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KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR

The NCAA outlawed dunking in 1967 after 7-2 center, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, led UCLA to the first of three consecutive national championships. The temporary prohibition made him into a better and more complete player than the big men who came along later and relied solely on their power game. It also gave him an incentive to develop his virtually unstoppable ‘skyhook,’ the most devastating offensive weapon in basketball history.

Abdul-Jabbar was a great player on good teams and a great player on bad teams. He was the NBA’s leading scorer during the 1970s and fifth leading scorer during the 1980s. His career total of 38,387 points set the NBA record. He led his teams to 6 titles and was named league MVP six times.

By way of comparison, Bill Russell and Michael Jordan won the MVP award five times while Larry Bird and Magic Johnson received the honor three times. Although the Lakers reached the NBA finals eight times between 1979-80 and 1988-89 and won five titles, the 1985 championship series was Abdul-Jabbar’s most satisfying. Managing just 12 points and 3 rebounds against Robert Parish in the first game, he was blamed for the Lakers’ loss in what was called the Memorial Day Massacre, a 148-114 drubbing at the hands of Boston. Abdul-Jabbar spent the next two days watching tapes of the Celtics and practicing; he ran wind sprints for an hour with his teammates. He bounced back in Game 2, scoring 30 points and pulled down 17 rebounds as LA triumphed, 109-102. The Lakers went on to take the title in six games and Abdul-Jabbar averaged 30.2 points, 11.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.0 blocked shots in the four games they won. At age thirty-eight, he became the oldest player ever to be named Finals MVP.

Thanks in part to his regimen of yoga, martial arts, and meditation, Abdul-Jabbar was able to play 32-35 minutes per game well after other stars his age had retired. Teammate Magic Johnson declared: “He’s the most beautiful athlete in sports.” Lakers Coach Pat Riley said: “Let’s toast him as the greatest player ever.”