On his usage of the English language Don King is often derided as ignorant or uneducated. To me, if you can use a wrong word or make up a word that no one has even heard of, and seamlessly convey the correct emotion, it’s art. Much the same as a sculptor taking a block of marble and carving an angel.
A few examples and other quotes-
“I am the living attestation of the American dream. I am the extolment of this great nation.”
“Don’t besmirchify me.”
“I can’t believe that having said what I said was interpreted as having been what I said when I said it, because I said it where I said it, when I said it, and who I said it to.”
“Mike Tyson has been given every penny he has coming.”
“Martin Luther King took us to the mountain top: I want to take us to the bank.”
“He worked for the day when all people would be clothed in dignity.”
“I can’t believe what I said about myself. What I said in my own private conversations with myself to an ESPN producer are my business, and I had no business saying them to someone else.”
“Don’t try trickeration on me.”
“You never get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate. You got a right to say yay or nay.”
On working long hours-
“You get nothin’ from sleep but a dream”
From others commenting on his very questionable business practices-
“Don King is one of the great humanitarians of our time. He has risen above that great term, prejudice. He has screwed everybody he has ever been around. Hog, dog, or frog, it don’t matter to Don. If you got a quarter, he wants the first 26 cents.”
Randall Tex’Cobb
“One day Don King will asphyxiate by the force of his own exhaust.”
Carmen Graziano
HBO Put out a great movie about his life. I was impressed with the balance it struck. Ving Rhames kills it as Don King. Also with Jeremy Piven, Keith David, Bernie Mac, Lou Rawls, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Darius McCrary.
Language in this clip may be NSFW.
People criticize Don King a lot, often with good reason. A few things I’ve never heard him accused of is being untalented, a hack, or lazy.
His acumen as a marketer and a promoter is breath taking.