24.6 PPG, 3.6 APG, 11.2 RPG, 2.6 BLKS, 56 FG%, 72 FT%
“When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar left the game in 1989 at age 42, no NBA player had ever scored more points, blocked more shots, won more Most Valuable Player Awards, played in more All-Star Games or logged more seasons. His list of personal and team accomplishments is perhaps the most awesome in league history: Rookie of the Year, member of six NBA championship teams, six-time NBA MVP, two-time NBA Finals MVP, 19-time All-Star, two-time scoring champion, and a member of the NBA 35th and 50th Anniversary All-Time Teams. He also owned eight playoff records and seven All-Star records. No player achieved as much individual and team success as did Abdul-Jabbar.
Players 10 years his junior couldn’t keep up with Abdul-Jabbar, whose strict physical-fitness regimen was years ahead of its time in the NBA. But if others have since emulated his fitness regimen, no player has ever duplicated his trademark “sky-hook.” Although labeled “unsexy” by Abdul-Jabbar himself, the shot became one of the most effective weapons in all of sports. An all-around player, Abdul-Jabbar brought grace, agility, and versatility to the center position, which had previously been characterized solely by power and size.
Despite his incredible success on the court, it wasn’t until the twilight of his career that Abdul-Jabbar finally won the universal affection of basketball fans. He was a private man who avoided the press and at times seemed aloof. “I’m the baddest among the bad guys,” he once told The Sporting News.
But late in his playing days Abdul-Jabbar began to open up, and as his career wound to a close, fans, players and coaches alike expressed their admiration for what he had accomplished in basketball. During the 1988-89 season, his last, Abdul-Jabbar was honored in every arena in the league.
Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley, who coached Abdul-Jabbar for eight seasons in Los Angeles, once said in a toast recounted in Sports Illustrated, “Why judge anymore? When a man has broken records, won championships, endured tremendous criticism and responsibility, why judge? Let’s toast him as the greatest player ever.”" [Read]
[Note: RSS readers, there is a video within this blog]
[Sources: NBA.com, YouTube, Basketball-Reference.com]
September 18th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Way back when he was still Lewis Alcindor, this man was probably the best high school player ever (better even than LeBron at that age).
In university, the powers that be outlawed dunking because of how dominant he would have been in the paint; thus he invents the Sky-Hook, a shot that actually made him more unstoppable.
The story that best sums up his dominance in his prime: when he attended UCLA, freshman could not play Varsity. At the end of the year, the Freshman team played the Varsity. That season, UCLA’s Varsity squad had won the NCAA tournament. Yet they lost to Kareem and the Freshman squad…he was that good.