Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born April 16, 1947 in New York City, New York) was a successful 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 (usually known as Lew Alcindor), to Cora and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor in Harlem, New York City, he was a center who grew to 7’2” (2.18 m) tall.

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 them, but he said ‘no’.

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. In 1975, the Bucks traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers, for center Elmore Smith, guard Brian Winters and rookie blue chippers Dave Myers and Junior Bridgeman.

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, which was notoriously difficult to defend against. After a then-record 20 pro seasons, he retired from the game in 1989.

NBA Statistics
Jersey Number – 33

Look ma! I can fly!
Games Played – 1560 (2nd highest in NBA history)
Field Goal % – 55.9 (8th highest)
Free Throw % – 72.1
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 – Blocks – 3189 (2nd highest)
Blocks per Game – 2.57
Points – 38,387 (highest)
Points per Game – 24.6 (12th highest)
Coaching

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar volunteers to coach basketball at the Alchesay High School on the Fort Apache (also called the White River Apache), Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona since 1998 for $1. In 2000, he was an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers, under Jim Todd. He was the head coach in 2002 of the Oklahoma Storm of the USBL.

Athletic honors
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (15 May 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 Award (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)

Outside basketball

Actor

Playing for the Lakers allowed Jabbar to try his hand at acting: In 1980, he participated as the co-pilot in the movie Airplane!. He had numerous other TV and film roles, often playing himself, such as in the hit Chevy Chase movie Fletch. Other notable roles include 1978’s Game of Death, where he fought Bruce Lee, and in Stephen King’s The Stand. 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.

Full Name: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Formerly known as: Lew Alcindor
Born: 8/16/47 in New York
High School: Power Memorial (N.Y.)
College: UCLA
Drafted by: Milwaukee Bucks, 1969 (first overall)
Transactions: Traded to L.A. Lakers, 6/16/75
Height: 7-2; Weight: 267 lbs.

When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar left the game in 1989 at age 42, no NBA player had ever scored more points, blocked more shots, won more Most Valuable Player Awards, played in more All-Star Games or logged more seasons. His list of personal and team accomplishments is perhaps the most awesome in league history: Rookie of the Year, member of six NBA championship teams, six-time NBA MVP, two-time NBA Finals MVP, 19-time All-Star, two-time scoring champion, and a member of the NBA 35th and 50th Anniversary All-Time Teams. He also owned eight playoff records and seven All-Star records. No player achieved as much individual and team success as did Abdul-Jabbar.

Players 10 years his junior couldn’t keep up with Abdul-Jabbar, whose strict physical-fitness regimen was years ahead of its time in the NBA. But if others have since emulated his fitness regimen, no player has ever duplicated his trademark "sky-hook.". It became the one of the most effective weapons in all of sports. An all-around player, Abdul-Jabbar brought grace, agility, and versatility to the center position, which had previously been characterized solely by power and size.

Despite his incredible success on the court, it wasn’t until the twilight of his career that Abdul-Jabbar finally won the universal affection of basketball fans. He was a private man who avoided the press and at times seemed aloof. "I’m the baddest among the bad guys," he once told The Sporting News.

But late in his playing days Abdul-Jabbar began to open up, and as his career wound to a close, fans, players and coaches alike expressed their admiration for what he had accomplished in basketball. During the 1988-89 season, his last, Abdul-Jabbar was honored in every arena in the league.