Conversations with Kareem

(Part 2)

"If I were playing in a game of life and death, the first player I’d pick would be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar." — Pat Riley

The first time Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was in Asia was in 1972, upon the invitation of his teacher and friends Bruce Lee to appear in a movie with him. The two had spent many hours training in jeet kune do, the martial art Lee had designed from his extensive research into over a thousand books of philosophy, Chinese culture and combat sports. He recalls coming to the Philippines first in 1981 for a series of clinics. But his most frequent stop has been China.

"Prophet Mohammed told Muslims to seek knowledge, even if they would need to travel to China," he explains. "China is the farthest place from Arabia that the prophet knew about. So what he was saying was ‘go to the ends of the earth to seek knowledge.’ And I learned a lot from Chinese culture, from my good friends Bruce Lee, and Sun Tzu. There are aspects of Chinese culture that the whole world learns from."

Records are, of course, made to be broken. So many NBA fans were on the watch to see if long-time Utah Jazz and sometime Los Angeles Lakers’ forward Karl Malone would — out of longevity more than anything else — eventually topple some of Jabbar’s numbers. Kareem was impassive in answering the question of his feelings on the matter.

"I’m not relieved," Jabbar said candidly. "If he broke that particular record, that was not the only thing that defined my career. I have six world championships and six Most Valuable Player Awards to go along with that; he’s not going to do that. The nature of the game has lent itself to records being broken. If he went on to break the record — which I was hoping he did — he certainly deserved it, as a consummate professional and as a 20-year player. I didn’t have a problem with that."

Kareem, then known as Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, grew up in New York, where political thought was more a part of day-to-day life than almost anywhere else in the United States. He carries that influence to this day, as two of his five books have been about the contributions of African-Americans to his nation’s history; one of them is even being produced as a major motion picture. These are perhaps some things we may learn from in our politically turbulent times.

"I think it has to do with my childhood," he reflects. "I watched the Civil Rights movement proceed on television with my parents on the evening news every night. And it was horrifying. Some of it made me proud, made me very determined to succeed. That’s really what my motivation is. I could remember the picture of Martin Luther King’s open coffin, and how it affected me, and made me wonder what kind of country I was living in. And these things still resonate with me."

As a result of his political influences, Jabbar refused to join the US basketball team to the 1968 Olympics, in protest to America’s treatment of African-Americans. (This was, incidentally, the Philippines’s second to the last appearance in Olympic basketball.)

On the basketball court, there was also some form of discrimination, as the NCAA outlawed the dunk in an attempt to diminish Alcindor’s effectiveness and take something away from John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins. Instead, it worked against them.

"I already had the Sky Hook when I got to UCLA. I did have many opportunities to dunk the basketball in games, but I didn’t have to, so I didn’t think it improved or damaged our win-loss record at all. It was still a level playing field: I couldn’t dunk, neither could anyone else. I think it was just an effort by some of the people in the committee to try to inhibit John Wooden’s effectiveness. And of course, we know what that got them," Jabbar smirks.

From UCLA, Jabbar moved on to the Milwaukee Bucks, where he won an NBA title, the only one of Oscar Robertson’s career. He was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he eventually hooked up with an ebullient Magic Johnson to win five more.

"I couldn’t make a choice," he says. "I’d take either of them, I would want either one of them. The difference between them is just bin style, not substance. Oscar was a better perimeter player than Magic. Magic was probably a better rebounder. But both of them could do it all."

But the transition to Hollywood was never a smooth one, since the 7’2" NBA All-Star moved from a second-tier market to the harsh klieg lights of the nosiest media market in the world. Gradually, the press labeled Jabbar a grouchy giant who didn’t want to talk to anybody.

"I think I was slighted and also, I was totally unprepared to deal with the press that became more and more intrusive," Jabbar reveals. "When I started playing in 1969, it was the 60’s. In those days, they would talk to you about what you did on the court and they left you alone. In 1989, when I retired, they had Dennis Rodman going around wearing wedding dresses, a totally different climate. So I wasn’t able to adjust to that. I thought that, as long as I prepared myself to play well and did my job, that’s all that would be in the public and the press. I was mistaken in that, so I got a bad reputation for that reason.

Jabbar has also quietly watched as the game has changed on the rest of today’s NBA. And, in describing today’s Lakers, he uses choice words from his generation.

"You can’t roll unless you’ve got wheels. And having Kobe Bryant is like having one wheel. You need four wheels to get the car onto the highway," the long-time Laker explains. "So they have to get some more dominant people before they can become a unit the Laker fans want them to be."

And with the penchant for drafting high schoolers, has the talent level in the NBA gone below yesterday’s lofty standards?

"I don’t think the game’s been diluted. But when people go away from what they should be exercising, especially the coaches, it’s a problem. Players will do what they’re coached. And if you’re not coaching them the right way, they’ll take it in whatever direction they want to. The US Olympic team last year could have put a great team out there. But who’s committed to that? Everybody’s committed to making money and they don’t see the perpetuation of the quality of the game. And that is a key issue. The game needs to be coached better in grade school or high school. More players that go to the NBA need to go to college. College is a great place for talent to develop."

And the old-timers who know better would certainly agree.