Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1947- )
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1947-) is arguably the greatest player in the history of the National Basketball Association. Abdul-Jabbar was born in New York City in 1947 and was a star player for the University of California, Los Angeles’ basketball team in the 1960s. During his twenty-year playing career with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers Abdul-Jabbar won six national championships and six Most Valuable Player awards. Among the numerous NBA records held by Abdul-Jabbar at the time of his retirement in 1989 were the most games played, the most minutes played and the most points scored. In addition to being inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Abdul-Jabbar is a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, actor, author, philanthropist and civil rights activist. In 2021 Abdul-Jabbar stated that “my work as a writer focusing on the overlooked heroes of Black history and on current issues of social justice has allowed me to reach a lot of people. I’m hoping the articles, books and documentaries will help bring awareness of what we need to do to make this country the best it can be.”
