Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. on April 16, 1947 in New York City, New York, United States) is a former American professional basketball player and current assistant coach. Typically referred to as Lew Alcindor in his younger days, he changed his name when he converted to Islam.
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 defenders found virtually impossible to block. 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.
Contents
1 Early years
1.1 College
1.1.1 Game of the Century
1.1.2 School records
2 Professional athletics
2.1 Milwaukee Bucks
2.2 Los Angeles Lakers
2.3 Post-NBA career
3 Film career
4 Player profile
5 Sky hook
6 Professional basketball career and statistics
6.1 Teams and years
6.2 Statistics
7 Athletic honors
8 Books authored
9 Personal life
10 Appearances in the media
11 In popular culture
12 Trivia
13 See also
14 References
15 External links
Early years
He was born to Cora and Ferdinand Lewis "Al" Alcindor as an only child in Harlem, New York City, in 1947, and at birth weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (5730 gm), and was twenty-four and a half inches (69 cm) long. [1] He was raised as a Roman Catholic. 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 (at the time freshmen were not eligible for varsity athletics). 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 Oscar Robertson Trophy.
The dunk was disallowed from college basketball after the 1967 season, primarily because of Alcindor's dominance of the sport. [2]
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.
Game of the Century
Main article: Game of the Century (college basketball)
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)
Professional athletics
Milwaukee Bucks
The Harlem Globetrotters offered him $1 million to play for them, but he declined, and he 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 aging, at 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 Bulletts 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.
Los Angeles Lakers
While Milwaukee was slowly improving, the Los Angeles Lakers were winning their own way. During the 1971-1972 season, the L.A. Lakers, led by Gail Goodrich, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West, won an NBA record 33 consecutive games on their way to their first championship in Los Angeles. 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. And in 1979, they would acquire 1st overall draft pick Earvin "Magic" Johnson , who would average 19.5 points and 11.2 assists in his 14 years in the NBA, with 3 MVP awards and 10,141 assists. 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.
While in L.A., Abdul-Jabbar started doing yoga in 1976 to improve his flexibility, and was notable for his physical fitness regimen. [3] He was also a pupil of the martial arts master Bruce Lee, and studied Lee's Jeet Kune Do style. [4]
In 1983, Abdul-Jabbar's house burnt down, incinerating among his belongings his beloved collection of jazz albums. Many Lakers fans started bringing him albums and other items to replace his losses, which Abdul-Jabbar found uplifting [5].
On June 28, 1989, after a record-setting 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 his 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.
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 has had on the league, he had presumed that opportunities in that realm would come easily. However, during his playing years, Abdul-Jabbar had developed a reputation of being introverted and sullen, often refusing to speak to the press, leading to the impression that he had nothing to say. 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.
It is widely believed, including by Abdul-Jabbar himself, though he acknowledges his own culpability in creating that impression, that this reputation has contributed greatly to the lack of coaching opportunities that have thus far been presented to him. In his words, he said he had a mindset he could not overcome, and went through his career unable to realize how much impact he had on and off the court. Abdul-Jabbar 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.".[1] 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 their young centers, Michael Olowokandi and Jerome James, respectively. Abdul-Jabbar was the head coach in 2002 of the Oklahoma Storm of the United States Basketball League (winning that league's championship that season), but he failed to land the head coaching position at Columbia University a year later. He then worked as a scout for the New York Knicks. Finally, on September 2, 2005, he returned to the Lakers as a special assistant to Phil Jackson to help develop the team's young center Andrew Bynum. Abdul-Jabbar has also served as a volunteer coach at Alchesay High School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona since 1998.
Film career
Playing in Los Angeles facilitated Abdul-Jabbar's trying his hand at acting. Abdul-Jabbar made his movie debut in Bruce Lee's 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 last about half an hour, Abdul-Jabbar and Lee fight on the highest level of a pagoda 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 David Zucker's comedy, Airplane! In this famous movie, 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 hit Chevy Chase movie Fletch, the ABC sitcom Full House, 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 starring Jim Varney, The Mighty Ducks II with Emilio Estevez and made a brief non-speaking cameo appearance in another David Zucker comedy, 1998's BASEketball. In addition, Kareem was the co-executive producer of the 1994 TV movie, The Vernon Johns Story.
Player profile
His list of personal and team accomplishments is perhaps the most awesome in league history.
— introductory line of Abdul-Jabbar's nba.com/history biography[2]
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 callups 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 [6] 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, one of them being Wilt Chamberlain. 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".[3]
Professional basketball career and statistics
Teams and years
1969-75 Milwaukee Bucks
1975-89 Los Angeles Lakers
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 in NBA history - 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)
[edit] Athletic honors
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (May 15, 1995)
College:
Player of the Year (1967, 1969)
Three-time First Team All-American (1967-69)
Three-time NCAA champion (1967, 1968, 1969)
Most Outstanding Player in NCAA Tournament (1967, 1968, 1969)
Naismith College Player of the Year (1969)
National Basketball Association:
Rookie of the Year (1970)
Six-time NBA champion (1971, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)
Most Valuable Player (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980)
Sporting News NBA MVP (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980)
Finals Most Valuable Player (1971, 1985)
Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" (1985)
One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996)
First player in NBA history to play 20 seasons
#7 in SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players of all time in 2003.
Books authored
Abdul-Jabbar is also a bestselling author, the latest of his books being 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.[4][5]
Abdul-Jabbar was known as Lew Alcindor early in his life, before he converted to Islam. He explained in an interview with 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.".[6]
Abdul-Jabbar was successful in 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. As a result the younger Abdul-Jabbar had to change his jersey nameplate to simply 'Abdul' while playing for the Dolphins[7]. The football player had also been an athlete at UCLA.
In 1998, Abdul-Jabbar was fined by Toronto authorities for possessing marijuana. On Tuesday, July 18, 2000, he was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of marijuana after failing a field sobriety test. Abdul-Jabbar has a prescription to smoke marijuana in the state of California, the result of nausea-inducing migraine headaches [8].
Kareem Abdul Jabbar Jr. made an appearance as a "stranger" on the TV game show Identity.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was one of Bruce Lee's students alongside Steve McQueen and James Coburn.
Appearances in the media
Abdul-Jabbar has twice appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy!, coasting to dominant victories each time. His first appearance was against Larry King and Alexandra Paul in 1994; his second was against Martina Navratilova and Reggie Jackson in a special "athletes" edition in 1998.
[edit] In popular culture
In The Simpsons episode The Way We Weren't, Homer Simpson, as a child growing up and in an attempt to become more popular, says his name is "Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar" when asked what his name is; a reference to Abdul-Jabbar's status as a cultural icon in the 1970s.
The rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers honor him in their instrumental "Salute to Kareem" and anoint him an "all-time great super super star" in their song "Magic Johnson".
Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam wrote a song about Abdul-Jabbar based on the urban myth that he lost all of his money investing in hotels for tall people. The song, entitled "Sweet Lew", appears on the band's album of B-sides, Lost Dogs. The liner notes explain that Ament was inspired to write the song after being brushed off by his boyhood idol after meeting him at a celebrity basketball game.
Appeared in an episode of the TV show Diff'rent Strokes
Appeared in an episode of the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Appeared in an episode of the TV Show Everybody Loves Raymond.
Appeared in an episode of the TV show Scrubs.
Appeared in an episode of Full House.
Appeared on The Colbert Report.
Appeared in Sugar Ray's video for "When It's Over"
In the Cowboy Bebop episode Stray Dog Strut, the bounty Abdul Hakim is quite obviously modeled on Abdul-Jabbar's character 'Hakim' from "Game of Death" both in appearance and fighting style.
He is briefly mentioned in an early episode of the Slam Dunk anime, when Haruko and Ayako are talking about Rukawa, and they compare him to Abdul-Jabbar (to which a Dr. T segment ensues with a short biography on him).
In EPMD's "Never Seen Before" he is name-checked: "You go ooh and aah when I jump in my car - people treat me like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar"
In a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch on Saturday Night Live, he is mentioned in a category named "Famous Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's"
The band Hollywood Undead mentions Abdul-Jabbar's name in their song, "Turn off the Lights"
He is mentioned in the song "Trudgin'" by underground Los Angeles emcee FLYNN of LA Symphony: "I've been nibbled on, scribbled on, scraped and scarred/ Building character taller than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. on April 16, 1947 in New York City, New York, United States) is a former American professional basketball player and current assistant coach. Typically referred to as Lew Alcindor in his younger days, he changed his name when he converted to Islam.
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 defenders found virtually impossible to block. 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.
Contents
1 Early years
1.1 College
1.1.1 Game of the Century
1.1.2 School records
2 Professional athletics
2.1 Milwaukee Bucks
2.2 Los Angeles Lakers
2.3 Post-NBA career
3 Film career
4 Player profile
5 Sky hook
6 Professional basketball career and statistics
6.1 Teams and years
6.2 Statistics
7 Athletic honors
8 Books authored
9 Personal life
10 Appearances in the media
11 In popular culture
12 Trivia
13 See also
14 References
15 External links
Early years
He was born to Cora and Ferdinand Lewis "Al" Alcindor as an only child in Harlem, New York City, in 1947, and at birth weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (5730 gm), and was twenty-four and a half inches (69 cm) long. [1] He was raised as a Roman Catholic. 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 (at the time freshmen were not eligible for varsity athletics). 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 Oscar Robertson Trophy.
The dunk was disallowed from college basketball after the 1967 season, primarily because of Alcindor's dominance of the sport. [2]
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.
Game of the Century
Main article: Game of the Century (college basketball)
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)
Professional athletics
Milwaukee Bucks
The Harlem Globetrotters offered him $1 million to play for them, but he declined, and he 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 aging, at 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 Bulletts 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.
Los Angeles Lakers
While Milwaukee was slowly improving, the Los Angeles Lakers were winning their own way. During the 1971-1972 season, the L.A. Lakers, led by Gail Goodrich, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West, won an NBA record 33 consecutive games on their way to their first championship in Los Angeles. 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. And in 1979, they would acquire 1st overall draft pick Earvin "Magic" Johnson , who would average 19.5 points and 11.2 assists in his 14 years in the NBA, with 3 MVP awards and 10,141 assists. 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.
While in L.A., Abdul-Jabbar started doing yoga in 1976 to improve his flexibility, and was notable for his physical fitness regimen. [3] He was also a pupil of the martial arts master Bruce Lee, and studied Lee's Jeet Kune Do style. [4]
In 1983, Abdul-Jabbar's house burnt down, incinerating among his belongings his beloved collection of jazz albums. Many Lakers fans started bringing him albums and other items to replace his losses, which Abdul-Jabbar found uplifting [5].
On June 28, 1989, after a record-setting 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 his 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.
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 has had on the league, he had presumed that opportunities in that realm would come easily. However, during his playing years, Abdul-Jabbar had developed a reputation of being introverted and sullen, often refusing to speak to the press, leading to the impression that he had nothing to say. 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.
It is widely believed, including by Abdul-Jabbar himself, though he acknowledges his own culpability in creating that impression, that this reputation has contributed greatly to the lack of coaching opportunities that have thus far been presented to him. In his words, he said he had a mindset he could not overcome, and went through his career unable to realize how much impact he had on and off the court. Abdul-Jabbar 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.".[1] 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 their young centers, Michael Olowokandi and Jerome James, respectively. Abdul-Jabbar was the head coach in 2002 of the Oklahoma Storm of the United States Basketball League (winning that league's championship that season), but he failed to land the head coaching position at Columbia University a year later. He then worked as a scout for the New York Knicks. Finally, on September 2, 2005, he returned to the Lakers as a special assistant to Phil Jackson to help develop the team's young center Andrew Bynum. Abdul-Jabbar has also served as a volunteer coach at Alchesay High School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona since 1998.
Film career
Playing in Los Angeles facilitated Abdul-Jabbar's trying his hand at acting. Abdul-Jabbar made his movie debut in Bruce Lee's 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 last about half an hour, Abdul-Jabbar and Lee fight on the highest level of a pagoda 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 David Zucker's comedy, Airplane! In this famous movie, 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 hit Chevy Chase movie Fletch, the ABC sitcom Full House, 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 starring Jim Varney, The Mighty Ducks II with Emilio Estevez and made a brief non-speaking cameo appearance in another David Zucker comedy, 1998's BASEketball. In addition, Kareem was the co-executive producer of the 1994 TV movie, The Vernon Johns Story.
Player profile
His list of personal and team accomplishments is perhaps the most awesome in league history.
— introductory line of Abdul-Jabbar's nba.com/history biography[2]
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 callups 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 [6] 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, one of them being Wilt Chamberlain. 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".[3]
Professional basketball career and statistics
Teams and years
1969-75 Milwaukee Bucks
1975-89 Los Angeles Lakers
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 in NBA history - 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)
[edit] Athletic honors
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (May 15, 1995)
College:
Player of the Year (1967, 1969)
Three-time First Team All-American (1967-69)
Three-time NCAA champion (1967, 1968, 1969)
Most Outstanding Player in NCAA Tournament (1967, 1968, 1969)
Naismith College Player of the Year (1969)
National Basketball Association:
Rookie of the Year (1970)
Six-time NBA champion (1971, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)
Most Valuable Player (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980)
Sporting News NBA MVP (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980)
Finals Most Valuable Player (1971, 1985)
Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" (1985)
One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996)
First player in NBA history to play 20 seasons
#7 in SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players of all time in 2003.
Books authored
Abdul-Jabbar is also a bestselling author, the latest of his books being 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.[4][5]
Abdul-Jabbar was known as Lew Alcindor early in his life, before he converted to Islam. He explained in an interview with 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.".[6]
Abdul-Jabbar was successful in 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. As a result the younger Abdul-Jabbar had to change his jersey nameplate to simply 'Abdul' while playing for the Dolphins[7]. The football player had also been an athlete at UCLA.
In 1998, Abdul-Jabbar was fined by Toronto authorities for possessing marijuana. On Tuesday, July 18, 2000, he was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of marijuana after failing a field sobriety test. Abdul-Jabbar has a prescription to smoke marijuana in the state of California, the result of nausea-inducing migraine headaches [8].
Kareem Abdul Jabbar Jr. made an appearance as a "stranger" on the TV game show Identity.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was one of Bruce Lee's students alongside Steve McQueen and James Coburn.
Appearances in the media
Abdul-Jabbar has twice appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy!, coasting to dominant victories each time. His first appearance was against Larry King and Alexandra Paul in 1994; his second was against Martina Navratilova and Reggie Jackson in a special "athletes" edition in 1998.
[edit] In popular culture
In The Simpsons episode The Way We Weren't, Homer Simpson, as a child growing up and in an attempt to become more popular, says his name is "Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar" when asked what his name is; a reference to Abdul-Jabbar's status as a cultural icon in the 1970s.
The rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers honor him in their instrumental "Salute to Kareem" and anoint him an "all-time great super super star" in their song "Magic Johnson".
Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam wrote a song about Abdul-Jabbar based on the urban myth that he lost all of his money investing in hotels for tall people. The song, entitled "Sweet Lew", appears on the band's album of B-sides, Lost Dogs. The liner notes explain that Ament was inspired to write the song after being brushed off by his boyhood idol after meeting him at a celebrity basketball game.
Appeared in an episode of the TV show Diff'rent Strokes
Appeared in an episode of the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Appeared in an episode of the TV Show Everybody Loves Raymond.
Appeared in an episode of the TV show Scrubs.
Appeared in an episode of Full House.
Appeared on The Colbert Report.
Appeared in Sugar Ray's video for "When It's Over"
In the Cowboy Bebop episode Stray Dog Strut, the bounty Abdul Hakim is quite obviously modeled on Abdul-Jabbar's character 'Hakim' from "Game of Death" both in appearance and fighting style.
He is briefly mentioned in an early episode of the Slam Dunk anime, when Haruko and Ayako are talking about Rukawa, and they compare him to Abdul-Jabbar (to which a Dr. T segment ensues with a short biography on him).
In EPMD's "Never Seen Before" he is name-checked: "You go ooh and aah when I jump in my car - people treat me like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar"
In a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch on Saturday Night Live, he is mentioned in a category named "Famous Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's"
The band Hollywood Undead mentions Abdul-Jabbar's name in their song, "Turn off the Lights"
He is mentioned in the song "Trudgin'" by underground Los Angeles emcee FLYNN of LA Symphony: "I've been nibbled on, scribbled on, scraped and scarred/ Building character taller than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."
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