Everyone loved my father. He was so nice that people took advantage of him. We were lower middle class. I slept in the hallway on a cot that rolled away during the day, and my younger brother and sister slept in my parents’ room. My goal as a kid was to someday have my own room and to own a car – and I wanted to be able to take care of my parents.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
We strongly believe that children should not be exposed to smokeless tobacco or see such products being used by their on-field sports heroes.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
You can’t make a manager have a coach he doesn’t want. I can’t make the head of the accounting department work with someone he doesn’t want.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I admire honesty more than any other trait.
Jerry Reinsdorf
Live every day like it’s you’re last because one day you’ll be right.
Jerry Reinsdorf
There must be free and open interdepartmental discussion and consideration of everyone’s ideas and opinions. These internal discussions must not be considered an invasion of turf, and must remain private… When everyone is on the same page, trust develops, and teams can grow and succeed together.
Jerry Reinsdorf
Sometimes you pay a premium to get what you want.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
A team is supported by the community, and a team must support its community.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
We completely support Commissioner Silver’s decision today regarding Clippers owner Donald Sterling, and praise him for his prompt investigation and action.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
Discrimination and prejudice of any kind have no place in sports or in our society.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
When I look back, I did what I had to do for business and then fit family life into it.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I think every parent takes more pleasure in seeing their child succeed than seeing themselves succeed.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
It is a very humbling honor to be selected as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I have to let the general manager do what makes the most sense, or I can’t hold him accountable.
Jerry Reinsdorf
If we kept all the players I liked personally, we’d be a lot worse team over the years.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I operated a business where I let someone steal three-quarters of a million dollars.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I am constantly the butt of jokes.
Jerry Reinsdorf
We can’t make a decision based on PR value. We have to do what we think is right.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
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.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I’ve always been a leader in the push for revenue sharing.
Jerry Reinsdorf
The small-market teams should know I’ve always been with them.
Jerry Reinsdorf
One of my friends, picture of health, worked out his whole life, never had a weight problem. Calls me up one day and says, ‘I have pancreatic cancer.’ Gone. I’ve lost too many friends.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I love Mark Buehrle. He’s just a fun guy.
Jerry Reinsdorf
The best thing for the fans is having a team with a chance to win. That’s what everyone wants.
Jerry Reinsdorf
If I hadn’t been fair, I would never have made the $6 billion in real estate deals that I did. I mean, if you’re not fair, people don’t want to deal with you.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I never heard of anyone saying they want to deploy their capital wisely and go buy a sports franchise. What you want to do is just not lose money. You see, I don’t have to work anymore. I tell people I don’t have a real job. On the other hand, I learned long ago that you can’t go broke if you turn a profit.
Jerry Reinsdorf
My greatest moment as a jock occurred when I was 14 and playing punch ball in front of my house on Albemarle Road near East 17th Street in Brooklyn. I ran back, back for a ball, and it fell in my hands. I didn’t even see it. Everyone congratulated me on the catch, and I never told them how it really happened.
Jerry Reinsdorf
If you’re doing something wrong, you deserve to be caught.
Jerry Reinsdorf
Baseball is a poorly run business.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I haven’t said anything bad about Fay Vincent publicly, and I won’t. I like him personally.
Jerry Reinsdorf
It’s bad for baseball to have owners who can benefit another business by losing money in baseball.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I had a vision of how basketball should be played. And the vision was the Knicks teams that won the championship in 1970 and 1973. I wanted a team that emphasized defense. I wanted a team that on offense had a system where players moved off the ball, and the ball moved.
Jerry Reinsdorf
Baseball and its teams are proud of the sport’s long-standing role as a change agent in American culture and society.
Jerry Reinsdorf
They’d have to force me to take the All-Star Game. They take over the building, your season-ticket holders have to be in a lottery to see if they get tickets, and then they don’t get a good ticket. Really, no good can come out of it, and all it can do is upset your fans.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I had been a basketball fan growing up, and I felt that if we brought in the proper coach, and we played basketball the old fashioned way – where defense is paramount and offense involved movement off the ball and movement of the ball – we could build a winning team, and Chicago would respond to that.
Jerry Reinsdorf
When I bought the team, I wasn’t thinking about a new arena. But obviously I’m very proud of the contributions that the Bulls franchise has made to the community between Chicago Bulls Charities and the re-development of the West Side with the United Center being the catalyst.
Jerry Reinsdorf