Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr.; April 16, 1947) is a retired American professional basketball player who played 20 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers. During his career as a center, Abdul-Jabbar was a record six-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), a record 19-time NBA All-Star, a 15-time All-NBA selection, and an 11-time NBA All-Defensive Team member. A member of six NBA championship teams as a player and two as an assistant coach, Abdul-Jabbar twice was voted NBA Finals MVP. In 1996, he was honored as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. NBA coach Pat Riley and players Isiah Thomas and Julius Erving have called him the greatest basketball player of all time.After winning 71 consecutive basketball games on his high school team in New York City, Lew Alcindor attended college at UCLA, where he played on three consecutive national championship basketball teams and was a record three-time MVP of the NCAA Tournament. Drafted by the one-season-old Bucks franchise in the 1969 NBA Draft with the first overall pick, Alcindor spent six seasons in Milwaukee. After winning his first NBA championship in 1971, he adopted the Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at age 24. 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 last 14 seasons of his career and won five NBA championships. Abdul-Jabbar's contributions were a key component in the "Showtime" era of Lakers basketball. Over his 20-year NBA career his team succeeded in making the playoffs 18 times and past the 1st round in 14 of them; his team reached the NBA Finals 10 times.At the time of his retirement in 1989, Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA's all-time leader in points scored (38,387), games played (1,560), minutes played (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 leading scorer in the NBA, and is ranked 3rd all-time in both rebounds and blocks. In 2007 ESPN voted him the greatest center of all time, and in 2008 they named him the "greatest player in college basketball history". Abdul-Jabbar has also been an actor, a basketball coach, and a best-selling author. In 2012, he was selected by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be a U.S. global cultural ambassador.
[observation, 2016] Most young people today know Muhammad Ali only as the hunched old man whose body shook ceaselessly from Parkinson's. But I, and millions of other Americans black and white, remember him as the man whose mind and body once shook the world. We have been better off because of it.
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[on an interview between Barack Obama and ballerina Misty Copeland] Throw in a rabbi and a priest and you've got the start of a classic water cooler joke. But add first black U.S. President and first black female principal dancer for the American Ballet Theater and it's no longer a joke but an uplifting ideal for a new generation of African Americana. Two shining models of how diligence, discipline and perseverance can overcome even the most daunting obstacles to achieve the American Dream. But being a black role model is a doubt-edged sword of inspiration and frustration...
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Despite the fact that I've been writing about politics longer than I played sports, many of my critics begin their comments with "Stick to basketball, Kareem". By dismissing someone's views based on their profession, such critics are dismissing their own opinions as frivolous. ("Stick to plumbing" "Stick to proctology")..The idea that an athlete can't think is a stereotype of the dumb jock who is too busy jamming adorable kids into lockers to know anything about the world around him except what Coach tells him. Those days are over, folks.
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Maybe the worst racism of all is denying that racism exists, because it keeps us from repairing the damage. This country needs a social colonoscopy to look for the hidden racist polyps. The finish line is when racism no longer exists, not when people claim it doesn't exist because they don't personally notice it. Why is it that the people who are declaring racism dead are mostly white?
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I think Bono needs glasses to see. I needed glasses so I could keep people's fingers out of my eyes.
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Players today are tremendously gifted, but they don't understand the game as well as players from my generation who got to play in college and learn the nuances, when situations arise that lead to victory or defeat. They think it's all about being on Play of the Day.
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After 9/11, all of a sudden you have this suspicious spotlight on you just because you're Muslim. It was a radical change and it really bothered me. People understand that, even though they take a Christian identity, are not practicing what Jesus was all about. It's the same thing with the radical Islamic people. They're about hatred and trying to impose their will on people.
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On Coach John Wooden: He broke basketball down to it's basic elements. He always told us basketball was a simple game, but his ability to make the game simple was part of his genius. There was no ranting and raving, no histrionics or theatrics. To lead the way Coach Wooden led takes a tremendous amount of faith. He was almost mystical in his approach, yet that approach only strengthened our confidence. Coach Wooden enjoyed winning, but he did not put winning above everything. He was more concerned that we became successful as human beings, that we earned our degrees, that we learned to make the right choices as adults and as parents. In essence, he was preparing us for life.
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On meeting Coach John Wooden: Coach Wooden's office was about the size of a walk-in closet. I was brought in, and there was this very quaint-looking Midwesterner. I'd heard a lot about this man and his basketball wisdom, but he surely look like he belonged in a one-room schoolhouse. I found myself liking Mr. Wooden right away. He was calm, in no hurry to impress me with his knowledge or his power. He called me Lewis, and that decision endeared him to me even more. It was at once formal, my full name. II was no baby Lewie. Lewis. I liked that.
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I saw Islam as the correct way to live, and I chose to try to live that way.
Father was a transit police officer in New York City.
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Grandparents are originally from Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies.
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Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament wrote a song about him based on the urban myth that he lost all of his money investing in hotels for tall people. The song, entitled "Sweet Lew," appears on the album "Lost Dogs."
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Played in 18 NBA All-Star Games (1970-1977, 1979-1989).
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Played for UCLA (1965-1969). The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1967, 1969). Three-time First Team All-America (1967-1969). Two-time National Player of the Year (1967, 1969). Three-time NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player (1967-1969). Naismith Award winner (1969). Leading scorer in UCLA history. Led NCAA with .667 field goal percentage (1967) and .635 field goal percentage (1969).
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NBA 35th Anniversary All-Time Team (1980). NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996).
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Holds NBA career records for most minutes (57,446), most points (38,387), most field goals made (15,837) and most field goals attempted (28,307). First player in NBA history to play 20 seasons. Led NBA in scoring (1971-1931.7 ppg, 1972-1934.8 ppg). Led NBA in rebounding (1976-1916.9 rpg). Led NBA in blocked shots (1975, 1976, 1979, 1980). NBA MVP (1971-1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980). NBA Rookie of the Year (1970). All NBA First Team (1971-1974, 1976-1977, 1980-1981, 1984, 1986). NBA All-Defensive First Team (1974-1975, 1979-1981). NBA Finals MVP (1971, 1985).
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Assistant coach for the NBA Los Angeles Clippers, (2000).
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The NCAA outlawed the dunk shot because of his dominance at center for UCLA.
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Began wearing goggles on the court due to corneal erosion syndrome, a condition where the eye cornea doesn't produce moisture and begins to dry out.
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Holds the NBA record for Most Valuable Player awards with six.
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Only college player to win three Player of the Year awards.
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Studied Jeet Kune Do Martial arts under Bruce Lee.
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Played for the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Milwaukee Bucks (1969-1970 thru 1974-1975) and Los Angeles Lakers (1975-1976 thru 1988-1989).
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Enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995.
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Graduate of Power Memorial High School, New York City.
$13 Million
