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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Still Standing Tall

By Rashad Mobley • on April 2, 2008

This is the time of the year when basketball junkies are as happy as Michael Jordan seeing Craig Ehlo on him in the fourth quarter. On every level imaginable, there are exciting happenings in the world of basketball. High school All-Americans are playing games in selected arenas around the country, flaunting their skills and giving us hoops addicts a preview of the talents they will display during their four… er…one year of college. In the college ranks, former high school All-Americans like Mario Chalmers (Kansas), Wayne Ellington (UNC), Kevin Love (UCLA) and Derrick Rose (Memphis) have shown that their high school greatness does indeed translate to success by assisting their teams to the Final Four. And then finally, in the NBA, both former high school All-Americans like Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant, as well as former college All-Americans like Shaquille O’Neal and Chris Paul are leading (okay Chris Paul is leading, Shaq is along for the ride) their teams to playoff berths. It is hard not to get excited just typing all of those names and scenarios.

But there is a bit of a drawback to having all this talent, hype and expectation attached to your name, and that is a dirty word called failure. The list of kids who fall off somewhere between high school and the NBA ranks is astounding. Some kids just find themselves playing for coaches and systems that simply do not jive with their talent. Other kids thrive on both the high school and college levels, but in the pros, their skills are not maximized and they never really can show what they do.

And then you have the young men, who fail to realize that eventually hard work, not talent alone, is an ingredient in success. Any one of these obstacles can and often do stand in the way of these basketball stars, leading to some degree of failure, and it leaves hoop junkies feeling slighted and a bit disappointed. And that is why, during this time of year, I always like to reintroduce myself (and now you) to the story of Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was able to achieve the maximum amount of success on every level.

When Lew Alcindor finished his senior year of high school, he was far and away considered to be the best player in the country. He led Power Memorial High School in New York City to not one, not two, but three championships, and during that time his teams amassed a record of 96-6 over a three-year span. Colleges all over the country were jockeying for the services of young Alcindor, but in the end he chose to attend UCLA and study under the great John Wooden.

Given the degree of his dominance at the high school level, much was expected of Abdul-Jabbar in college. But unlike today’s kids who look at their initial year of college as a training ground for the NBA a year or two later, Abdul-Jabbar had no such option. When he entered college, freshmen were not eligible to play (a rule that changed in 1973). He had to hone his skills on the freshman team and the only contact he and his teammates had with the varsity team was in practice. Despite this seemingly stifling rule, Abdul-Jabbar was still able to show UCLA flashes of the dominance he showed in high school. The varsity team was ranked nationally, yet he led that freshman team to victory, but this would not be the last time the words Abdul-Jabbar and dominant would be linked during his remaining tenure at UCLA.

In today’s college basketball landscape, athletes like Tyler Hansbrough and Brandon Rush are looked at as saviors because they have fought off the temptation to turn professional right away. Even as recently as 1997, someone like Tim Duncan was hailed a hero because he stayed in college four years, even though he clearly had the game to turn pro after his initial year of college. Duncan didn’t win a championship while at Wake Forest, but he still won plenty of accolades. However, the standard of what an elite college player should achieve was set much higher during Abdul-Jabbar’s last three years of college. Not only did his teams win three consecutive national titles, but individually Abdul-Jabbar won Most Outstanding Player in each of UCLA’s championship years. That’s a feat that wasn’t duplicated before Abdul-Jabbar, and has yet to be eclipsed since. He was such a dominant figure in college basketball that they banned the dunk completely in an effort to level the playing “field”, but as evidenced by all of his championships, it simply did not work. Abdul-Jabbar left UCLA, the same exact way he has left Power Memorial: A dominant individual force who was just as adept at leading his teams to championships.

As a hoops addict, around this time of year, I start hearing terms like “tremendous upside” and “has potential”, and “can dominate in a couple of years” as they relate to NBA draft prospects. Even the “can’t miss” prospects are elevated to that status because of what scouts think they can do down the line, as opposed to on “day one” as Hillary Clinton would so affectionately say. In 1969, when the Milwaukee Bucks drafted Abdul-Jabbar, there was no doubt that he was going to be ready on day one and great, the only questions were about the degree of his dominance. Not only had he put up great numbers in college, but he was entering an NBA, where one of the greatest centers, Bill Russell, had just retired. And another, Wilt Chamberlain, was nearing the twilight of his career. So how did Abdul-Jabbar respond? He came in and averaged 28 points and 14 rebounds as a rookie, and led his team to 56 victories en route to being named the NBA Rookie of the Year. He seamlessly made that transition from big man on campus to NBA rookie, something that we just don’t see in today’s game.

The dominance Abdul-Jabbar showed during his initial year, was just a preview to the brilliance he would show during his 20-year career. The rest of his NBA career is the stuff that NBA Hall of Famers are made of. He won an NBA title during his second year in the NBA, with Oscar Robertson and four more with Magic Johnson. He was a six-time MVP, he is still the all-time leading scorer in NBA history, and last, but certainly not least, he is the owner of arguably the single most dominant weapon the NBA has ever seen: the sky hook. In addition, unlike today’s centers who generally break down in their mid-30s, he kept his body in such great shape, that he was able to play through his late 30s, and into his early 40s (are you listening O’Neal?).

The numerous accolades I have listed in this paragraph alone are enough to deem this man a legend, but there is another, more impressive side to this man: His intelligence.

When most NBA players retire, their paths are pretty predictable. They become head or assistant coaches on the college or professional level; they snag a fancy NBA analyst job, or sadly, in the words of noted scholar Mike Tyson, they fade into Bolivian. And in some respects, Abdul-Jabbar has followed that same path. He coached the Oklahoma Storm of the United States Basketball League (USBL) to a title in 2002, and he has also been a scout and an assistant coach for the Knicks, Clippers and the Lakers, where he currently serves as a special consultant to the big men, specifically Andrew Bynum. But what sets Abdul-Jabbar’s post-NBA career apart from most of his other peers is his love of history, specifically black history. Abdul-Jabbar has written books on the Harlem Renaissance, the lost achievements of African-Americans in World War II and a book about his season on a Native American reservation. All of the books showcase his vast knowledge and interest in history. And selfishly speaking, as a sports fan, it is awfully refreshing to see another side of an athlete I admire and respect. I can look at Abdul-Jabbar’s books and get a glimpse into how he thinks, as opposed to trying to glean something meaningful from a 5-10 minute post-game rehearsed sound byte. This isn’t a knock on today’s athletes as much as it is homage to Abdul-Jabbar.

So as you’re watching a high school All-American game, or the Final Four this weekend, or the tight race for the eighth spot in the Western Conference, enjoy and appreciate all of the players you are seeing. And then take a look at this article and the other vast amounts of information on Abdul-Jabbar and just appreciate the success he was able to achieve at every level and then after basketball.

And if you’ve done that, and you still can’t get enough, go to Abdul-Jabbar’s blog at the LA Times and hear from the man himself.

Photo Credit: ICON SMI

This article was written by:

Rashad Mobley - who has written 69 posts on Hoops Addict.

Rashad Mobley graduated with a B.S. in English Education, from Hampton University in Hampton, VA in 1996. He is a government consultant for the Department of Justice in Washington D.C., where he currently resides. Rashad is will be covering the Washington Wizards for HoopsAddict.com during the upcoming NBA season.

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