Abdul Jabbar, Kareem
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Wikipedia-Article "Kareem Abdul Jabbar"
- For the football player, see Karim Abdul-Jabbar.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born April 16, 1947 in New York City, New York) is a successful former high school, collegiate, and professional NBA basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points. Today, he is a successful coach, author, and part-time actor.
Born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. (usually known as Lew Alcindor), to Cora and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor in Harlem, New York City, he was a center who grew to 2.18 m (7 ft 2 in) tall.
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Early years
High school
He led Power Memorial Academy to three straight New York City Catholic championships, a 71-game winning streak, and a 96–6 overall record.
College
He played for the UCLA Bruins from 1965 to 1969 under coach John Wooden. During his time on the team, UCLA had 88 wins and only two losses. Alcindor graduated with a B.A. from UCLA. At UCLA, he suffered a scratched left cornea; from then on, he mostly played wearing goggles.
Professional athletics
The Harlem Globetrotters offered him $1 million to play for them, but he declined.
On a coin-flip with the Phoenix Suns, he would be the number one pick in the 1969 NBA Draft pick. The winner of the coin-flip was the Milwaukee Bucks, where he would play five seasons.
While at UCLA Abdul-Jabbar converted to Islam. He took his Arabic name in 1971, publicly announcing it on May 1 of that year, one day after the Bucks completed a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Bullets (known today as the Washington Wizards) in the NBA Finals. However, he has repeatedly denied any connections to the Nation of Islam, having been converted by a Turkish imam of the Hanafi school of thought, under whom he studied at UCLA.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was also notable for his physical fitness regimen. While in LA, he started doing yoga in 1976 to improve his flexibility. He was also a pupil of the kung fu master Bruce Lee, studying Lee's Jeet Kune Do style.
Abdul-Jabbar was famous for his "Skyhook" shot, against which it was notoriously difficult to defend. He averaged over 24 points and 10 rebounds over his career, and maintained a solid level of play well into his late 30s. He was named to the All-Star team even in his final season. After a then-record 20 pro seasons, Abdul- Jabbar retired from the game in 1989, leaving a legacy of professionalism, class, and success.
The trade
After the former Lew Alcindor changed his name and a couple seasons in Milwaukee under the new name, Kareem felt that the city didn't fit his cultural needs so he requested a trade to either the New York Knicks or the Los Angeles Lakers, In 1975, the Bucks traded him and reserve center Walt Wesley to the Los Angeles Lakers, for center Elmore Smith, guard Brian Winters and rookie blue chippers Dave Myers and Junior Bridgeman. The trade paved the way for a second Abdul-Jabbar dynasty as the Lakers went on to become one of the most dominant teams the next decade.
NBA Statistics
- Jersey Number - 33
- Games Played - 1560 (2nd highest in NBA history)
- Field Goal % - 55.9 (8th highest)
- Free Throw % - 75.1
- 3-Point % - 5.6
- Rebounds - 17,440 (3rd highest)
- Rebounds per Game - 11.2 (25th highest)
- Assists - 5660 (29th highest)
- Assist per Game - 3.6
- Steals - 1160
- Steals per Game - .74
- Blocks - 3189 (2nd highest)
- Blocks per Game - 2.6
- Points - 38,387 (highest)
- Points per Game - 24.6 (12th highest)
Coaching
Abdul-Jabbar had been interested in coaching since his retirement, and given the influence he has had on the league, he had presumed those chances would come easily. However, during his playing years, he 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. This reputation contributed greatly to his lack of coaching opportunities.
Since he began lobbying for a coaching position in 1995, he had only been able to work as an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Seattle SuperSonics, helping mentor their young centers, Michael Olowokandi and Jerome James, respectively. He was the head coach in 2002 of the Oklahoma Storm of the USBL, but failed in a bid to get the head coach position for Columbia University a year later. He then worked as a scout for the New York Knicks. Finally, on September 2, 2005, Abdul-Jabbar returned to the Lakers as a special assistant to Phil Jackson to help develop the team's young center Andrew Bynum. He has also served as a volunteer coach at Alchesay High School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona since 1998.
Player career
- 1965-69 UCLA
- 1969-75 Milwaukee Bucks
- 1975-89 Los Angeles Lakers
Trades report
- 1969 - The first pick in the first round for the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1969 NBA Draft.
- June 16, 1975 - Traded by the Milwaukee Bucks to the Los Angeles Lakers for Elmore Smith, Brian Winters, Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgeman.
- June 28, 1990 - Announced his retirement.
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)
- Played on three NCAA champion teams (1967, 1968, 1969)
- Most Outstanding Player in NCAA Tournament (1967, 1968, 1969)
- Naismith College Player of the Year (1969)
- NBA:
- NBA Rookie of the Year (1970)
- Played on NBA champion teams (1971, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)
- NBA MVP (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980) (a record 6 times)
- NBA Finals MVP (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
- Holds NBA career record for (in addition to total points):
- Minutes (57,446)
- Field goals attempted (28,307)
- Field goals made (15,837)
- #7 in SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players of all time in 2003.
Outside basketball
Actor
Playing for the Lakers allowed Jabbar to try his hand at acting. In 1980, he played co-pilot Roger Murdock in David Zucker's comedy, Airplane!. He had numerous other TV and film roles, often playing himself, such as in the hit Chevy Chase movie Fletch and the ABC sitcom Full House. Other notable roles include 1978's Game of Death, where his character Hakim fought Bruce Lee's character Billy Lo, and in Stephen King's telemovie version of The Stand. He also played himself in Slam Dunk Ernest starring Jim Varney and made a brief non-speaking cameo appearance in another David Zucker comedy, 1998's BASEketball. In addition, Abdul-Jabbar was co-executive producer of the 1994 TV movie, The Vernon Johns Story.
Author
He 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 0385503385), co-written with Anthony Walton. It is the history of the 761st Battalion, an all-black tank squadron.
Other books:
- Giant Steps with Peter Knobler (1987) ISBN 0553050443
- Kareem (1990) ISBN 0394559274
- Selected from Giant Steps (Writers' Voices) (1999) ISBN 0785799125
- Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement with Alan Steinburg (2000) ISBN 0380813416
- A Season on the Reservation: My Soujourn with the White Mountain Apaches with Stephen Singular (2000) ISBN 0688170773
Notes
Abdul-Jabbar has a prescription to smoke marijuana in the state of California, the result of nausea-inducing migraine headaches [1].
Abdul-Jabbar also was successful in suing Miami Dolphins running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar because he felt like Karim was sponging off of the name he made famous by having the Abdul-Jabbar moniker and number 33 on Dolphins jerseys, as a result the younger one had to change his jersey nameplate to simply 'Abdul' while playing for the Dolphins[2]. The football player had also been an athlete at UCLA.
While remaining virtually injury-free during his NBA career, Abdul-Jabbar broke his hand twice. The first time was during a pre-season game in 1974. 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 wearing 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.
The Milwaukee Bucks were only in their second season when they made Alcindor the first overall choice in the 1969 NBA Draft. (The Bucks' first season had been forgettable, at 27-55 and it won the coin toss for the first selection over the Phoenix Suns.) The time was ripe for a new center to dominate the league. Bill Russell had just left the Boston Celtics, and Wilt Chamberlain, though still effective, was almost 35 years old. With Alcindor aboard in 1969-70, the Bucks rose to second place in the Eastern Division with a 56-26 record. Alcindor was an instant star, placing second in the league in scoring (28.8 ppg) and third in rebounding (14.5 rpg). He handily won NBA Rookie of the Year honors.
During the offseason the Bucks traded for their ticket to the NBA title: 31-year-old guard Oscar Robertson from the Cincinnati Royals. With a supporting crew of Bobby Dandridge, Jon McGlocklin, Greg Smith, and a young Lucius Allen, Milwaukee recorded a league-best 66 victories in 1970-71, including a record 20 straight wins. Alcindor won his first NBA Most Valuable Player Award and his first scoring title (31.7 ppg) while placing fourth in rebounding (16.0 rpg). Milwaukee went 12-2 in the playoffs and dispatched the Baltimore Bullets in only the second NBA Finals sweep in league history. Alcindor was named Finals MVP.
Before the 1971-72 season Alcindor converted from Catholicism to Islam and took the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which means "noble, powerful servant." He was certainly a noble, powerful player, enjoying stellar years with Milwaukee. In 1971-72 he repeated as scoring champion (34.8 ppg) and NBA Most Valuable Player, and the Bucks repeated as division leaders for the second of four straight years. In 1973-74 Abdul-Jabbar won his third MVP Award in only his fifth year in the league and placed among the NBA's top five in four categories: scoring (27.0 ppg, third), rebounding (14.5 rpg, fourth), blocked shots (283, second) and field-goal percentage (.539, second).
Despite his phenomenal success in Milwaukee, Abdul-Jabbar was unhappy due in part to the lack of people who shared his religious and cultural beliefs and wanted out. He requested that he be traded to either New York or Los Angeles, and Bucks General Manager Wayne Embry complied, sending Abdul-Jabbar to the Lakers in 1975 for Junior Bridgeman, Dave Meyers, Elmore Smith, and Brian Winters. The second Abdul-Jabbar dynasty was about to take shape.
Chamberlain had retired two years earlier, a fact that helped explain the Lakers' 30-52 record and last-place finish in 1974-75. Abdul-Jabbar helped bring about a 10-game turnaround in his first season in Los Angeles. His contributions (27.7 ppg, 16.9 rpg) won him yet another NBA Most Valuable Player Award, his fourth in only seven years in the league.
The following season Jerry West was hired as the Lakers' coach, and he guided the team back into first place with a league-best 53-29 record. Abdul-Jabbar (26.2 ppg, 13.3 rpg, .579 field-goal percentage, 261 blocks) was named Most Valuable Player for the fifth time in eight years, tying Celtics legend Bill Russell's record.
In 1979, using a first-round draft pick obtained from the Utah Jazz, the Lakers selected a 6-9 point guard named Earvin "Magic" Johnson from Michigan State. Johnson's arrival marked the beginning of a decade that would bring Abdul-Jabbar five more championship rings. With a blitzkrieg fast break that came to be known as "Showtime," the Lakers won nine division titles in the final 10 years of Abdul-Jabbar's career.
In Johnson's first season the Lakers won 60 games, and they lost only 4 of 16 postseason contests en route to the 1980 NBA Championship. In a moment that would link the two superstars forever, Johnson jumped center for the injured Abdul-Jabbar in Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers. Abdul-Jabbar had severely sprained his ankle in Game 5 after scoring 40 points to help the Lakers take the series lead. The 33-year-old center couldn't play in Game 6, so the 20-year-old rookie took Jabbar's position and went on to tally 42 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists, leading the Lakers to a 123-107 victory and the championship. For the season, Abdul-Jabbar (24.8 ppg, 10.8 rpg) further cemented his place in history by winning a record sixth MVP Award.
Abdul-Jabbar continued to average at least 20 points for the next six seasons. He practiced yoga and martial arts to keep his arms and legs strong and limber, and he meditated before every game to reduce stress.
On April 5, 1984, in a game against the Utah Jazz played in Las Vegas, Abdul-Jabbar had perhaps his finest moment. Taking a pass from Magic Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar whirled and launched his trademark sky-hook toward the hoop. The shot drew nothing but net, giving Abdul-Jabbar career point No. 31,420, which vaulted him past Wilt Chamberlain as the NBA's all-time leading scorer.
The Lakers reached the NBA Finals eight times in the 10 seasons between 1979-80 and 1988-89. They won five titles, beating Boston and Philadelphia twice each and the Detroit Pistons once. The 1985 series against Boston was perhaps the most satisfying for Abdul-Jabbar. At age 38 the league's senior center was thought by many observers to be washed up. In Game 1 it looked as though they were right -- Abdul-Jabbar had only 12 points and 3 rebounds in his matchup with Robert Parish. The Celtics romped to a 148-114 win in what became known as "the Memorial Day Massacre."
In Game 2, Abdul-Jabbar recorded 30 points, 17 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 blocked shots in a 109-102 Lakers win. Los Angeles went on to win the series in six games. In the Lakers' four victories Abdul-Jabbar averaged 30.2 points, 11.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.0 blocks. In one memorable sequence Abdul-Jabbar grabbed a rebound, drove the length of the court and swished a sky-hook. He even dove for a loose ball. "What you saw," Riley told Sports Illustrated, "was passion." Abdul-Jabbar was named Finals MVP.
Abdul-Jabbar's retirement marked the end of an era for the NBA. He left the game as the games all-time scorer, which may never be surpassed, with 38,387 points (24.6 ppg), 17,440 rebounds (11.2 rpg), 3,189 blocks, and a .559 field-goal percentage from a career that spanned 20 years and 1,560 games. He scored in double figures in 787 straight games.
External links
| Preceded by: Inaugural |
Naismith Award (men) |
Succeeded by: Pete Maravich |