Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Lore & Background

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. in Harlem, New York City, the only child of Cora Lillian and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Sr. He grew up in the Dyckman Street projects in the Inwood neighborhood of Upper Manhattan. At birth, he weighed 12 lb 11 oz and was 22+1⁄2 inches long. By age nine he was 5 ft 8 in tall; by eighth grade he had grown to 6 ft 8 in and could dunk a basketball. He attended Power Memorial Academy, a private all-boys Catholic high school, where he wore jersey number 33 in tribute to New York Giants fullback Mel Triplett. He led the team to a 71-game winning streak and a 79–2 overall record, scoring 2,067 total points—a New York City high school record. The Harlem riot of 1964, prompted by the fatal shooting of 15-year-old James Powell, triggered his interest in racial politics.

Abdul-Jabbar played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, winning three consecutive national championships. He was a record three-time most outstanding player of the NCAA tournament. In his varsity debut as a sophomore, he scored 56 points, still an NCAA record for a player in their debut. After his first season, the dunk was banned in college basketball in an attempt to curtail his dominance; critics dubbed it the 'Alcindor Rule.' He was drafted with the first overall pick by the one-season-old Milwaukee Bucks franchise in the 1969 NBA draft. After leading the Bucks to their first NBA championship at age 24 in 1971, he took the Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Using his trademark skyhook shot, he established himself as one of the league's top scorers. In 1975, he was traded to the Lakers, with whom he played the final 14 seasons of his career, during which time the team won five NBA championships.

Reader's Guide

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's significance lies in his sustained dominance over a 20-season NBA career, during which he set numerous career records, including points (38,387), games played (1,560), minutes (57,446), field goals made (15,837), blocked shots (3,189), and defensive rebounds (9,394). He won a record six NBA MVP awards and was a member of six NBA championship teams as a player. His teams reached the playoffs 18 times and the NBA Finals ten times. At the time of his retirement in 1989, he was the NBA's regular season career leader in several categories. He broke the NBA's career scoring record in 1984 and held it until 2023. ESPN named him the greatest center of all time in 2007, the greatest player in college basketball history in 2008, and the second best player in NBA history in 2016. Beyond basketball, he has been an actor, a basketball coach, a best-selling author, and a martial artist who trained in Jeet Kune Do under Bruce Lee. In 2012, he was selected by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be a U.S. global cultural ambassador, and in 2016, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Did You Know?

• Abdul-Jabbar was born weighing 12 lb 11 oz and was 22+1⁄2 inches long.
• He wore jersey number 33 in tribute to New York Giants fullback Mel Triplett.
• The dunk was banned in college basketball after his sophomore season, a rule critics called the 'Alcindor Rule.'
• He trained in Jeet Kune Do under Bruce Lee and appeared in the film Game of Death (1972).

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Why the 'Joker' Gun Violence Protests Miss the Mark", The Hollywood Reporter (October 2, 2019)." — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar "Why the 'Joker' Gun Violence Protests Miss the Mark", The Hollywood Reporter (October 2, 2019)." — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar