Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

In this episode of the Sports Jersey  Dispatch we discuss the legend and history of one of the biggest athletes in team sports. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar his story from youth to retirement is up on the podcast. 

Those of us who like sports and listen to and read about it daily have heard of the basketball great named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Of course, we all know that he is a six-time NBA champion, six-time NBA regular-season MVP, two-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, 19-time NBA All-Star and Kareem scored 38,387 points in his illustrious career.

We may not remember that Mr. Abdul-Jabbar was also one of only five players to lead the NBA in blocks and rebounds in the same season. Also that Kareem at the time of his retirement from playing the game he was so very good at participating in more than a record 57,000 on-the-floor minutes in the most NBA games ever by an individual 1560. It is common knowledge that he changed his name about a year before being drafted into the professional level from Lew Alcindor as he converted to Islam.

The tidbits that are much lesser known about the legend are equally as fascinating as talking about the ones that we do already know. What made the man such a good leader on and off the court? Where did he acquire the skills and wisdom to hone his craft of playing in the paint as well as he did? Let’s review this together and come out knowing a little about the man, shall we? He was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr., on April 16, 1947, in New York City, the only child of Ferdinand and Cora Alcindor. They were a middle-class Roman Catholic family in Upper Manhattan. As with many practicing Catholic families in the City, Lew attended parochial school at the parish of St. Judes. As a student in grade school, it afforded him the privilege to participate in athletic endeavors with others in competitive arenas. Lew played baseball and even excelled at ice skating and swimming as a youngster.

Quickly the young man grew and grew rapidly. Like many of us, his limbs grew faster than his coordination and he became an awkward teen. The only thing is that Lew had more of an issue at this than most did because he shot up much more rapidly than most to heights that most never do. I am talking he was six and a half feet tall while in eighth grade! The awkwardness made Lew self-conscious and he started to stray away from the pool, baseball diamond, and ice and headed to a place of solace for his unexpected height, the hardwoods of the basketball court. 

The advantage of size on the court was no pun intended, huge of course. Soon high school coaches from all around New York were clamoring to try and recruit the youngster to come to play hoops at their respective schools. The Alcindor family finally made their choice from all of the wonderful offers and chose Power Memorial Academy, coached by Jack Donahue. Lew was still growing, as by the time he entered the Academy as a student he had reached the 6-foot 8-inch mark. Coach Donahue must have been drooling by now, and he placed the youngster on the varsity squad immediately. It was almost unheard of for a high school freshman to receive this honor. But Lew Alcindor was a special gifted athlete, and old Coach D recognized it.

The Power Academy coaching staff and Lew worked extremely hard to build coordination in Lew’s growing physique. Hours of drills, running and mind-numbing footwork agility exercises molded Alcindor into an even better athlete. The hard work paid off. As Lew was in tenth grade, he led Power Memorial to the New York City Catholic League title, ripping off 27 straight victories along the way as the big sophomore averaged more than 19 points per game. He took it up a notch with even more tiresome work in the off-season. During Alcondor’s junior season he averaged 26 points per game and the winning streak for Power Academy continued as they again to the NYC crown for Catholic schools. The growth, experience, and stardom all grew in tandem as Lew averaged over 33 points per game as a senior and he and his squad captured a third straight Catholic High School championship in the Big Apple. It was a string of victories seldom ever accomplished, although Power's unbeaten streak of 71 games was snapped by DeMatha High School of Hyattsville, Maryland in Lew’s final season of high school.

It was now time to choose a place of higher education to attend. Lew Alcindor was a phenom and was very much so entering the public eye. Lew was able to take advantage of receiving some advice from some of the top African American leaders of the era on where to attend college. Legends like Jackie Robinson and Arthur Ashe spoke with Lewand he even received advice from the Under Secretary of the United Nations Ralph Bunche. The offers from places of higher learning I am sure had to be overwhelming, so to have advisors that had reached the pinnacle of their professions including super athletes was a great advantage for the youngster.

Finally, the choice was made, and Lew Alcindor accepted the scholarship offer from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. There was a pretty smart cookie as a basketball coach there too in John Wooden. Coach Wooden was a master at getting young athletes to reach their potential by honing their skills and developing a mastery of playing their positions and as a cohesive team unit. In that era of college athletics, incoming freshmen were not permitted by NCAA rules to participate in Varsity sports. So Lew had to spend a year on the Freshman team. Wooden knew his Frosh team was pretty good with Alcindor in the middle but what happened next had to come as a surprise even to the man that had recruited and put the team together. Wooden’s varsity team had captured the NCAA Championship title in two of the past three years. This same talented team would be easily dominated by the freshman team by the tune of 65-70 in a game that Wooden pitted them in. It was a sign to come for all that UCLA would continue to be dominant and that Lew Alcindor would play a major role in them being the team to beat in NCAA Men's hoops.

The time had finally arrived and Lew took full advantage of the stage he could finally perform on. Lew Alcindor in just his first game wearing the UCLA Varsity Blue, dropped in 56 points against Cal. He along with guards Mike Warren and Lucious Allen and forwards Kenny Heitz and Lynn Shackelford and the coaching of the Wizard of Westwood took UCLA to a perfect 26-0 season. The UCLA Bruins again won the national championship in 1967, beating Dayton in the final game of the tournament. In fact, they won the NCAA title two more years after that too as Their big man paved the way for the three-peat and college basketball immortality.

It wasn’t always an easy road either. The 1960s were an extremely eventful time to be a black college-aged student, especially one that was in the limelight of the public. Lew closely followed the Civil rights movement and even studied and was inspired by what African-American leaders such as Malcolm X had to say. He found that the teaching of the religion of Islam connected with him in a way he had never experienced before and soon began the process of converting. On the court Jabbar and the Bruins found hurdles too. The University of Houston with their big man Elvin Hayes broke the UCLA winning streak of 47 wins before a crowd of over 55,000 fans at the Astrodome in a 69-68 thriller. In that game, Hayes scored 39 points. Later on, at the NCAA tournament the two teams with their legendary big men would match up again, only this time Kareem and the Bruins would have their way triumphing 101-69 and then a few days later took the 1968 tournament in a huge victory over North Carolina’s Tarheels.

Jabbar only witnessed two losses in his college basketball career and cut down the nets three consecutive years. He was a major factor in this too as he averaged 26 points per game and won the NCAA Men’s Tourney Most Outstanding Player award in three straight seasons.

The NBA draft soon came around the former Bruin center was picked by the Milwaukee Bucks. Alcindor wasn’t happy with going to Milwaukee but he did go and play there for four seasons and played well enough to help the Bucks capture the NBA title in 1971 as the standout earned the NBA MVP Award twice in Milwaukee in the seasons of 1972 and 1974. After his rookie year, he changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as he was fully accepted into the Islamic faith.

Finally, in 1975 he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers where he developed, even more, won a few more titles, and collected NBA Most Valuable Player Trophies. This might sound like it was easy but think about the legendary big guys that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had to face in his career. Men like Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Malone, Elvin Hayes, Bill Walton, and Dave Cowens. These battles in the paint and more were epic over the span of Abdul-Jabbar’s career in the NBA. After retiring with so much accomplished on the court, Kareem did some acting, has written books, and has produced and developed some films out of Hollywood. The man has no boundaries to his talents! Lately, he has been in the news for standing up for women’s rights and minority rights and has been a great role model for the youth of the world for decades. He was placed in honor into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 and has received numerous other honors for his performance on and off of the court.

Now we know a little bit more about the legend of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The banner drawing is of Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) reaches over backwards to score in 1967 as a member of the UCLA Bruins against Stanford from the New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant historians Greg Tranter, Jeff Miller and Ken Crippen, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com