Kareem Abdul Jabbar: Class and dignity

Basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with one of his patented hook shots.
Source: https://www.nba.com/news/history-nba-legend-kareem-abdul-jabbar
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He was this tall lanky presence that just seemed to keep scoring. He would hurt you with that amazing hook shot or a straight up slam dunk. Being more than seven feet tall, it really did not seem like he was getting that far off the floor when he spotted up for a jump shot or dunked the ball.

Yet, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was an amazing player, and a prolific scorer.

He held the record for most points, until a few weeks ago, and was there to celebrate with LeBron James when he broke Kareem’s record.

When I saw Kareem hand the ball to LeBron, almost as if a crown or a torch was being passed, all I could think was – I sure wish I had seen him play more than once.

Unfortunately, growing up on a farm in the 1980s, peasant vision didn’t carry professional basketball, so I was left to learn about Kareem and his amazing and odd history, in other ways.

Phenom
When I first heard about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he was starring at centre for the Los Angeles Lakers. I started to play mini-basketball in Grade 5, and wanted to learn more about the game. I think it was my Grade 5 teacher, Mr. Phil Peard, who suggested I check out the library.

The school library was the centre of my existence as a boy, until I started buying sports magazines. It was there I first saw a picture of what looked like Kareem. However, this guy was referred to as Lew Alcindor, and he played for the Milwaukee Bucks not the Lakers. Who is that? What's going on?

This Lew Alcindor had been a dominant player in high school in New York, then moved on to play college basketball for the UCLA Bruins and legendary coach John Wooden, where they won several national championships.

Back then, the first selection in the NBA draft of college players was determined by a coin toss. The Bucks had finished with one of the worst records in the league, and won that coin toss, so they selected Lew Alcindor.

He had an immediate impact and led the Bucks to an NBA championship.

All of that was pre-history for me, mostly from an issue of Basketball Digest I bought at the Club Cigar Store, the premiere magazine shop in Lethbridge.

What’s in a Name?
Eventually Lew Alcindor found Islam and changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He then changed teams, signing as a free agent with the Lakers, where he would play the rest of his career. That made sense, if he played his college ball there.

He would go on to lead the Lakers to several NBA titles – 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988. When L.A. drafted Earvin “Magic” Johnson in 1980, they formed a potent one-two combination that was exciting, and kept the wins coming. It was “show time” in L.A.

Through it all, Kareem kept scoring. He was closing in on what seemed to be an impossible dream – Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time scoring record.

Not only did he catch Wilt, he far surpassed him, establishing his own record of 38,387 points, 6,968 points ahead of Wilt. When Kareem retired in 1989, it seemed, yet again to be an unbreakable record.

Until February 7, 2023 when LeBron did the impossible again.

On that night Kareem did something Wilt did not, he was there to watch his record be broken.

As always, Kareem carried himself with class.

Peasant vision
Through all of that, I saw very little of Kareem playing basketball. Sure, I saw him in highlights on the sports news on Channel 7 and Channel 13. That’s where I saw his patented hook shot.

Because neither of those channels, or CBC Channel 9, carried basketball games, I had to rely on someone in town who had cable TV. I don’t recall ever seeing the Lakers play.

What I do remember was Mr. Peard becoming our basketball coach in Grade 8, and he wanted to instil a culture of basketball. One of the things he offered was for us to watch college and pro basketball games. So, if memory serves, it was on a VCR tape in the staff room at St. Joseph’s School in Coaldale, in late 1982 or early 1983, that I saw a few minutes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Los Angeles Lakers.

I sure wish I could have seen more.

You oughta be in pictures
Even while he was still playing, Kareem tried his hand at acting. I think I saw him more as an actor than a ball player.

The first time was in a commercial for a Bruce Lee movie, where Kareem was getting manhandled by the martial arts master. The second time was as a nervous version of himself, pretending desperately not to be himself, in the spoof “Airplane”. Years later, I would see him again as a sort of prophet in the TV mini-series “The Stand”.

Yes, coach
There is one other cool memory of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in his days as Lew Alcindor.

I had come to not only like, but admire, Jack Donahue, the head coach of the Canadian Men’s Basketball team. He was able to get the most out of his players, and gave the traditional basketball powers, namely the United States and the Soviet Union, all they could handle.

Listening to him talk was a study in contrast. He sounded anything but Canadian. Instead, he had this New York accent and personality that was as flamboyant as his players were laid back.

It turns out, he was from New York.

His claim to fame to that point was that he coached Lew Alcindor in high school.

So, he really had coached the best as well.

Parting thoughts
He was one of the first professional athletes everyone knew by one name – Kareem. He was already a dominant player as the 1980s opened, and just cemented his legacy with championships and the all-time scoring record.

Yet, what I will remember more than anything about Kareem, beyond those goggles, that hook shot, and that seven-foot frame, was his class and dignity.

He was a true gentleman.

Even 38 years later, when his unbreakable record was broken, not only did he show up to pass the mantle, but he did it with class.

As only Kareem could.