Kareem Abdul Jabbar 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. on April 16, 1947 in New York City, New York, United States; typically referred to as Lew Alcindor) is an American former professional basketball player. He changed his name when he converted to Islam.

Considered one of the greatest players of all time, the 7ft-2in (2.18 m) Abdul-Jabbar played center for UCLA from 1965–69. Later, he played professionally for the Milwaukee Bucks (1969–75) and the Los Angeles Lakers (1975–89), accumulating 38,387 points, the NBA's highest career total. He was famous for his "Skyhook" shot which defenders found virtually impossible to block. His on-court success was superlative, as he won a record six NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, while playing on six NBA championship teams; at UCLA, he played on three NCAA championship teams under coach John Wooden. His high-school team won 72 consecutive games and his UCLA teams were an unmatched 88-2. After a then-record 20 professional seasons in the NBA, Abdul-Jabbar retired from the game in 1989. Following his success as a professional athlete, Abdul-Jabbar has become known as a successful basketball coach, author, and part-time actor.

College
Heavily sought by collegiate basketball programs, he played for the UCLA Bruins from 1966 to 1969 under coach John Wooden, contributing to the team's three-year record of 88 wins and only two losses (at the time freshmen were not eligible for varsity athletics). During his college career he was twice named Player of the Year (1967, 1969), was a three-time First Team All-American (1967-69), played on three NCAA Basketball champion teams (1967, 1968, 1969), was honored as the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament (1967, 1968, 1969), and became the first-ever Naismith College Player of the Year in 1969.

The dunk was disallowed from college basketball after the 1967 season, primarily because of Lew's dominance of the sport.

While playing for UCLA, he suffered a scratched left cornea on January 12, 1968 at the Cal game. He would miss the next two games against Stanford and Portland. This happened right before the momentous game against Houston. His cornea later would be scratched again during his pro career and he would then wear goggles for protection.

Game of the Century

Game of the Century (college basketball)
On January 20, 1968, Lew and the UCLA Bruins faced Houston Cougars in the first-ever nationally televised college basketball game. In front of a record 52,693 fans at the Houston Astrodome. Elvin Hayes scored 39 points and had 15 rebounds while limiting Alcindor to just 15 points as Houston beat UCLA 71-69 to snap the Bruins 47-game winning streak in what has been called the "Game of the Century". Hayes and Alcindor would have a rematch in the 1968 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament where UCLA would defeat Houston in the semi-finals 101-69.

Conversion to Islam
Lew Alcindor graduated with a B.A. in History from UCLA in 1969. Also during his studies at UCLA he converted to Islam and took his current name. The name translates to "noble servant of the Powerful"; al-Karim and al-Jabbar are two of the 99 Names of God in Islamic tradition. He converted after meeting Khalifah Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, a former Nation of Islam leader and founder of a Washington, D.C.-based mosque of the Hanafi Madhhab. In 1973, he traveled to Libya and Saudi Arabia, making pilgrimage. He details this conversion in his autobiography "Giant Steps".

School records
As of the 2006 season, He still holds a number of individual records at UCLA. This is remarkable, since his freshman statistics do not count.

• Highest career Scoring Average: 26.4
• Most career Field Goals: 943
• Most season Points: 870 (1967)
• Highest season Scoring Average: 29.0 (1967)
• Most season Field Goals: 346 (1967)
• Most season Free Throw Attempts: 274 (1967)
• Most single game Points: 61 and Most single game Field Goals: 26 (vs. Washington State, 2/25/67)

Professional athletics

Milwaukee Bucks
The Harlem Globetrotters offered him $1 million to play for them, but he declined, and he was picked first in the 1969 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, only in their second season, who won the coin-toss for first pick over the Phoenix Suns.

Lew Alcindor's entry into the NBA was timely, as center Bill Russell had just left the Boston Celtics, and Wilt Chamberlain, though still effective, was aging, at 33 years old. Alcindor's presence enabled the 1969-70 Bucks to claim second place in the NBA's Eastern Division with a 56-26 record (up from 27-55 the previous year), and he was an instant star, ranking second in the league in scoring (28.8 ppg) and third in rebounding (14.5 rpg), for which he was awarded the title of NBA Rookie of the Year.

With the addition of Oscar Robertson, Milwaukee went on to record a league-best 66 victories in 1970-71, including a then-record of 20 straight wins. Alcindor was awarded his first of six NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, along with his first scoring title (31.7 ppg). In the playoffs, the Bucks went 12-2 (including a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals) and Alcindor was named Finals MVP. On May 1, 1971, the day after the Bucks won the NBA championship, he adopted the Arabic name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, meaning "noble, servant of the powerful one [i.e. of Allah]."

Abdul-Jabbar remained a dominant force for Milwaukee, repeating as scoring champion (34.8 ppg) and NBA Most Valuable Player the following year, and helping the Bucks to repeat as division leaders for four straight years. In 1973, Abdul-Jabbar won his third MVP Award in five years and was among the top five NBA players in scoring (27.0 ppg, third), rebounding (14.5 rpg, fourth), blocked shots (283, second), and field goal percentage (.539, second).

While remaining relatively injury-free throughout his NBA career, Abdul-Jabbar twice broke his hand. The first time was during a pre-season game in 1974, when he was bumped hard and got his eye scratched, which angered him enough to punch the basket support stanchion. When he returned, after missing the first 16 games of the season, he started to wear protective goggles. The second time he broke his hand was in the opening game of the 1977-78 season. Two minutes into the game, Abdul-Jabbar punched Milwaukee's Kent Benson in retaliation for an overly aggressive elbow. He was out for two months.

After a few seasons in Milwaukee under his new name, Kareem said that being in the Midwest did not fit his cultural needs and requested a trade to either New York or Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Lakers
While Milwaukee was slowly improving, the Los Angeles Lakers were winning their own way. In 1973, the L.A. Lakers, complete with Gail Goodrich, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West, won an NBA record 33 consecutive wins. And in 1980, they would acquire 1st overall draft pick Earvin "Magic" Johnson , who would average 21.9 points and 13.2 assists in his 14 years in the NBA, with 3 MVP awards and 9,879 assists.

In 1975, the Bucks traded Abdul-Jabbar and reserve center Walt Wesley to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Elmore Smith, guard Brian Winters, and rookie "blue chippers" Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgeman. The trade paved the way for a second Abdul-Jabbar dynasty as the Lakers went on to become one of the most dominant teams of the 1980s, appearing in the finals eight times and winning five NBA championships.

While in LA, he started doing yoga in 1976 to improve his flexibility, and was notable for his physical fitness regimen. [3] He was also a pupil of the martial arts master Bruce Lee, and studied Lee's Jeet Kune Do style.

A little more than halfway into his career, in 1983, Abdul-Jabbar's house burnt down, among others incinerating his collection of jazz albums. Many Lakers fans started bringing him albums and other items to replace his losses, which Abdul-Jabbar found uplifting.

On June 28, 1989, after a record-setting twenty professional seasons, Abdul-Jabbar announced his retirement. On his "retirement tour" he received standing ovations at all the games, home and away. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls that in his farewell game, many Lakers and Celtics legends participated. Every player wore Abdul-Jabbar's trademark goggles and had to try a sky hook at least once, which led to comic results.

Post-NBA career
Abdul-Jabbar had been interested in coaching since his retirement, and given the influence he has had on the league, he had presumed that opportunities in that realm would come easily. However, during his playing years, he had developed a reputation of being introverted and sullen, often refusing to speak to the press, leading to the impression that he had nothing to say. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls instances when Abdul-Jabbar brushed him off when Magic (as a ballboy) asked for his autograph, Abdul-Jabbar froze out reporters who gave him a too enthusiastic handshake or even hugged him, or refused to stop reading the newspaper while giving an interview.

It is widely believed, including by Abdul-Jabbar himself, though he acknowledges his own culpability in creating that impression, that this reputation has contributed greatly to the lack of coaching opportunities that have thus far been presented to him. In his words, he said he had a mindset he could not overcome, and went through his career unable to realise how much impact he had on and off the court. Abdul-Jabbar said: "I didn't understand that I also had affected people that way and that's what it was all about. I always saw it like they were trying to pry. I was way too suspicious and I paid a price for it.". Since he began lobbying for a coaching position in 1995, he has managed to obtain only low-level assistant and scouting positions in the NBA, and a head coaching position only in a minor professional league.

He has worked as an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Seattle SuperSonics, helping mentor their young centers, Michael Olowokandi and Jerome James, respectively. Abdul-Jabbar was the head coach in 2002 of the Oklahoma Storm of the United States Basketball League (winning that league's championship that season), but he failed to land the head coaching position at Columbia University a year later. He then worked as a scout for the New York Knicks. Finally, on September 2, 2005, he returned to the Lakers as a special assistant to Phil Jackson to help develop the team's young center Andrew Bynum. Abdul-Jabbar has also served as a volunteer coach at Alchesay High School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona since 1998.

Sky hook
Abdul-Jabbar was well-known for his trademark "sky hook", a hook shot in which he bent his body like a straw in one fluid motion to raise the ball (rather just than moving the arm) and let the ball go at the highest point of his arm's arcing motion. As he stood 7 feet 2 inches tall, the sky hook was nearly impossible for a defender to block without goaltending. It was a reliable and feared offensive weapon and contributed to his high lifetime field goal percentage of .559. As a twist, he was adept at shooting the skyhook with either hand, which made him even more difficult to defend. According to Abdul-Jabbar, he learned the move in fifth grade and soon learned to value it, as it was "the only shot I could use that didn't get smashed back in my face".

Professional basketball career and statistics

Teams and years
1969-75 Milwaukee Bucks
1975-89 Los Angeles Lakers

Statistics

• Jersey number - 33
• Games played - 1560 (2nd most in NBA history)
• Field goal % - 55.9 (8th highest in NBA history)
• Free throw % - 72.1
• Three-point % - 65.6 (Note: he made just one three-point field goal in his career)
• Rebounds - 17,440 (3rd most in NBA history)
• Rebounds per game - 11.2 (tied for 24th highest in NBA history)
• Assists - 5,660 (31st in NBA history)
• Assist per game - 3.6
• Steals - 1,160
• Steals per game - 0.74
• Blocks - 3,189 (3rd most in NBA history) (Note: blocks were not officially tabulated until the 1973-74 season)
• Blocks per game - 2.57
• Points per game - 24.6 (12th highest)
• Holds NBA career record for:
• Most points in NBA history - 38,387
• Most minutes played (57,446)
• Most field goals made (15,837)
• Most field goals attempted (28,307)
• Most All-Star selections (19)
• Most All-Star games played (18)
• Most playoff games played (237)

Athletic honors

• Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (May 15, 1995)
• College: Player of the Year (1967, 1969)
• Three-time First Team All-American (1967-69)
• Three-time NCAA champion (1967, 1968, 1969)
• Most Outstanding Player in NCAA Tournament (1967, 1968, 1969)
• Naismith College Player of the Year (1969)
• National Basketball Association:
• Rookie of the Year (1970)
• Six-time NBA champion (1971, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)
• Most Valuable Player (1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980)
• Finals Most Valuable Player (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
• #7 in SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players of all time in 2003.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. (2007, January 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:07, January 12, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kareem_Abdul-Jabbar&oldid=100141799

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