Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
American basketball player (born 1947) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (/kəˈriːm æbˈduːl dʒəˈbɑːr/ kə-REEM ab-DOOL jə-BAR; born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. (/ælˈsɪndər/ al-SIN-dər); April 16, 1947) is an American former professional basketball player who played 20 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. During his career as a center, Abdul-Jabbar was a record six-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). He was a 19-time NBA All-Star—tied for the most ever—a 15-time All-NBA Team member, and an 11-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection. He was a member of six NBA championship teams as a player and two more as an assistant coach, and was twice voted the NBA Finals MVP. He was named to three NBA anniversary teams (35th, 50th, and 75th).[1] Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time,[2][3][4] he was called the greatest basketball player of all time by Pat Riley, Isiah Thomas, and Julius Erving.[5][6][7] Abdul-Jabbar broke the NBA's career scoring record in 1984 and held it until it was broken in 2023 by LeBron James.
Abdul-Jabbar was known as Lew Alcindor when he played at parochial high school Power Memorial in New York City, where he led their team to 71 consecutive wins. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, winning three consecutive national championships under head coach John Wooden.[8] Alcindor was a record three-time most outstanding player of the NCAA tournament. Drafted with the first overall pick by the one-season-old Bucks franchise in the 1969 NBA draft, he spent six seasons in Milwaukee. After leading the Bucks to its 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 in which they won five additional NBA championships. Abdul-Jabbar's contributions were a key component in the Showtime era of Lakers basketball. Over his 20-year NBA career, his teams succeeded in making the playoffs 18 times and got past the first round 14 times; his teams reached the NBA Finals on ten occasions.[1][9]
At the time of his retirement at age 42 in 1989, Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA's all-time leader in points (38,387), games played (1,560), minutes (57,446), field goals made (15,837), field goal attempts (28,307), blocked shots (3,189), defensive rebounds (9,394), and personal fouls (4,657). He remains the all-time leader in minutes played, field goals made, and field goal attempts. He is ranked third all-time in both rebounds and blocked shots.[10] ESPN named him the greatest center of all time in 2007,[2] the greatest player in college basketball history in 2008,[11] and the second best player in NBA history (behind Michael Jordan) in 2016.[4] Abdul-Jabbar has also been an actor, a basketball coach, a best-selling author,[12][13] and a martial artist, having trained in Jeet Kune Do under Bruce Lee and appeared in his film Game of Death (1972).[14] In 2012, Abdul-Jabbar was selected by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be a U.S. global cultural ambassador.[15] In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[16]