Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-A Little Birthday Ode to the Underappreciated Big Fella

Today is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 73rd birthday. It is fitting that the biggest basketball news of the day is Michael Jordan’s interview on “Good Morning America” with Robin Roberts. Jordan’s shadow is immense, and perhaps the person most affected by it is Kareem. On a day when sports shows desperate for a hook might salute him on his birthday, I saw nothing. Is it possible that someone who is routinely ranked anywhere from third to seventh (absurd) in various all time NBA greatest player lists is underrated? I actually do think so, but if that sound silly, I definitely think that Kareem is perhaps the most underappreciated superstar in any sport.

These things do not matter, but in ESPN’s recent bracket contest for college basketball players, which of course ended with the hysterical choice of Jordan as winner, Kareem was beaten by Shaquille O’Neal. Yes, indeed, a man who was the national player of the year all three of his seasons, won the NCAA title in each year, and was on a losing team twice in his career was taken down by someone who never won a league title and won a TOTAL of two NCAA tournament games. Clearly, Shaq was a great college player, hell, like Kareem he was the number one pick in the NBA draft, but c’mon. As I said , that little exercise was hardly a real litmus test, but it is an indication of the unfortunately faded view of Kareem, who should have a Ruthian reputation, but somehow is a bit of an afterthought.

Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is never anyone’s choice as the greatest player of all-time and I am not here to argue about that, but he is certainly the most accomplished basketball player of all time. He was likely the greatest high school player ever at Power Memorial in New York City, I just ticked off his college legacy, and his NBA resume is stunning. Six MVP titles, six NBA championships, Two NBA Finals MVP’s (14 years apart and the second at age 37) , nineteen All-Star games, eleven times all-defense, the all-time leading scorer, and on and on. Surrounded by stars, he still averaged 23.4 points per game for the Lakers at age 38 so his numbers are hardly just based on longevity. And, of course, he also created the most unstoppable weapon in basketball history, an unblockable sky hook that really no one else has ever used. He could take what was a center’s move out to as far as eighteen feet at times.

I vividly remember some ill-spent Sunday afternoons in a college dorm doing what many college kids did in the late 1970’s, partying a bit, and in our case anyway, watching some NBA hoops. We weren’t Lakers fans, but my brother and I were big fans of Abdul-Jabbar and that sky hook. It was in full flight then, at a time he was carrying some decent Laker teams pre-Magic. We would exult as the Lakers would continually feed the post, and he would unfurl the iconic shot over a helpless defender. In it would go as we would bellow out “Ka-reeeeeem!!”

But we weren’t exactly in the vanguard. Even at the time, Kareem seldom seemed to be anyone’s favorite player. He was a sullen and quiet person, even to his teammates, and had a strained relationship with the media. Besides the glorious sight of the sky hook, everything was a tad awkward for the big guy, and also, he was sooo big, it almost seemed unfair. Eventually he wore goggles all the time. But if he wasn’t a fan favorite, his brilliance was not questioned. In his prime he never averaged less than 26 points or fourteen rebounds per game, and he led the league in blocked shots four times.

But his height of dominance came during a time the league was not that popular, not very many games were on TV, and his game was consistent excellence, not flash. But this particular piece is really not about how he was viewed then, but how he is now. I think there are several factors that have led to the fact that he is not the iconic figure I think he absolutely should be.

First off, the NBA started to take flight with Bird and Magic entering the league. Magic was electric, the Lakers had flash and dash, and Kareem was the steady piece. I think people forget how damn good he still was when Showtime was rolling, but he wasn’t the singular force he had been. He didn’t drop below twenty points a game until his age thirty-nine season, but many, many new fans saw a good Kareem, not a great one.

Or course, he didn’t talk much, and when he did, he often had things to say that people didn’t want to hear about, especially about race relations. Getting him to even smile was a task, and that was at a complete contrast to the bubbly Magic. Embracing Islam and changing his name early on his career weren’t well-received. And, of course, as he was fading a bit, Jordan and the Bulls were emerging as a winning force. Flying double clutch dunks are far more sexy than the artistic sky hook, and then later, a a Lakers center named Shaquille O’Neal would feature brute force, another sharp contrast to Kareem. And finally, today’s NBA game almost completely dismisses the value of a true center.

But being able to conjure up reasons why we don’t see retrospectives of a player whose decade of dominance in the seventies was second to none doesn’t make it right, and that decade was only half of his legacy. To me any discussion of the greatest player ever without including Kareem is folly, and I can hear people groaning about that already. Facts are facts, MVP’s are MVP’s, titles are titles, and 38,387 points stands alone. Almost everyone picks Jordan and that’s absolutely fine, but Kareem should be in the same sentence, even though he often never even makes the chapter. It’s a shame. But on this day, I’m happy to trot out his case, and very happy to say….

Happy Birthday…….”Ka-reeeeem!”