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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

1947-

American basketball player

More than a decade after his retirement, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at 7-feet-2-inches tall remains one of the tallest men ever to play professional basketball. Despite his 267-pound frame, he was never awkward and was known in fact for his grace and flexibility—a rare talent among very large men. Powerful yet smooth in his playing style, he left his mark on the game with his signature shot, the skyhook. Goggle-eyed, but never gawky, he led two teams—the Bucks and later the Lakers—to a total of six championship titles, taking six most valuable player (MVP) awards in the process. With 38,387 career points, Jabbar retired as the all-time leading scorer in the history of professional basketball. Highly religious and introspective, he is remembered not only for his outstanding performance as a player but also for his politically aware persona. While many professional athletes go to great lengths to maintain their personal privacy, few have created an aura of inner depth as has been achieved by Jabbar.

Childhood of a Big Man

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. on April 16, 1947, in New York City, the only child of Lewis Sr. and Cora Alcindor. As a child and as a young man Jabbar went by the name of Lew Alcindor. Jabbar was 22" inches long at birth, and even as a very young boy he seemed to be following in the much larger footsteps of his forefathers. His grandfather, a native of Trinidad, was 6-feet-8-inches tall. Lewis Sr., at 6-feet-2-inches tall, went by the nickname "Big Al." Even Jabbar's mother, who was of Cherokee descent, was herself 5-feet-11-inches tall.

Lewis Sr., a Julliard-trained symphony conductor, supplemented the family income as a bill collector and worked also for the New York Transit Authority Police. Jabbar was born in Harlem where the family lived at 111th Street and Seventh Avenue. They later moved to Inwood, a diverse section of Manhattan. Jabbar was

raised in the Catholic Church and attended parochial schools. In grade school he was one of only two African American students enrolled at St. Jude's Elementary. Outside of school he spent his time with his friends, shooting baskets at a playground called the Battlegrounds at Amsterdam and 151st street.

In the fourth grade Jabbar transferred to Holy Providence Boarding School in Cornwells Heights, Pennsylvania, where the student population numbered 40 boys, all of whom were African American. It was a motley crowd at Holy Providence, which was mainly a reform school. Jabbar, who was an honor student, hardly fit with the crowd, and when he completed the school year his parents brought him back to New York City.

The year at Holy Providence was not a total loss, however, because recess periods and free time there were spent in playing peach-basket basketball. He developed new skills during his year in Pennsylvania, and four years later when he finished eighth grade he was well-honed in the sport. What is more, he stood a most impressive 6-feet-8 inches tall by that time. Not surprisingly he was widely recruited by high school basketball coaches.

On scholarship at Power Memorial High School from 1962-66, he played with the varsity team for four years. Under the direction of coach Jack Donahue Jabbar led his team to a 78-1 record and two national championships. He lettered and made the all-city team for each of his four years of high school, and set a New York City record for the most points scored by a high school player. He set a record also for the most rebounds.

Although a war raged in Vietnam and a draft was in force for U.S. males, Jabbar received a 4-F status from the draft board because he was far too tall for the military to accommodate. With his choice of college scholarships available he accepted an offer to play for Coach John Wooden's Bruins at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). While still on the freshman team, in 1966 Jabbar immediately attracted a great deal of attention by averaging 33 points per game and leading the team to an undefeated season with a record of 21-0. As a sophomore he was offered a lifetime contract with the Harlem Globetrotters a professional exhibition team—but turned it down.

On the UCLA varsity squad Jabbar brought the school to three consecutive national championships, from 1967 until he graduated in 1969. He was named College Player of the Year in 1967 and again in 1969. Jabbar's unusual height advantage caused the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) to institute a ten-year ban on the dunk shot in college basketball, beginning with Jabbar's junior year at UCLA. Not to be quashed, Jabbar perfected a variety of the dunk, a new straight-armed shot called the skyhook, which became his signature shot for the duration of his career.

Spiritual Journeys

While in college during the 1960s, Jabbar's interest in humanity and in his own spirituality matured along with his basketball skills. It was a time of social change and sometimes of civil unrest, when African Americans in the United States spoke out and demanded proper equality. In 1968 many African American athletes refused to participate in the Olympic games in Mexico City as a way of protesting for civil rights. Jabbar, searching for peace of soul, turned to the Islamic religion of the Middle East. Around that same time He took part in a ceremony called Shahada by which he adopted an Islamic name, calling himself Kareem. He spent the summer of 1968 working with a youth program in Harlem, and at the end of the season he embraced Islam one step further by adopting Jabbar as his surname.

Jabbar's journey of personal growth followed other avenues as well after he made the acquaintance of the late actor Bruce Lee who was also a renowned marital arts experts. Jabbar met Lee through a studio called the New York Akikai. Beginning in 1967 Jabbar began to train with Lee, and the two worked together until Lee's untimely death in 1973. The two had also started shooting a movie, called Game of Death, but the shooting was suspended when Lee died. Jabbar's life was enriched in many ways by his association with Lee, both spiritually and professionally. The speed and flexibility that he developed in working with such a masterful martial artist went a long way in expanding the impact of Jabbar's game skills.

Professional Big Man

After a winning college career at UCLA with only one loss to mar his record, Jabbar signed in 1969 with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks was a one-year-old expansion team with a losing season to its credit. Jabbar would have preferred to go to New York to play with the Knicks, but Milwaukee had first pick in the draft that year, and Milwaukee picked Jabbar. There was a another professional team in New York at that time, called the Nets. The Nets, a part of the American Basketball Association, offered Jabbar a contract, but he turned it down because the Bucks offered him much more money.

According to Jabbar, his first season with the National Basketball Association (NBA) was bittersweet. He enjoyed playing ball and excelled as a defensive player. Equally skilled on offense, he averaged about 29 points per game at center and was named Rookie of the Year. The Bucks finished second in the division and went to the playoffs that season. Overall, they realized an increase of 29 victories over the previous season.

The 1970-71 NBA season for Jabbar was more exciting than even his rookie year. He topped the list of scorers in the NBA and was named MVP of the NBA. Milwaukee went into the playoffs and then to the finals where they won the league championship.

The 1971-72 season for Jabbar was an instant replay of the previous year, as he led the league in scoring and collected a second MVP award. At the end of the 1972-73 season the Bucks made NBA history when they emerged with more than 60 wins for the third time since the 1970-71 season. It was the first time that an NBA team had won so many games for three years in a row.

Amid the newness and excitement of joining the NBA, Jabbar learned very quickly that the reporters had few good things to say about celebrities who kept to themselves. Although he liked to be a loner, Jabbar learned quickly that some reporters were pushy and rude and posed an unpleasant annoyance for professional athletes. Another new experience for Jabbar was the way the officials in the league seemed to tolerate players who poked and jabbed him just because of his great size. Some players even gouged his eyes while game officials looked the other way. In order to protect himself Jabbar began to wear goggles on the court. The glasses quickly became a part of the big man's image.

The Los Angeles Lakers

Jabbar, who won a third MVP award in 1974, asked to be traded after the 1974-75 season. The Bucks honored his request and traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers in return for four players in 1975. After six seasons with the Bucks, he was entering the peak of his career as he made the move to Los Angeles. He recorded his highest statistics ever during the 1975-76 season and won a fourth MVP award with the Lakers in 1976. He made history as the first Lakers player ever to be honored as MVP, and in 1976-77 he walked away with a fifth MVP award.

Although the Lakers had a 53-29 record that year—the best in the league—the team failed to win the conference title. The 1979-80 season brought a new team owner, Dr. Jerry Buss, to the Lakers. Jabbar re-negotiated his contract to a generous advantage. A new player, a phenomenal 20-year-old rookie named Magic Johnson, joined the Lakers that year. The Lakers won the championship, and Jabbar won a record-breaking sixth MVP award.

As the Lakers collected more championships—in 1982, 1985, and 1987—the team in 1988 became the first in nearly 20 years to win back-to-back NBA championships. In 1989, after 20 seasons of professional play, Jabbar retired from the NBA. The Lakers retired his jersey, Number 33, in 1990. Likewise, the Bucks retired his jersey.

Family Life

Soon after the Bucks won the NBA championship in 1971, Jabbar donned the white robes of a Muslim groom for his wedding to Janice Brown. In recognition of her new life with Jabbar, Brown adopted the Muslim name Habiba. Jabbar, who was known professionally as Lew Alcindor during his first two seasons with the Bucks, changed his name legally to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at that time.

The ceremony, which took place in Washington, D.C, was held at dawn, according to Muslim custom. When mosque officials refused to allow Jabbar's parents to wit ness

the ceremony because of their Catholic faith they were understandably offended. They had traveled all the way from New York to see their only child get married, and the incident caused a serious rift between the Alcindors and their son. Jabbar felt badly; he had not been told until after the ceremony that his parents were barred from entering the mosque. The rift between him and his parents was slow to heal, and nearly ten years passed before he made amends with his family. After that time Jabbar always made sure to point to the camera and say, "Hi to Moms and Pops in New York," whenever he appeared on national television. His marriage to Habiba, however, did not fare as well, and the couple was divorced in 1977.

Jabbar spent the summer of 1972 at Harvard studying the Arabic language, and that year Habiba gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter also named Habiba. Jabbar, who was raised as an only child, had difficulty conforming his life to accommodate a significant other person and a child. The union between Jabbar and his wife had weakened early in the marriage. He and Habiba separated permanently in December of 1973.

Separation notwithstanding, Jabbar and his wife remained close with one another. Their son, Kareem, was born in 1976. In 1977, the year of Jabbar's divorce, he met Cheryl Pistono, and she later gave birth to their son Amir. A second daughter, Sultana, was born to Jabbar and Habiba in 1979, two years after their divorce. A third son, Adam, was born to Jabbar and an unnamed woman.

Although Jabbar's luxurious Bel-Air home was destroyed by a fire early in 1983, he found his faith in Islam and took a philosophical approach. In December of the year he published an autobiography, Giant Steps, with Peter Knobler. Jabbar's later memoir, Kareem, was written with Mignon McCarthy and published in 1990. This book documents his final season with the NBA.

Between 1979 and 1998 Jabbar made ten film appearances. Most of them were as himself, including his roles in Fletch and Forget Paris. He served as the executive producer of The Vernon Johns Story, a made-for-television movie about a civil rights pioneer.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: c/o Amsel Eisenstadt & Frazier, 5757 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 510, Los Angeles, CA 90046. Phone: (323) 939-1188.

SELECTED WRITINGS BY ABDUL-JABBAR:

(With Peter Knobler) Giant Steps, New York: Bantam Books, 1983.

(With Mignon McCarthy) Kareem, New York: Random House, 1990.

(With Alan Steinberg) Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African American Achievement, New York: William Morrow and Co., 1996.

(With Stephen Singular) Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apache, New York: W. Morrow and Co., 2000.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, and Mignon McCarthy, Kareem, New York: Random House, 1990.

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, and Peter Knobler, Giant Steps, New York: Bantam Books, 1983.

Cobourn, R. Thomas, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Basketball Great, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1995.

Periodicals

Jet, July 22, 2002, p. 51.

Online

"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography," http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/Abdul-Jabbar.htm (January 7, 2003).

"stormmenu2," Oklahoma Storm, http://www.theoklahomastorm.com/index.htm (January 7, 2003).

Sketch by G. Cooksey