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.

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

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

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."

• 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

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