhammad Ali never cared whether people liked him or not. I say to my kids that they can’t make people like them but they CAN make people respect them.
He stood up for what he believed in. He refused to be inducted into the United States army. On 29 April 1967, The Guardian ran this story:
He made people respect him and respect him I did. In these sad days of playing to the gallery (lucky I’m not like that!), he stood up for himself and his people, influencing culture, politics and the course of a war. It was the light and the life inside of him that connected him to me, as it did to millions of others, including Barrack Obama.
New York Times columnist, William Rhoden, wrote:
Ali’s actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete’s greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?
He was the greatest. He knew it always.
May he rest in peace.
