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- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

  • NBA's all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points
  • First and only player named NCAA Basketball Tournament's Most Outstanding Player three times (1967-69)
  • Was born 12 lbs, 11 oz (5.75 k) and 22½ in (57.15 cm)
  • Born Frederick Lewis Alcindor, converted from Catholicism to Islam in 1971 and took the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, meaning "noble, powerful servant"
  • NCAA outlawed the dunk shot because of his dominance at center for UCLA
  • Practiced yoga and martial arts as part of overall fitness program, including Jeet Kune Do under Bruce Lee
  • Meditated before every game
  • Gave the game the skyhook
  • Named to NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
  • Worked on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation as an assistant coach
  • Among other films and TV shows, he acted in Airplane!

"You can't win unless you learn how to lose." – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

"I'm not comfortable being preachy, but more people need to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court."– Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

"One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team." – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

"I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing." – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Actor:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

  • Born: Apr 16, 1947 in New York City, New York
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '80s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Sports & Recreation, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: Airplane!, The Road to Freedom: The Vernon Johns Story, Slam Dunk Ernest
  • First Major Screen Credit: Airplane! (1980)

Biography

Among his many achievements during his illustrious career in Milwaukee and Los Angeles, six-time basketball MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the all-time leading scorer. In 1978, Abdul-Jabbar translated his popularity into a film career by appearing as a hulking foe to Bruce Lee in Game of Death. The ensuing battle royale between the diminutive martial arts master and the agile seven-foot hoopster remains a highlight of martial arts cinema. Other film appearances include a memorable turn as a co-pilot who tires of being mistaken for Abdul-Jabbar in 1980's Airplane. In most of his subsequent films, Abdul-Jabbar has stuck to making cameo appearances as himself; he did however have a supporting role in the television pilot for the Robert Mitchum series Jake Spanner, Private Eye in 1989, the year he retired from professional basketball. Since then, his film and television appearances as an actor have been increasingly sporadic. Abdul-Jabbar has, however, continued to use his legendary status as an example. He is a tireless worker for various philanthropic causes and has devoted a large amount of time to helping children and steering them toward getting a good education. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

 
 
Biography: Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Kareem Abdul Jabbar (born 1947), formerly Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. was one of the greatest basketball players to play the game at the high school, college, and professional ranks.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr., on April 16, 1947, in New York City, the only child of Ferdinand and Cora Alcindor. He grew up in middle-class circumstances in Inwood, an upper Manhattan neighborhood. A Roman Catholic, he attended the St. Jude's parish elementary school, where he excelled in baseball, swimming, and ice skating. His height began to increase dramatically, and his characteristic self-consciousness led him to seek refuge on the basketball court. By the time he completed eighth grade, Jabbar's height had rocketed to six feet, six inches and he played basketball exclusively.

Already a local basketball legend, Jabbar was heavily recruited by many of the local New York preparatory schools. He chose Power Memorial Academy, and his six foot, eight inch height gave Coach Jack Donohue no alternative but to place him on the varsity squad, a rarity for a ninth grader. He spent the year building his coordination. As a sophomore averaging 19 points per game, Jabbar led his team to 27 straight victories en route to the 1963 New York City Catholic High School championship. Power Memorial's unbeaten streak continued the following year, as Jabbar averaged 26 points a game and led Power to another City Catholic High School championship. As a senior he averaged 33 points per game, and although Power's unbeaten streak of 71 games was snapped by DeMatha High School of Hyattsville, Maryland, they again won the New York City Catholic High School championship by going undefeated the rest of the season.

With the college offers as abundant as the publicity, Jabbar heeded the advice of notable African Americans such as Arthur Ashe, Jackie Robinson, and then Undersecretary of the United Nations Ralph Bunche and elected to accept the scholarship from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). A conscientious student, he enrolled at UCLA in the fall of 1965 believing that there would be a strong balance between sports and academics there.

Although freshmen were ineligible to play varsity sports at the time, Jabbar gave Coach John Wooden a preview of his forthcoming dominance by leading the freshman team to an easy 75-60 victory over the varsity team that had already won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball championship in two of the preceding three seasons. In his first varsity game, Jabbar scored 56 points against California. Along with guards Mike Warren and Lucious Allen and forwards Kenny Heitz and Lynn Shackelford, Jabbar led UCLA to a perfect 26-0 season. The UCLA Bruins again won the national championship in 1967, beating Dayton in the final game.

Jabbar spurned a one-million dollar offer to sign with the Harlem Globetrotters after the 1967 season. In spite of the fact that he was a sensitive individual and somewhat of a loner, Jabbar was also extremely mature for his age and able to cope with constant media attention. He became a history major and enjoyed reading and music. His awareness of racial prejudice was strong, and he became a follower of the teachings of Malcolm X, who stressed pride among African American people. He entered his junior year somewhat jaded, disappointed at the lack of social awareness he saw in many Californians. However, he was also on the threshold of even greater basketball accomplishments.

Although the 1967-1968 basketball season brought with it many more triumphs for Jabbar and the UCLA Bruins, Houston University handed UCLA their first loss after 47 consecutive victories. The 55,000 fans at the Houston Astrodome who witnessed the 69-68 defeat saw Jabbar's six-foot, nine-inch nemesis, Elvin Hayes, score 39 points in college basketball's most exciting spectacle to that point. The UCLA team gained sweet revenge against the Cougars in the NCAA championship semi-final that year, scoring a lopsided 101-69 victory. They defeated North Carolina in the final game, to win the NCAA championship again in 1968.

UCLA also won the NCAA championship in 1969, losing only once along the way to Southern California. Jabbar's totals in three years of varsity play were a phenomenal 88 wins in 90 games, three straight NCAA championships, three straight years as the tournament's most valuable player, and a career average of 26 points per game on a.639 shooting percentage. Many called him the greatest collegiate player ever.

Jabbar graduated from UCLA in 1969 and was the National Basketball Association's (NBA's) first draft choice, selected by the Milwaukee Bucks. He joined the Bucks reluctantly, but settled in to become the 1970 NBA Rookie of the Year. Following the 1970 season, he changed his name to Kareem Abdul Jabbar and professed his membership in the Hanafi Muslim sect of the Islamic religion. In 1971, Jabbar led the Bucks to the NBA championship and was named the NBA's league's most valuable player.

In the four seasons that followed, Jabbar perfected his trademark sky-hook and was named the NBA's most valuable player in the 1972 and 1974 seasons. In 1975, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers and earned even more accolades. He led the Lakers to NBA championships in 1980 and 1982 and was the NBA's most valuable player in 1976 and 1980.

Jabbar became one of the NBA's most prolific players and served as a positive representative for the league. He was named to the All-Star team every year, including his rookie season. An eloquent individual, Jabbar came out of an introverted phase to make numerous television show appearances and commercials. He also appeared in cameo roles in movies such as Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon (1971), The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979), and Airplane (1980).

During the 1984 season, Jabbar became the NBA's alltime scoring leader, eclipsing the record of 31,419 points set by Wilt Chamberlain, and capped things off by leading the Lakers to yet another NBA championship in the 1984-1985 season. The following season, he broke the record of 1,303 games played in the NBA.

Jabbar officially retired from the sport of basketball after the 1989-1990 season. He continued to remain very active following his retirement. In 1990, he penned yet another autobiography titled Kareem (an earlier one titled Giant Steps appeared in 1983). Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African American Achievement was co-authored by Jabbar and Alan Steinberg, and released in 1996. In 1991, Jabbar traveled to Saudi Arabia to play basketball for an exhibition team entertaining troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. Jabbar also appeared in the Stephen King television mini-series The Stand in 1994. He has continued working as a producer and developer for motion pictures and television.

Jabbar was named one of President Bill Clinton's The Great Ones for National Sports Awards and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995.

Further Reading

An interesting account of Jabbar's early years of basketball is provided in Giant of the NBA (1972) by Robert Jackson. Jabbar, a self-confessed enigmatic individual, set the record straight in his autobiographical Giant Steps (1983). Paul Deegan's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1974) is a biography for children, and Kareem, Basketball Great (1975), by Arnold Hano, is a biography through the eyes of a sports fan. For more information, see Helen Borrello, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1995). Many of the best in-depth accounts about him are provided in the many years of coverage and attention given him by Sports Illustrated magazine.

 
Black Biography: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

basketball player; writer; actor

Personal Information

Born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, April 16, 1947, in New York, NY; name legally changed to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971; son of Ferdinand Lewis (a transit police officer) and Cora Alcindor; married Janice (name changed to Habiba) Brown, 1971 (divorced, 1973); children: Habiba, Sultana, Kareem, Amir.
Education: University of California, B.A., 1969.
Religion: Islam.

Career

Professional basketball player, 1969-89; member of Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, 1969-75; member of Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, 1975-89. Founder of Cranberry Records, a jazz label. Author, with Peter Knobler, of Giant Steps: An Autobiography of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bantam Books, 1983, and, with Mignon McCarthy, of Kareem, Random House, 1990.

Life's Work

Born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the premier basketball center of the 1970s and 1980s and one of the National Basketball Association's preeminent "big men." The seven-foot-one-inch center won three collegiate championships with the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins and six professional championships with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. When Jabbar left the league after the 1989-90 season, he was the NBA's all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points and had blocked 3,189 shots--also a league high. Abdul-Jabbar was named the league's most valuable player a record six times.

Until quite late in his career, Abdul-Jabbar played with an intensity that made him seem distant and sometimes angry. That intensity came first from his desire not to appear awkward, then from his commitment to racial justice, which he symbolized by changing his name from Lew Alcindor. Even more dramatic Abdul-Jabbar boycotted the Olympics to protest the treatment of blacks.

Throughout his long professional career, beginning in 1969, Abdul-Jabbar was driven to succeed; he became known in the league for his self-discipline and hard work. He spent six difficult years in Milwaukee, winning one championship, before being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1975. In Los Angeles Abdul-Jabbar achieved superstar status and, along with Earvin "Magic" Johnson, led the team to five championships in the 1980s. Abdul-Jabbar finally appeared to enjoy his success during his farewell season in 1989-90, laughing and joking as he was greeted with accolades around the league. Eventually he chronicled his life in two autobiographies, Giant Steps and Kareem.

Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor in Harlem on April 16, 1947. The baby of Cora and Ferdinand Lewis "Al" Alcindor, who were both over six-feet tall, weighed 13 pounds. Cora was outspoken and over-protective, and Al was a strong and silent transit police officer whose entertaining personality emerged when he played the trombone. When Lew, as the baby was known, turned three, his family moved to the new Dyckman Street projects in the middle-class Inwood section of Manhattan.

Lew was known as a sweet boy, and he was hardly aware of differences in race and nationality as he attended St. Jude's, a neighborhood Catholic school. "As a kid, I played with anyone who was around," he wrote in Giant Steps. "We had English neighbors, and Scandinavians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, gypsies." He knew he was taller than all the other kids, but he didn't notice the color of his classmates' skin until someone took a class picture in the third grade. "I looked at the grainy black and white photo in my hand," he wrote in Giant Steps, "[and] I thought, 'Damn I'm dark and everybody else is light!'"

In the fourth grade, Lew got his first taste of brutality. His parents sent him to an all-black boarding school in Pennsylvania, where his classmates taunted him for his good marks and beat him repeatedly. Lew returned to St. Jude's for the fifth grade, where Coach Hopkins chose Lew, then clumsy but already six-feet tall, for the basketball team. Hopkins made basketball fun when it could have been embarrassing. "My awkwardness could have become a trademark," he later wrote in Giant Steps. "He gave me a confidence well beyond my abilities just by letting me know that, no matter if I could dribble a ball or read one work, he was going to care about me."

Able to dunk the ball by the eighth grade, Lew had become a sensation in local basketball circles. He led St. Jude's to second place amongst the Catholic schools league and was offered scholarships to numerous prep schools. He selected Power Memorial Academy, an all-boys Catholic school whose coach, Jack Donohue, talked to his players and took them to professional games. Donohue motivated his players by appealing to their pride and exploiting their fear of humiliation, tactics that worked well with Alcindor. He put Lew on the varsity during his freshman year and encouraged him to emulate Bill Russell, the great Boston Celtics center.

In Lew's first year at Power, the team won all but six games. In his sophomore, junior, and senior years, Power lost just one game and won three straight Catholic league championships. Lew was named a high school All-American for three straight years and was the most publicized high school basketball player in the United States. But Lew's life wasn't just basketball. He shyly began to discover girls, found new friends, and became the "good kid" in an adventurous crowd. Expanding his horizons, he hung out with pro-basketball star Wilt Chamberlain, discovered jazz, and found that jazz heros like Thelonius Monk had jammed with his father.

As a black growing up in the early 1960s, Alcindor could not help but be aware of racism. Irish kids yelled "nigger" at him when he rode past their school. He saw "Whites Only" signs as he traveled to North Carolina for a friend's graduation. He remembered in Giant Steps that even Coach Donohue told him he was "acting just like a nigger," when he failed to hustle. Prejudice against blacks made Lew Alcindor both proud and angry. He began exploring black literature and writing articles on black history. When Harlem erupted in riots after a white policeman shot a black student, he felt the anger. That event occurred during the summer before his senior year. "Right then and there I knew who I was and who I had to be," he wrote in Kareem. "I was going to be black rage personified, black power in the flesh."

Alcindor accepted a scholarship from UCLA and began school in autumn of 1965. He studied English literature, played on the freshman basketball team, and read black literature. During that first season, Alcindor worked on his conditioning and his rebounding. At one point he led the freshman team to a 75-60 win over the varsity, which had won the national championship in two of the last three years. Alcindor's freshman team finished the season undefeated, and he set school records for scoring and rebounding.

In his second year, Alcindor joined the varsity and began working with coaching legend John Wooden. Wooden emphasized the importance of conditioning and impressed Alcindor with his integrity, his honesty, his concern for academics, and his absolute command of basketball strategy. As a result, Alcindor dominated college ball his sophomore year, averaging 29 points a game, leading the Bruins to an undefeated season. UCLA waltzed through the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament and won the championship against the University of Dayton. Dayton coach Don Donaher acknowledged in the New York World Journal Tribune that Alcindor's mere "presence is a great psychological hazard. The whole team has to worry about whether they're near him or not." In fact, Alcindor's dunk was so potent that the NCAA outlawed the shot.

As a junior, Alcindor worked at developing a hook shot and a jumper while still averaging 26.2 points per game. He got scratched in the eye at mid-season, however, and played poorly in the Bruins' only regular season loss, suffered against the University of Houston. At the two teams' next match-up, this one during tournament play, Alcindor silenced University of Houston star Elvin Hayes in the semi-finals before taking the championship against North Carolina. Senior year was much the same with Alcindor delivering the Bruins to a third straight title; he was honored as the NCAA Tournament's most outstanding player for the third year in a row. Though Alcindor persistently protested that UCLA was not a one-man team, Sports Illustrated 's Frank Deford wrote that "Alcindor's influence is so pervasive that it is difficult to determine how good his teammates really are." St. John's University coach Lou Carnesecca commented that "Alcindor has completely changed the aspect of the game. I saw great players actually afraid to shoot."

Alcindor was the first draft pick of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks in 1969, and his presence quickly turned professional basketball's doormat into a contender. Averaging 28.8 points a game his rookie season, he led the Bucks to a 56-26 record, a startling reversal from the previous year's dismal 27-55 record. The Bucks lost to the Knicks in the playoffs, but the fans cheered Alcindor, and Bucks announcer Eddie Doucette dubbed his potent hook shot "the skyhook." 15 years later Sports Illustrated wrote that no shot had, "ever been more dependable or unstoppable, [or] less vulnerable to time."

Before the 1970-71 season, Milwaukee obtained point guard Oscar Robertson, a perennial all-star and the man Abdul-Jabbar later called "the best all-around player in the history of basketball." With Robertson, Milwaukee defeated the Baltimore Bullets for the 1971 NBA championship, and their star center was named the NBA's most valuable player and the playoff MVP.

Meanwhile Alcindor was coming to a turning point in his faith, prompted by his experiences with racial discrimination and bigotry. Lew had refused to join the 1968 Olympic team because he felt blacks should not represent a country that denies them their full rights. Instead, he returned to New York City and studied Islam with Hamaas Abdul-Khaalis, a man who would have a profound influence on his life. "Hamaas taught me how to look at the world," he wrote in Giant Steps. "He taught me to deal with people not as parts of some blanket abstraction like Jews or Blacks or crackers [a derogatory term for poor Southern whites], but as individuals with their own ideas." Under Abdul-Khaalis's direction, Alcindor converted to Islam, and in 1971, took the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which means "generous powerful servant of Allah." He had never developed a rapport with the press, which portrayed him as a brooding big man; Abdul-Jabbar's conversion widened an already strained distance between him and the public.

In the early 1970s, Abdul-Jabbar was master of the basketball court, but he had ceded control of his personal life to his Muslim teacher. He studied under Abdul-Khaalis, allowed Abdul-Khaalis to choose his wife, Habiba--a woman Abdul-Jabbar knew but did not love--and financed Abdul-Khaalis's Muslim community in Washington, D.C. Abdul-Jabbar's relationship with Abdul-Khaalis brought conflict and, ultimately, grief. After Abdul-Jabbar studied Arabic at Harvard in 1971, he questioned his teacher's pronouncements. Bad feelings arose when Abdul-Khaalis excluded Abdul-Jabbar's non-Muslim parents from his marriage ceremony, and the marriage itself became a sore spot when Abdul-Jabbar and Habiba separated after the birth of their first daughter.

Abdul-Jabbar's relationship with Abdul-Khaalis led to what was perhaps the shock of his life. Abdul-Khaalis had been trying to convert black Muslims to traditional Islam. In retaliation, on January 18, 1973, black Muslim extremists invaded Abdul-Khaalis's townhouse and killed his wife and children. As Abdul-Khaalis's student and the owner of the building where Abdul-Khaalis lived, Abdul-Jabbar needed added security for the remainder of that year.

With so much personal turmoil, basketball became a kind of refuge. The Bucks returned to the finals in the 1973-74 season, but lost to the Boston Celtics in a hard-fought seven-game series. After a disastrous 1974-75 season--Robertson retired and Abdul-Jabbar broke his hand on a backboard support after being scratched in the eye--Abdul-Jabbar, who had long felt out of place in conservative Milwaukee, asked to be traded. That June he was sent to the Lakers for Junior Bridgeman, Dave Meyers, Brian Winters, and Elmore Smith.

In college, Abdul-Jabbar had found Los Angeles shallow and conservative. Now he liked it. He mixed with celebrities, made television commercials, and acted in movies such as Airplane and Enter the Dragon, with Bruce Lee. He began seeing Cheryl Pistino--a woman who reminded him how much he had to offer. He reestablished relations with his parents; whenever he appeared on television he exclaimed, "Hi to Moms and Pops in New York!" He even began appreciating his fans.

Throughout the late 1970s, the Lakers were one of the premier teams in the NBA, but with their nearly exclusive reliance on Abdul-Jabbar as their leading scorer and defender, they failed to match up against the league's more well-rounded squads. Abdul-Jabbar was mired in several controversies during these years. On the court, Abdul-Jabbar's long simmering resentment against bullying boiled into a rage, and he decked Milwaukee center Kent Benson after Benson elbowed him in the stomach. Abdul-Jabbar broke his own hand in the incident and the league later fined him $5,000. Off the court, his dealings with Abdul-Khaalis remained a problem, too. On March 9, 1977, Abdul-Khaalis and several associates invaded Washington's city hall to protest the film Muhammad Messenger of God. During the occupation, a reporter was killed. Abdul-Khaalis was tried and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Abdul-Jabbar paid the legal bills.

In 1979, the Lakers drafted Earvin "Magic" Johnson out of Michigan State University. "After my first day in practice with him," Abdul-Jabbar wrote in Giant Steps, "I was sure that with Earvin at point guard we could go a long way, maybe all the way." Abdul-Jabbar was right: with Magic's help, the Lakers finished first in their division, waltzed through the playoffs, and faced Philadelphia in the finals. Abdul-Jabbar played brilliantly in the series, but in the fifth game, he fractured his foot while coming down for a rebound. Wanting the title badly, he got taped, returned to the floor in pain, and scored an incredible 40 points. In the sixth game, the Lakers won the 1980 NBA title, but Abdul-Jabbar had to watch it on television. The Lakers swept to the title again in 1982.

On January 31, 1983, Abdul-Jabbar's Bel Aire house caught fire and burned to the ground, consuming a collection of valuable oriental rugs, 3,000 jazz albums, and several priceless Korans, or Islamic holy books. Fortunately Abdul-Jabbar, Cheryl Pistino, and their son Amir escaped unhurt. The blow was tremendous, but he found solace in Islam, in his family, and in the fans and friends who sent jazz albums to replace the ones he lost.

Both Abdul-Jabbar and the Lakers continued meeting with success in the 1980s. Abdul-Jabbar published his best-selling autobiography, Giant Steps, in 1983, and a year later he broke Wilt Chamberlain's all-time scoring record of 31,419 points. The Lakers went to the NBA finals in 1983 and 1984, losing first to the Philadelphia 76ers and later to the Boston Celtics. The Lakers and the Celtics met again in 1985, and this time the Lakers found a way to beat the Celtics. Abdul-Jabbar was magnificent. "He shocked the Boston Celtics and the cynics by playing five of the most intense games of his life, capturing his fourth championship trophy and his second playoff MVP award," a Sports Illustrated writer reported.

In Kareem, his 1990 record of his final year in basketball, Abdul-Jabbar wrote that the victory over Boston made the Lakers "great," and indeed they were. They won the finals again in 1987 and 1988, beating Boston and then the Detroit Pistons to become the first team to repeat since Bill Russell retired from the Celtics in 1969. The Lakers truly were the team of the 1980s, having won the championship five times in the decade.

Abdul-Jabbar finished his NBA career during the 1988-89 season. As he traveled around the league, in what one newspaper described as "the magical history tour," fans cheered and teams gave him presents. Though his own play was sub par, the Lakers swept through the playoffs before losing 4-0 to Detroit in the finals. When he retired at 42, Abdul-Jabbar was the oldest player ever to play in the league and the record-holder in points (38,387), seasons (20), games (1,560), minutes played (57,446), field goals made (15,837), field goals attempted (28,307), and blocked shots (3,189). Though he is considered one of the best players to ever play the game, Abdul-Jabbar told Playboy in 1986: "I've played professional basketball longer than anyone else.... I just hope that in remembering me, people will acknowledge my professionalism and consistency."

Abdul-Jabbar's has been an active retirement. His second autobiographical work, Kareem, which uses his final season as a springboard for memories and insights about the game, was very well received. Washington Post reviewer Jonathan Yardley deemed Kareem "the best book by a sports figure in many years," and Sports Illustrated contributor Steve Rushin noted that "Abdul-Jabbar is offering that rarity among sports autobiographies--an unvarnished opinion." Abdul-Jabbar did not leave basketball behind entirely upon retirement, spearheading an exhibition team on a tour of Saudi Arabia in 1991, and playing in a pay-per-view, one-on-one basketball match in 1992 against fellow former NBA great Julius "Dr. J" Erving. There may be another Kareem Abdul-Jabbar playing professional basketball in the future, however; the star center's namesake son stars on the Brentwood, California, high school basketball team and dreams of one day making it to the NBA.

In addition to his involvement in basketball, Abdul-Jabbar remains active in television and motion pictures. Having played bit parts in several television shows-- Mannix, Different Strokes, 21 Jump Street --and movies-- Game of Death, Airplane, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, Fletch --during his basketball career, Abdul-Jabbar also appeared in The Stand, a 1994 miniseries based on the book by novelist Stephen King. Behind the camera, Abdul-Jabbar has worked as executive-producer for a made-for-TV movie about civil rights pioneer Vernon Johns, and has been involved in developing a motion picture about the Negro baseball leagues and a television movie about an all-black unit serving in World War II. Abdul-Jabbar also presides over Cranberry Records, a record label that encourages the work of young jazz artists. Perhaps his most gratifying and well-deserved moment following his retirement, however, came in 1994, when he was honored by President Clinton as one of "The Great Ones" in the first National Sports Awards, joining Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali, Wilma Rudolph, and Ted Williams.

Awards

NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, 1967, 1968, 1969; NBA Rookie of the Year, 1970; NBA Most Valuable Player 1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980; NBA All-Star Team 19 times; NBA Play-off Most Valuable Player, 1971, 1985.

Further Reading

Books

  • Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, and Peter Knobler, Giant Steps: An Autobiography of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bantam Books, 1983.
  • Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, with Mignon McCarthy, Kareem, Random House, 1990.
  • Doucette, Eddie, The Milwaukee Bucks and the Remarkable Abdul-Jabbar, Prentice-Hall, 1974.
  • Hano, Arnold, Kareem!: Basketball Great, Putnam, 1975.
  • Haskins, James, From Lew Alcindor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lothrop, 1978.
  • Jackson, H. C., Jabbar: Giant of the NBA, Walck, 1972.
  • Margolies, Jacob, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Basketball Great, F.
  • Watts, 1992.
  • May, Julian, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Cage Superstar, Crestwood, 1973.
  • Pepe, Phil, Stand Tall: The Lew Alcindor Story, Grosset & Dunlap, 1970.
Periodicals
  • Ebony, August 1991.
  • Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1994.
  • Playboy, June 1986, pp. 55-68.
  • Rolling Stone, April 10, 1986, p. 17.
  • Sporting News, May 1, 1989, p. 6; July 3, 1989, p. 40.
  • Sports Illustrated, April 3, 1967; December 23-30, 1985, p. 78; October 19, 1987, p. 89; January 23, 1989, p. 31; February 12, 1990, p. 34; March 26, 1990, p. 8; February 10, 1992, p. 42.
  • Washington Post, March 28, 1990; June 21, 1993.
  • World Journal Tribune (New York), March 27, 1967.

— Jordan Wankoff

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 1987.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 1987. (credit: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
(born April 16, 1947, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. basketball player. During his college career at UCLA, the team lost only two games, and he led it to three national championships (1966 – 68). He then joined the Milwaukee Bucks; in 1975 he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Standing 7 ft 1 3/8 in. (2 m 17 cm), he was the dominant centre of his time and helped his teams to six NBA titles. By the time he retired in 1989, he had scored a record 38,387 points. He also set the record for most field goals (15,837) and most minutes played (57,446). He was voted Most Valuable Player a record six times.

For more information on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, visit Britannica.com.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem
(kərēm' ăb'dʊl jəbär') , 1947–, American basketball player, b. New York City as Ferdinand Lewis (Lew) Alcindor. At 7 ft 2 in. (218 cm), he led the Univ. of California, Los Angeles, to three national titles (1967–69). He was the National Basketball Association's number one draft pick in 1969, joining the Milwaukee Bucks as center. In 1970 he was rookie of the year, and in the 1970–71 season he led the Bucks to the championship. In 1975 he left Milwaukee to join the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he played until his retirement in 1989. Abdul-Jabbar won the NBA's most-valuable-player honor six times and set the NBA all-time records in games played (1,560; since broken), points made (38,387), and field goals made (15,837). He was an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2000 and head coach of a minor-league basketball team in 2002. He has written, with Stephen Singular, A Season on the Reservation (2000), about his experience coaching Apache high-school basketball players, and also coauthored Black Profiles in Courage (2000) and Brothers in Arms (2004).

Bibliography

See his coauthored autobiographies (1987, 1990).

 
Quotes By: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Quotes:

"I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind."

"Your mind is what makes everything else work."

"One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team."

"You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go... Don't ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body."

 
Wikipedia: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the White House in 2006.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the White House in 2006.
Position Center
Nickname "The King","The Sky Hook"
Height  ft  in ( m)
Weight  lb ( kg)
Nationality USA
Born April 16 1947 (1947--) (age 60)
Flag of New York Harlem, New York
College UCLA
Draft 1st overall, 1969
Milwaukee Bucks
Pro career 1969–1989
Former teams Milwaukee Bucks (1969 – 75)
Los Angeles Lakers (1975 – 89)
Awards 1967-68 USBWA College Player of the Year
1969 Naismith Award
Six-time NBA MVP
Six-time Sporting News NBA MVP
Six-time NBA Champion
Two-time Finals MVP
NBA Rookie of the Year (1970)
Hall of Fame 1995

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. on April 16, 1947) is a retired American professional basketball player and current assistant coach. He was known as Lew Alcindor before changing his name in the fall of 1971, several years after converting to Islam.[1]

Considered one of the greatest players of all time, the 7ft-2in (2.18 m) Abdul-Jabbar played center for UCLA from 1965 – 69. Later, he played professionally for the Milwaukee Bucks (1969 – 75) and the Los Angeles Lakers (1975 – 89), accumulating 38,387 points, the NBA's highest career total. He was famous for his "Skyhook" shot which was almost impossible to block because Kareem's body was between the basket and his arm, and because of his height. His on-court success was unprecedented; he won a record six Most Valuable Player Awards, played on six championship teams as a professional, and played on three NCAA championship teams under coach John Wooden as a collegian. His high school team won 72 consecutive games and his UCLA teams were an unmatched 88-2. After a then-record 20 professional seasons in the NBA, Abdul-Jabbar retired from the game in 1989. Following his success as a professional athlete, Abdul-Jabbar has become known as a successful basketball coach, author, and part-time actor.

Biography

Early life

He was born the only child of Cora, a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Sr., a police officer and jazz musician both from the island of Trinidad and Tobago, in Harlem, New York City.[2] At birth, he weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (5730 g), and was twenty-four and a half inches (69 cm) long.[3] He was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended St. Jude School in Inwood, New York.[4] From an early age he began his record-breaking basketball accomplishments. In high school, he led Power Memorial High School to three straight New York City Catholic championships, a 72-game winning streak, and a 96 – 6 overall record. He scored 2067 points in his high school career.

College

Heavily sought by collegiate basketball programs, he played for the UCLA Bruins from 1966 to 1969 under coach John Wooden, contributing to the team's three-year record of 88 wins and only two losses, one to Houston (see below) and the other to crosstown rival USC who played a "stall game" (i.e., there was no shot clock, so a team could exploit the rules by, basically, holding the ball as long as it wanted before attempting to score). During his college career he was twice named Player of the Year (1967, 1969), was a three-time First Team All-American (1967-69), played on three NCAA Basketball champion teams (1967, 1968, 1969), was honored as the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament (1967, 1968, 1969), and became the first-ever Naismith College Player of the Year in 1969. In 1967, 1968 he also won USBWA College Player of the Year which later became the Oscar Robertson Trophy. Note: Freshmen were not eligible to play, so Alcindor only had 3 years to play, not four.

The dunk was banned in college basketball after the 1967 season, primarily because of Alcindor's dominant use of the shot.[5]

While playing for UCLA, he suffered a scratched left cornea on January 12, 1968 at the Cal game. He would miss the next two games against Stanford and Portland. This happened right before the momentous game against Houston. His cornea later would be scratched again during his pro career and he would then wear goggles for protection.

During his college years, Alcindor was a pupil of the martial arts master Bruce Lee, and studied Lee's Jeet Kune Do style.

Game of the Century

On January 20, 1968, Alcindor and the UCLA Bruins faced the Houston Cougars in the first-ever nationally televised regular season college basketball game. In front of a record 52,693 fans at the Houston Astrodome, Elvin Hayes scored 39 points and had 15 rebounds--while limiting Alcindor to just 15 points--as Houston beat UCLA 71-69. The Bruins 47-game winning streak ended in what has been called the "Game of the Century". Hayes and Alcindor would have a rematch in the 1968 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament where UCLA would defeat Houston in the semi-finals 101-69.

School records

As of the 2006-2007 season, Abdul-Jabbar still holds a number of individual records at UCLA – remarkable, in part, because at the time freshman were ineligible for varsity basketball:

  • Highest career Scoring Average: 26.4
  • Most career Field Goals: 943
  • Most season Points: 870 (1967)
  • Highest season Scoring Average: 29.0 (1967)
  • Most season Field Goals: 346 (1967)
  • Most season Free Throw Attempts: 274 (1967)
  • Most single game Points: 61 and Most single game field goals: 26 (vs. Washington State, 2/25/67)

Milwaukee Bucks

The Harlem Globetrotters offered him $1 million to play for them, but he declined, and was picked first in the 1969 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, only in their second season, who won the coin-toss for first pick over the Phoenix Suns.

Lew Alcindor's entry into the NBA was timely, as center Bill Russell had just left the Boston Celtics, and Wilt Chamberlain, though still effective, was then 33 years old. Alcindor's presence enabled the 1969-70 Bucks to claim second place in the NBA's Eastern Division with a 56-26 record (up from 27-55 the previous year), and he was an instant star, ranking second in the league in scoring (28.8 ppg) and third in rebounding (14.5 rpg), for which he was awarded the title of NBA Rookie of the Year.

With the addition of Oscar Robertson, Milwaukee went on to record a league-best 66 victories in 1970-71, including a then-record of 20 straight wins. Alcindor was awarded his first of six NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, along with his first scoring title (31.7 ppg). In the playoffs, the Bucks went 12-2 (including a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals) and Alcindor was named Finals MVP. On May 1, 1971, the day after the Bucks won the NBA championship, he adopted the Arabic name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, meaning "noble, servant of the powerful one [i.e. of Allah]."

Abdul-Jabbar remained a dominant force for Milwaukee, repeating as scoring champion (34.8 ppg) and NBA Most Valuable Player the following year, and helping the Bucks to repeat as division leaders for four straight years. In 1973, Abdul-Jabbar won his third MVP Award in five years and was among the top five NBA players in scoring (27.0 ppg, third), rebounding (14.5 rpg, fourth), blocked shots (283, second), and field goal percentage (.539, second).

While remaining relatively injury-free throughout his NBA career, Abdul-Jabbar twice broke his hand. The first time was during a pre-season game in 1974, when he was bumped hard and got his eye scratched, which angered him enough to punch the basket support stanchion. When he returned, after missing the first 16 games of the season, he started to wear protective goggles. The second time he broke his hand was in the opening game of the 1977-78 season. Two minutes into the game, Abdul-Jabbar punched Milwaukee's Kent Benson in retaliation for an overly aggressive elbow. He was out for two months.

Although Abdul-Jabbar always spoke well of Milwaukee and its fans, after a few seasons he said that being in the Midwest did not fit his cultural needs and requested a trade to either New York or Los Angeles in October, 1974.[6]

Los Angeles Lakers

In 1975, the Lakers acquired Abdul-Jabbar and reserve center Walt Wesley from the Bucks for center Elmore Smith, guard Brian Winters, and rookie "blue chippers" Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgeman. In his first season with Los Angeles, Abdul-Jabbar had a dominating season, averaging 27.7 points per game and leading the league in rebounding, blocked shots, and minutes played. His 1,111 defensive rebounds remains the NBA single-season record (defensive rebounds were not recorded prior to the 1973-74 season). He earned his fourth MVP award, but missed the post-season for the second straight season.

In the 1976-77 season, Abdul-Jabbar had another strong season. He led the league in field goal percentage, finished second in rebounds and blocked shots, and third in points per game. He helped lead the Lakers to the best record in the NBA, and he won his record tying fifth MVP award. In the playoffs, the Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference semi-finals, setting up a confrontation with the Portland Trailblazers. The result was a memorable matchup, pitting Abdul-Jabbar against a young, injury free Bill Walton. Although Abdul-Jabbar dominated the series statistically, Walton and the Trailblazers (who were experiencing their first-ever run in the playoffs) swept the Lakers, behind Walton's skillful passing and leadership.

Abdul-Jabbar play remained strong during the next two seasons, being named to the All-NBA Second Team twice, the All-Defense First Team once, and the All-Defense Second Team once. The Lakers, however, continued to be stymied in the playoffs, being eliminated by the Seattle Supersonics in both 1978 and 1979.

In 1979, the Lakers acquired 1st overall draft pick Earvin "Magic" Johnson. The trade and draft paved the way for a second Abdul-Jabbar dynasty as the Lakers went on to become the most dominant team of the 1980s, appearing in the finals eight times and winning five NBA championships. Individually, while Jabbar was not the dominant center he was in the 1970s, he experienced a number of highlight moments. Among them were his record sixth MVP award in 1980, four more All-NBA First Team designations, two more All-Defense First Team designations, the 1985 Finals MVP, and on April 24, 1984 he broke Wilt Chamberlain's record for career points.

While in L.A., Abdul-Jabbar started doing yoga in 1976 to improve his flexibility, and was notable for his physical fitness regimen.[7]

In 1983, Abdul-Jabbar's house burnt down, incinerating many of his belongings including his beloved jazz LP collection. Many Lakers fans sent and brought him albums, which he found uplifting.[8]

On June 28, 1989, after twenty professional seasons, Abdul-Jabbar announced his retirement. On his "retirement tour" he received standing ovations at all the games, home and away. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls that in Abdul-Jabbar's farewell game, many Lakers and Celtics legends participated. Every player wore Abdul-Jabbar's trademark goggles and had to try a sky hook at least once, which led to comic results. The Lakers made the NBA Finals in each of Abdul-Jabbar's final three seasons, defeating Boston in 1987, and Detroit in 1988. The Lakers lost, however, to the Pistons in a four game sweep in his final season. In his final season every NBA team gave him a present from a yacht that said "Captain Skyhook" to more traditional items as all of his framed jerseys of his basketball career to an Afghan rug.

Post-NBA career

Since 2005, Abdul-Jabbar has served as special assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. Abdul-Jabbar had been interested in coaching since his retirement, and given the influence he had on the league, he thought that the opportunity would present itself. However, during his playing years, Abdul-Jabbar had developed a reputation, however unjustifiable, of being introverted and sullen. He did not speak to the press, leading to the impression that he disliked them. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls instances when Abdul-Jabbar brushed him off when Magic (as a ballboy) asked for his autograph, Abdul-Jabbar froze out reporters who gave him a too enthusiastic handshake or even hugged him, or refused to stop reading the newspaper while giving an interview. Many basketball observers, in addition to Abdul-Jabbar, believe that Kareem's reticence, whether through disdain for the press corps or simply because of introversion, contributed to the dearth of coaching opportunities offered to Kareem by the NBA. In his words, he said he had a mindset he could not overcome, and proceeded through his career oblivious to the effect his reticence may have had on his coaching prospects in the future. Kareem said: "I didn't understand that I also had affected people that way and that's what it was all about. I always saw it like they were trying to pry. I was way too suspicious and I paid a price for it."[9] Since he began lobbying for a coaching position in 1995, he has managed to obtain only low-level assistant and scouting jobs in the NBA, and a head coaching position only in a minor professional league.

Abdul-Jabbar has worked as an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Seattle SuperSonics, helping mentor, among others, their young centers, Michael Olowokandi and Jerome James. Abdul-Jabbar was the head coach of the Oklahoma Storm United States Basketball League in 2002, leading the team to the league's championship that season, but he failed to land the head coaching position at Columbia University a year later.[10] He then worked as a scout for the New York Knicks.[11] Finally, on September 2, 2005, he returned to the Lakers as a special assistant to Phil Jackson to help the Lakers' centers, and in particular their young draftee Andrew Bynum.[12] Abdul-Jabbar has also served as a volunteer coach at Alchesay High School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona since 1998.[13]

Acting career

Playing in Los Angeles facilitated Abdul-Jabbar's trying his hand at acting. Abdul-Jabbar made his movie debut in Bruce Lee's posthumous 1978 film Game of Death, in which his character Hakim fought Billy Lo (played by Lee). His character was the last and most dangerous guardian that Bruce Lee's character had to face. In the extended footage of the final fight scenes of the film (which was shot in 1973), which last about half an hour, Abdul-Jabbar and Lee fight on the highest level of a pagoda in which Lee's character had to fight his way up. From Lee's viewpoint, the highest level on the pagoda is where Jeet Kune Do, represented by Abdul-Jabbar himself, is found. Through the entire fight, both men not only fight with an ease hard to obtain, but they both make it known neither of them fear death.

In 1980, he played co-pilot Roger Murdock in Airplane! Abdul-Jabbar has a memorable scene in which a little boy looks at him and remarks that he is in fact Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Staying in character, Abdul-Jabbar states that he is merely Roger Murdock, an airline co-pilot, but the boy continues to insist that he is "the greatest", but that, according to his father, he doesn't "work hard on defense" and "never really tries, except during the playoffs". This causes Abdul-Jabbar's character to blow a fuse, grab the boy and snarl he has heard "that crap since UCLA", he "busts his buns every night" and the boy should tell his old man to "drag [Bill] Walton and [Bob] Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes". When Murdock passes out later in the film, he is carried out wearing Abdul-Jabbar's goggles and yellow Lakers' shorts.

He has had numerous other TV and film appearances, often playing himself, including appearances in the movie Fletch, the sitcom Full House, Diff'rent Strokes (his height humorously contrasted with that of diminutive child star Gary Coleman), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Scrubs. He also appeared in the telemovie version of Stephen King's The Stand, played himself in Slam Dunk Ernest, The Mighty Ducks II and a brief non-speaking cameo appearance in BASEketball. Kareem was also the co-executive producer of the 1994 TV movie, The Vernon Johns Story.

Player profile

Abdul-Jabbar played the center position and is regarded as one of the best players of all time. He is the all-time leading NBA scorer with 38,387 points, having collected six titles, six regular season MVP and two Finals MVP awards, fifteen NBA First or Second Teams, a record nineteen NBA All-Star call-ups and averaging 24.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.6 blocks per game. He is also the third all-time in registered blocks (3,189), which is even more impressive because this stat had not been recorded until the fourth year of his career (1974).

On offense, Abdul-Jabbar was an unstoppable low-post threat. In contrast to other low-post dominators like Wilt Chamberlain, Artis Gilmore or Shaquille O'Neal, Abdul-Jabbar was a relatively slender player, standing 7-2 but only weighing 225 lbs. However, he made up for his relative lack of bulk by showing textbook finesse and was famous for his ambidextrous skyhook shot (see below), which defenders found impossible to block. It contributed to his high .559 field goal accuracy, making him the eighth most accurate scorer of all time[14] and a feared clutch shooter. Abdul-Jabbar was also quick enough to run the "Showtime" fast break led by Magic Johnson and was well-conditioned, standing on the hardwood an average 36.8 minutes. In contrast to other big men, Abdul-Jabbar also could reasonably hit his free throws, finishing with a career 72% average.

On defense, Abdul-Jabbar maintained a dominant presence. He was selected to the NBA All-Defensive Team eleven times. He frustrated opponents with his superior shot-blocking ability, denying an average 2.6 shots a game.

As a teammate, Abdul-Jabbar exuded natural leadership and was affectionately called "Cap" or "Captain" by his colleagues. He was also known for his strict fitness regime, which made him one of the most durable players of all time. In the NBA, his 20 seasons and 1,560 games are performances surpassed only by fellow legend Robert Parish.

Abdul-Jabbar made the NBA's 35th and 50th Anniversary Teams and in 1996 was named one of the 50 Greatest Players of All Time.

Sky hook

Abdul-Jabbar was well known for his trademark "sky hook", a hook shot in which he bent his body like a straw in one fluid motion to raise the ball (rather just than moving the arm) and let the ball go at the highest point of his arm's arcing motion. As he stood 7 feet 2 inches tall, the sky hook was nearly impossible for a defender to block without goaltending. Only a few have blocked his legendary skyhook, including basketball great Wilt Chamberlain and Hakeem Olajuwon. It was a reliable and feared offensive weapon and contributed to his high lifetime field goal percentage of .559. As a twist, he was adept at shooting the skyhook with either hand, which made him even more difficult to defend. According to Abdul-Jabbar, he learned the move in fifth grade and soon learned to value it, as it was "the only shot I could use that didn't get smashed back in my face".[15]

Professional basketball career and statistics

Teams and years

Statistics

  • Jersey number - 33
  • Games played - 1560 (2nd most in NBA history)
  • Field goal % - 55.9 (8th highest in NBA history)
  • Free throw % - 72.1
  • Three-point % - .056
  • Rebounds - 17,440 (3rd most in NBA history)
  • Rebounds per game - 11.2 (tied for 24th highest in NBA history)
  • Assists - 5,660 (31st in NBA history)
  • Assist per game - 3.6
  • Steals - 1,160
  • Steals per game - 0.74
  • Blocks - 3,189 (3rd most in NBA history) (Note: blocks were not officially tabulated until the 1973-74 season)
  • Blocks per game - 2.57
  • Points per game - 24.6 (12th highest)
  • Holds NBA career record for:
    • Most points - 38,387
    • Most minutes played (57,446)
    • Most field goals made (15,837)
    • Most field goals attempted (28,307)
    • Most All-Star selections (19)
    • Most All-Star games played (18)
    • Most playoff games played (237)

Athletic honors

Books authored

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at a book signing.
Enlarge
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at a book signing.

Abdul-Jabbar is also a bestselling author, the latest of his books being "On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance". The book previous to that was "Brothers In Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII's Forgotten Heroes" (Publisher: Broadway 2004, ISBN 0-385-50338-5), co-written with Anthony Walton. It is the history of the 761st Battalion, an all-black armored unit that served in Europe in World War Two.

Other books:

  • Giant Steps, with Peter Knobler (1987) ISBN 0-553-05044-3 (The book's title is an homage to jazz great John Coltrane.)
  • Kareem (1990) ISBN 0-394-55927-4
  • Selected from Giant Steps (Writers' Voices) (1999) ISBN 0-7857-9912-5
  • Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement, with Alan Steinberg (1996) ISBN 0-688-13097-6
  • A Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apaches, with Stephen Singular (2000) ISBN 0-688-17077-3

Personal life

Abdul-Jabbar was married to Habiba Abdul-Jabbar (nee Janice Brown), and together they had three children: daughters Habiba and Sultana and son Kareem. They were divorced in 1978. He has another son Amir with Cheryl Pistono. His last child was his son Adam, who made an appearance on the tv show "Full House" with his father. He has also previously dated Pam Grier.[16]

Speaking about the thinking behind his change of name when he converted to Islam he said to Playboy magazine that he was "latching on to something that was part of my heritage, because many of the slaves who were brought here were Muslims. My family was brought to America by a French planter named Alcindor, who came here from Trinidad in the 18th Century. My people were Yoruba, and their culture survived slavery (...) My father found out about that when I was a kid, and it gave me all I needed to know that, hey, I was somebody, even if nobody else knew about it. When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. And that's a terrible burden on black people, because they don't have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted."[17]

Abdul-Jabbar reached a settlement after suing Miami Dolphins running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar (born Sharmon Shah) because he felt Karim was sponging off the name he made famous by having the Abdul-Jabbar moniker and number 33 on Dolphins jerseys, even though names are not protectable under United States copyright laws. As a result the younger Abdul-Jabbar had to change his jersey nameplate to simply 'Abdul' while playing for the Dolphins.[18] The football player had also been an athlete at UCLA.

Kareem suffers from migraines,