Kareem: Minority of One (2015) - full transcript

The following is a presentation
of HBO Sports.

Here is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar !

I remember, he walked out
and he sat down in the chair,

and you look at him,
and you see this big smile on his face.

After all he's been through, he's free.

Here is the 7th annual All-American
high school basketball team.

7-foot Lew Alcindor,
New York's Power Memorial Academy.

In three years, they have won three
consecutives National Championships.

The Milwaukee Bucks have won

the most important draft pick
in the history of the NBA.

The prize, Lew Alcindor from UCLA.



So it's Abdu al-Jabbar
and Abdu al-Kareem,

Kareem, sky hook.
L.A. wins the title.

There may be no athlete
who was ever better suited

for the game of basketball
than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

There may be no man

who's ever had a more complicated
relationship with what it gave him.

What is this all about ?

You come up to me, you greet me,
if you know who I am.

When you ask for an autograph, that
makes me something other than real.

- We've got to split.
- Don't split yet.

You know, you can become bigger
than what you really are.

You know, I'm just a person
just like any other person.

KAREEM: MINORITY OF ONE

He wanted to play football
but he wasn't the football type.



He was too tall and stringy,

so we convinced him
that he should try to play basketball.

I didn't know anything about basketball
at the time, I was a complete novice.

The first time I dunked
a basketball was in eighth grade.

The ball hit the ground one time
and I picked it up right in stride

and took one step
and dunked it.

Everybody went nuts in the gym.

The other team was unable to play
for about two minutes.

They couldn't get
the ball over the half court.

Everybody was stoked that they'd seen
a school kid dunk a basketball.

I was like, wow, that was neat.
Still remember to this day, very vivid.

He was this incredible young talent

that we started hearing about
when he was in eighth grade.

There's this kid, there's this kid.
And then this kid was Lew Alcindor.

He was like the tallest eighth grader
in the world

and he was playing
basketball in New York.

By the time I got out of eighth grade,
in the spring, I was 6-9.

In May, I could walk through the house
and not hit my head.

In August, I was hitting
the top of my head on the doorway.

You're growing so quick.
You're feeling a little awkward.

You're feeling, how do you fit in ?
What does it mean to be a misfit ?

What does it mean to be pushed to the
margins because you are towering ?

He just couldn't get used to people
walking up to him

and commenting
and making jokes about it.

And I think that's when he started
to get sort of standoffish.

The tall kid
who was the talk of the city

lived in the upper Manhattan
neighbourhood of Inwood.

He'd been born
Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. in 1947.

The only child of Cora,
a seamstress,

and Al, a police officer
and part-time musician.

My mom was from North Carolina,

and had that southern graciousness
and congeniality of the south.

Being an only child really helped
put her focus on me.

My dad's background
is from the West Indies,

which is very Victorian,
and kind of buttoned-up.

My dad never displayed any emotion,

he was always very wrapped up
and hardly said anything.

It affected me my whole life, I thought
that was why people respected my dad.

To Daddy.

To Dad on Father's Day.

My dad was a jazz musician.

If he had had his way, he would
have played in Count Basie's band,

and he would have been
the happiest guy in the world.

The very first time
I went to a jazz club,

we went to see Art Blakely
and the Jazz Messengers.

My dad knew Art.

Art was astounded, and he said, this
is the kid you had in the stroller ?

Because at that point,
I was seven feet tall.

While jazz clubs offered rare bonding
opportunities with his father,

among his peers, he found height wasn't
the only thing that set him apart.

You had an interesting thing
in your book.

When you first realized yourself
that you were black.

One of the kids had a Polaroid camera,
they had some sort of party at class,

and they took a picture of us all,
and they passed it around,

and I said,
wait a minute, I'm the dark guy !

You didn't live in Harlem but that's
where you went to hang out.

Socialize...
Socialize with the people.

The kids that I knew real well,
the kids that I went to school with,

were Irish and Italian.
And they didn't feel like socializing.

They thought they were better
than I was.

So I socialized with Afro-Americans
in my neighborhood

and I'd go down to Harlem
and play basketball.

They told me being able to shoot
the hook shot would really benefit me,

as I was playing the center.

So I started practicing
hook shots all the time.

The school custodian
gave me the key to the gym.

I would go in and work after-hours,
I'd be the only one in the gym.

When it came time for high school,

every coach in the city dreamed of the
seven-foot prodigy playing for them.

Including Jack Donohue
of Power Memorial,

who offered him a scholarship

and sold him on the Catholic school's
strong academics,

as well as its basketball program.

When we went over to get uniforms
for our very first game,

they gave me a varsity uniform.

And I didn't expect that.

We played Erasmus Hall. They just
whipped our ass, it was ridiculous.

I'm 14 years old, but probably I was
a lot closer to 12 than I was to 16.

I'm in the locker room
and I start crying.

And I looked up and all the other guys
on the team were looking at me

like I had just stepped off
of a spaceship.

And I realized
that I'm in the big world now,

and I can't cry like a little boy.

And from that point on,
I always had my game face on,

and I never gave away any emotional
vulnerability to anybody.

From that point on until I retired.

High school basketball was as popular
as college ball and as the Knicks were.

You had sensational teams.

And then Lew Alcindor
comes on the scene.

And we have a huge, literally, hero.

Watching him play...

He was a condor.
His wingspan was so amazing.

You read everything about him
and heard everything about him

and how teams were preparing for him
using broomsticks and mops.

If there was one high school basketball
player in America that was known

it was Lew Alcindor.

Here is the seventh annual All-American
high school basketball team.

Seven foot, a quarter inch,
Lew Alcindor.

15-year-old sophomore
at New York's Power Memorial Academy,

who reminds everybody
of Wilt Chamberlain.

It was 1963.

At that point, every kid in America
wanted to be on TV somehow, some way

and I am on national TV.
It was pretty amazing.

My dad took pictures of the TV
while I was on it and stuff like that.

I was like a teenager
whose dreams are coming true.

His years at Power
would be the start

of a close relationship
with his high school coach,

but there was one night when even Jack
Donohue would reveal an insensitivity

that shook his impressionable star
to the core.

We were getting ready
to go to play DeMatha.

It was a big game, I wasn't really
focused on the game, I was loafing.

And Coach Donohue said that the way
you're playing, lazy and not focused,

someone would say that
you were playing like the n-word.

The stereotype for black people,
that they were lazy and unmotivated.

It affected me in that you never know
who's going to call you that.

He was the last person who I thought
would ever call me that word.

I was stunned by it.

I didn't think that Jack
had any kind of racist feelings.

He did not say what he said
because he was a racist,

but because he was frustrated
in not seeing me give my best effort,

and wanted to shock me out of it,
and he went too far.

High school may not have shielded
Alcindor from the realities of life,

but uptown in Harlem,

there was another court
that offered a very different scene,

and whole new kind of exposure.

This is the original Rucker Park.

People from all over Harlem would come
to see the games on the weekends.

There would be people
totally choking the sidelines.

I was lucky, being seven feet tall,
I could see over everybody.

He's tall as hell.
That's not Kareem Abdul.

I first met Wilt Chamberlain right here
on the original Rucker court.

I was in the eight grade.

I was almost as tall as he was
at that point.

And it was finally my opportunity
to meet my hero.

At the time, Chamberlain played
for the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors,

but lived in New York.

Soon, the towering presence

was letting the seven-foot teenager
tag alongside him around town.

He kind of took me under his wing.

Some of the things that Wilt did
sometimes bothered me.

I got on an elevator with Wilt,
and as the elevator's going down,

some guy gets on and says,
oh wow ! How's the weather up there ?

He said that to Wilt.

Wilt spat on the dude
and said it's raining.

And I was like,
oh my God, what is this about ?

Wilt had some beautiful suits.
I tried them on.

They didn't fit, but they were
beautiful and they were from Wilt.

So I wanted to keep them,
but he had partied in them

and sweated through them
and they didn't smell too good.

So my mom said, we can't keep these,
and we had to throw them out.

Everywhere he went,
he was interested

in meeting
new young ladies that were beautiful.

He had one girlfriend from Denmark
that I was like in love with.

But I'm 15 years old,
and I had zero chance.

I didn't try to put any moves on her,
but I was like, wishful thinking.

Everybody said that
as a center, I wasn't going to make it

because I was not
a big bruising type like Wilt.

I wanted to see if I could do it,
if I could challenge

the success of Bill Russell
and Wilt Chamberlain.

I wanted to go beyond all of them.

1964 threatens to be
a very explosive year.

Alcindor's basketball ambitions
were growing

at a tumultuous
breaking point in history.

And even as a teenager, he grasped it.

He joined Power's debate team,
and spent the summer of 1964

with a Harlem program to develop
promising young black leaders.

Mid summer brought to the negro areas
a new phase of racial relations.

In Harlem, the funeral of a teenager
who had been shot by a policeman

set off demonstrations
against the police brutality.

I was taking the train home,

and I decided to stop off in Harlem
to see what was happening.

And just got out on 125th Street
and it was like crazy.

I stepped into
this big whirlpool of violence.

Bottles were being thrown. You could
hear gunshots, glass breaking.

When you see people being murdered
and beaten, it makes you angry.

Makes you want to affect change.

When you think of the impact
of the Harlem Riots on a 17-year-old,

highly sensitive, highly reflective
young black brother,

I would think the first thing
that hit him was,

what are the roots of this rage,
and how does it connect to me ?

Lew is a seven foot one inch
phenomenon.

He leaded his team to its third
consecutive New York high school title.

Alcindor is almost unstoppable,
as you can see.

In four years at Power Memorial,

Lew Alcindor's teams
won 95 games and lost just six.

He'd justified the massive expectations

that had been growing
since he was in junior high school.

And that turned him

into perhaps the most celebrated
college recruit in basketball history.

Any basketball coach
that had not heard of Lewis Alcindor

isn't doing much of a job coaching.

Being the most sought-after high school
player in the country was intense.

It got to the point that year
where Coach Donohue said

that any school
that has a basketball program,

you can go there
on a scholarship.

But the south was out.

I did not want to go
to school in the south.

I did not want
to be the first black athlete

to go to any program
in the south.

That would have been
a whole lot more pressure.

He was impacted by the civil right
movement, he was impacted by race.

He began to cultivate a real opinion
about things

at a lot younger age than I did.
I was just playing basketball.

I went out to UCLA.

Palm trees and the grass was growing.
It was like, wow !

I got a letter from Jackie Robinson.
UCLA is the place to go,

get a great education,
the basketball program's first rate.

Coach Wooden was very clear

that he wanted me to stay at UCLA
for four years and get my degree,

and that's what I wanted to do.

The best player in the country
was heading to Los Angeles

to join the two-time defending
national champions.

The announcement came
at a press conference

in the Power Memorial gym
on May 4th, 1965.

What was the big factor
in choosing UCLA over St. John's ?

Well, it wasn't that UCLA was better,
it just had what I wanted.

- Which is what ?
- It has the big college atmosphere.

It's just a nice place
and I like the people.

You're 18,
and your dad's a cop,

your mom is like on you all the time,

coming out here
was just a welcomed break.

It was the first time I'd gone
to school with females.

Kareem was a ladies' man, yeah.
He had skills.

When you played basketball, everybody
wanted to get to know who you are.

Our social life on the weekend
was us hopping in a car

and Kareem with his knees
up above his ears,

and we would drive down Sunset Strip
and whistle at the girls.

The party would come to us.

We'd smoke pot. It was fun.

I started to see
what southern California was all about.

Life out on the coast agreed
with the kid from New York.

And on the court, there was an instant
attraction to his new coach's approach.

I was impressed
with John Wooden

because for someone as successful
as he was, he was a very humble man.

And very reserved.

And having lived
with my father my whole life,

I was kind of used to authority figures
having that kind of demeanor.

Coach Wooden
enabled us to understand

that the most important aspect
of the game was winning.

It wasn't about
what any one individual did.

As a freshman, NCAA rules prohibited
him from playing on the varsity.

But in an exhibition game
in the fall of 1965,

he famously offered a hint

of just how impressively
he'd dominate the college game.

His freshman team beat the UCLA varsity

when the UCLA varsity
was the defending national champions.

We freshmen beat
the varsity every day !

So when game time came around,
we didn't worry about losing.

They were worried about losing.

Many a promising young man comes
to Hollywood hoping to become a star.

Very few make it.

But here's one who at the age of 19
and barely a year out of high school

has made it, and made it big.

But then, everything
about this young man is big.

His name is Lew Alcindor.
He's 7-feet-1 and 3/8 inches tall.

Now in his first varsity season,

he's the most photographed,
most talked-about player in a decade.

I realized how big
a figure I was on campus

when Sports Illustrated
came out in December of '66,

I'm on a fold-out cover.

UCLA is expected to win
the NCAA Championship.

He got 56 in his debut against USC.

That was the last man to man
he saw in three years.

He was unstoppable in college.

There wasn't nothing in college
like Lew Alcindor.

Just to see this superhero
come out and play basketball.

Every game he ever played in,
he was the focal point.

In his first year on the varsity,

UCLA went undefeated on their way
to the National Championship.

The sophomore center
was a phenomenon.

Even if he didn't always appear
comfortable in the role.

I doubt if ever a team in the history
of intercollegiate athletics

has been under such great pressure

and I doubt if any individual

has ever been under any more
pressure than Lewis Alcindor.

There was such an intense demand
from the media to interview us.

Of course Wooden told us not to talk
to the press.

So I developed some suspicion there,

and kind of saw them as something
that could go wrong.

People quote me as saying one thing,
and they feel that's all I have to say.

And that's not necessarily how it is.

I'm a young man out here trying to get
my education. That's why I'm here.

And so far everything is going well
as far as that's concerned,

and that's what's most important.

It was just the start of a long
and wary relationship with the press.

But in the near-term,

a very different controversy
would emerge in the fall of 1967

when the NCAA announced
it was banning the dunk.

The organization cited injury concerns
as the reason.

But the overwhelming sense was
otherwise.

Given the glorification
of the dunk in our age,

it is hard for anyone
under the age of 40

to imagine a period of time
in which it was an evil act.

The number one reason we all assumed
was the dominance of one person.

They're clearly trying to neutralize
Lew Alcindor and UCLA.

There wasn't a whole lot of white guys
doing a whole lot of dunks.

So I thought there might
have been a racial element to it,

I didn't know for sure,
I still don't.

Whatever the reasons behind the ban,

it only forced Alcindor
to hone the rest of his game.

And by the halfway point
of his junior season,

the Bruins had stretched
their winning streak to 47 games,

which turned a January 20th matchup

with the also undefeated
Houston Cougars

into a showdown of unprecedented
proportions In the sport.

They would call it
the game of the century.

You wanted to have that moment
with Lew Alcindor.

You wanted to be able
to go against him.

His star was shining
bright in the heavens,

and my goal is to take his star out,
and put mine up there.

But in the week before the game,

a scratched cornea kept Alcindor
off the court.

The Houston game is very possible.
It's just a question of time.

If my eye heals in time,
I'll be able to play.

We're glad you're with us
from the Astrodome, over 52,000 fans,

the largest paid audience to ever see
basketball anywhere at any level.

Hayes, number 44, was battling
head to head with UCLA's Lew Alcindor.

Alcindor suffering
from an injury to his left eye

missed many shots
he usually makes.

He had had a patch over his eye.

We were thinking
that that was only a ploy.

It's amazing that Lew Alcindor
can even play tonight,

after he spent
four days in the hospital.

Blocked by Hayes !

Elvin Hayes had just an awesome game.
We could not guard him.

And here is Hayes !

The game lived up
to every expectation

and a pair of free throws
in the final minute from Hayes

would determine the outcome.

The Houston Cougars have snapped
UCLA's 47 game winning streak !

When that horn sounded,
wow, we had beaten the unbeatable.

After losing the game and seeing
the Sports Illustrated cover,

it says "Big Eeee over Big Lew",
I taped it in the back of my locker.

And so every day I got to see that,
I was determined that the next time,

if we got to play
the University of Houston again,

I wouldn't have a bad game.

The loss was stunning.

But UCLA rebounded to close out the
regular season with 12 straight wins.

And in the NCAA Tournament,
reached the final four easily,

which gave Alcindor another shot
at Hayes and now top-ranked Houston.

The basketball giants prepare
for their long-awaited rematch.

The Bruins now to reverse
their only loss in two years

and prove that the honors received
by Houston were premature.

The Cougars realize
that this is a different Lew Alcindor

than the one
they controlled in the Astrodome.

They had no chance to win that game,

it was over
before the first half was over.

The Bruins of UCLA put on perhaps

one of the greatest performance
ever seen in college basketball.

One night later,
UCLA routed North Carolina

to capture their second
straight national title.

The 78 to 55 UCLA win

is the most one-sided victory
in NCAA title game history.

But that's what happens
when you play Alcindor and company.

I'd like to thank everybody
for all the support they gave us.

It was lots of fun playing for you.

Of course, you were having fun
on Saturday night and we had to work.

CLEVELAND
UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL

Nine top negro athletes meet
with Cassius Clay

to discuss his anti-draft stance.

They include Bill Russell, Lew Alcindor
and former pro footballer Jimmy Brown.

In the spring of 1967,
the so-called Ali Summit in Cleveland

marked the public arrival
of the 20-year old Alcindor

as a black athlete set on making
an impact beyond the sports arena.

If you're in a racist society it's up
to you to do something for yourself.

And I've seen the promised land...

When Martin Luther King
was assassinated a year afterwards,

Alcindor joined protests
on the UCLA campus.

We stood along Bruin walk, you know,
there's about 40 or 50 activists.

It was interesting, the reaction that a
lot of people had to me participating.

Because it was like,

hey you're going to go play in the NBA
and make a lot of money,

what are you demonstrating about ?

It was offensive that they would think

that because I had the opportunity
to play, possibly, in the NBA,

that I shouldn't be concerned about the
way black Americans are treated,

and the denial
of our basic human rights.

Through
all the turbulence of the times,

Alcindor found in his coach
a mentor he could confide in.

But as "John Wooden confided"
in a letter he wrote,

the burden his young star
was bearing was concerning.

I have seen him hurt so much
by the remarks of white people.

I have heard remarks within his hearing
such as "look at that big black freak."

I am truly afraid that he will never
find any peace of mind.

1969 marks the end of an era.

In the three years
that Wooden coached Alcindor,

they won three consecutive
national championships.

No big man has ever dominated the sport
in the Alcindor manner.

Alcindor went an astounding 88-2
in his UCLA varsity career.

And then, with a degree in history
in hand, readied for the next chapter.

Every year in basketball,
or in football, or in hockey,

good players come along.

But a player
the caliber of Lew Alcindor,

he does not come along
every year.

He was certain to be the first overall
selection in the 1969 NBA draft.

And his destination
would be determined by a coin flip.

The Suns and the Milwaukee Bucks,
last place finishers in the east,

were the participants in the famous
flip and here's the way it went.

Phoenix, I call heads.

The coin has come up tails.

The Milwaukee Bucks won the most
important draft pick in NBA's history.

The prize is the sensational
Lew Alcindor from UCLA.

Whoever got him would have
the makings of a championship team.

The second pick ended up being
Neil Walk, who was a nice player,

but you know you're talking about
Lew Alcindor at the time... c'mon.

If you want to go to a place
and have your goosebumps retread,

Milwaukee in the wintertime
would be a good place.

For me to go to Milwaukee was really a
step away from everything that I knew.

I was thinking to myself,

what is this going to do for
this community, this city, this state,

to have a player
like Lew Alcindor come in here

to a team that was really
just a young, fledgling team.

Hello and welcome
to the Lew Alcindor NBA debut.

This Is his first professional game and
what the whole country has waited for.

There he is,
working one on one against Bellamy.

His first shot.

Alcindor and his first attempt
from the field.

The numbers do speak for themselves.
We have gone from 27 to 56 wins.

And now we had
a lot of national following

in terms of writers,
TV and video crews.

People were excited
to see Lew Alcindor.

Still, even with their new superstar,

the team, in just its second
year of existence,

had undeniable holes
in the backcourt.

The point guard position really was
a position that we needed to improve.

After my rookie year, the people
in the Bucks organization said

we're going to try and get Oscar.

And I said,
well jeez, he's kind of old, isn't he ?

In fact, at age 31, Oscar Robertson
was arguably the best guard in the NBA,

a former league MVP,
and ten-time all-star.

But when
he was acquired by the Bucks,

both sides had questions
about how he'd fit in.

Milwaukee was a beer town, hard
workers. Not a lot of black people.

When I got to Milwaukee,
all I'd heard for many, many years was,

yeah, you've done this,
but you haven't won a championship.

Oscar was one of the best guards
in the game.

But I didn't know if Oscar
would be able rise to the occasion.

You have to play with guys first

and find out
what they can do under pressure.

It "would" take some time
for the superstars to mesh.

But soon enough, the Bucks
were overwhelming the competition.

Oscar Robertson and Lew Alcindor, how
does it ever get any better than that ?

We were the fastest team
in the league.

We could score points in bundles.

We were just rockin'
and killin' people.

The team posted a 66-16 regular
season record.

And then continued
their domination in the playoffs.

sweeping the Baltimore Bullets
in the finals to win the NBA title,

with Alcindor earning MVP honors.

It's over ! The Milwaukee Bucks
are the champions of the world !

For me to win the world championship
was what I'd always hoped for.

Look who is here.
Congratulations.

Oscar just paid you a great compliment.
You had a great series.

With his big help.

Without Kareem, I couldn't
have gotten the championship.

The fact that I got to play with Oscar,

one of the great players in the game,
who'd never won a world championship,

and by partnering up with him,
we were both able to be successful.

Soon after the title came a revelation
from the Bucks' center.

He had converted from Catholicism
to Islam.

And as part of the transformation,
he'd changed his name.

He was no longer Lew Alcindor,
but instead, Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

So it's Abdu al-Jabbar
and Abdu al-Kareem,

meaning servant of the noble,
servant of the irresistible.

The Milwaukee Bucks signed Lew
Alcindor, not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

When you go from a Christian name
to a Muslim name,

basically, you're going to catch hell.

We had to get used to it.
We started calling him Kareem.

He was a Muslim in Milwaukee.
It didn't fit very well.

There were a lot of questions from the
press about Islam.

This came out of nowhere,
as far as they were concerned.

But for Kareem, the change had been
materializing for years.

I started learning about Islam
my freshman year at UCLA.

I read
the autobiography of Malcolm X

and then I started
to read other things.

A couple of the other Muslim students
gave me a Quran.

I had taken on an Islamic identity,
tried living the lifestyle,

and it seemed to make sense to me,
and by 1971 I wanted to do it formally.

I think he felt that he had a platform
at this particular point

because the team
had just won the championship

and it might have a bigger impact and
make it more welcomed, in response.

It was more welcomed certainly

than when Ali had declared
he had become a black Muslim.

Kareem talked about it a little more
in terms of the reasons why

and had not the kind of anger that
was encapsulated in Ali's coming out,

that this was a religion
he believed in.

I think that the religion
is a beautiful religion,

if that's what you want.

He's still our son, he regards himself
as such, and we have that relationship.

Religion aside.

I never ever wanted to insult
my family,

but I wanted to have
an Islamic identity.

I did not feel the name that I was
born with would have been my name.

It was the result of the experience
of slavery.

In fact, it was my dad that introduced
me to a friend of his named Hamaas.

He helped me to understand
the difference between Orthodox Islam

and what the Black Muslims
were talking about.

Hamaas Abdul Khaalis had been a leader

in Elijah Muhammad's Militant
Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims,

before bitterly splitting
from the group in the late 1950's

and creating his own smaller,
rival sect, the Hanafi movement.

In Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hamaas had
by far his most high-profile disciple.

A follower who had the means
to purchase a house in Washington, D.C.

that would become the organization's
headquarters.

It was from there that Hamaas
guided the lives of all his adherents.

Including the wedding of Kareem

and a young woman he'd met
in Los Angeles, Janice Brown,

who'd also taken on a new name,
Habiba, after converting.

If I were to live a moral life,
I should be married

and not be promiscuous.

She was very attractive,
very down to earth person.

She thought that I had some appeal
and we hit it off that way.

Kareem wielded
the power in his household.

The ladies would have to ask permission
before entering the room.

Anything we would eat, would have to be
tasted by the ladies first.

He was following the rules
of a great Muslim leader of the family.

And that was what he wanted to be;
he wanted to be that shining light.

The marriage
would produce three children,

but it also would serve
as the source

of a massive rift
between Kareem and his parents,

who were banned
from the wedding by Hamaas

because they were non-Muslims.

Hamaas tried to come
between people and their families.

That was the worst part of what he did,
just the way he isolated everybody.

Hamaas made us feel like
it was us against the world.

And it didn't have to be that way.

Here in Washington,
six persons reported killed

in a wave of violence at a home
owned by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,

the pro basketball star
once named Lew Alcindor.

In 1973, I was a reporter in Chicago.

And the Hannafi thing broke
in Washington.

A house that Kareem had purchased
for the Hannafi Muslims.

Police ambulances
taking away the bodies, seven in all.

It's been the most heinous crime
I've ever witnessed

in my nineteen years of service.

When the massacre happened,
I was in Milwaukee.

Basically, it had to do with the fact

that Hamaas had provoked
the Black Muslims.

He said that Elijah Muhammad
was a fraud

and that the Black Muslim
movement was not Islamic.

And it obviously outraged these people,
and they sent people to kill him.

And when they attacked his house,
he wasn't there,

they tried to kill all the people
that were there.

It was a very horrible
and ugly incident.

The massacre, which counted
five children among the victims,

led to concerns
about Kareem's own security.

It was very, very distracting,
for the team as well as for Jabbar.

We had FBI people following
and protecting the team.

The Milwaukee Bucks
had their own security.

We feared for our lives and he feared
for his life more than any of us.

He was always used to a spotlight,
but this was a friggin' laser.

When you have
an athletic career,

and then you have all this turmoil
on some religious tangent,

it doesn't make
for a very harmonious life.

While his connection to Hamaas grew
embroiled in more and more controversy,

a measure of balance could be found in
his long-time interest in martial arts.

Particularly in the form of
a friendship he'd made in Los Angeles

with a rising film star
named Bruce Lee.

Bruce and I really were
kindred spirits.

I enjoyed competition.
Bruce enjoyed competition.

Bruce wanted to be the best
at what he did.

I wanted to be the best at what I did.

It was a challenge for him to box me
because my arms were so long.

He always said it was like fighting
an octopus.

I made him duck
and I made him do things

that he didn't have to do when
he worked out against other people.

He always liked to challenge himself.

I had trained with Bruce for four
years, and he said, let's do a movie.

Shooting a movie in Hong Kong
was a great experience.

In the martial arts movies
the bad guys are supposed

to be in character
and be really bad,

so I was just trying to absorb
that presence

because I knew it would work
for the film that we were doing.

In 1973, a year after filming
his scenes for "Game of Death",

Kareem spent his summer
studying overseas.

I was in Saudi Arabia and Libya,
studying Arabic.

And I decided to go home
through Hong Kong,

so maybe I'd get a chance
to visit him.

And on the day that I was getting ready
to leave for Hong Kong,

there were headlines in the papers
that Bruce had died.

I just went on home. It was a sad day.
He was a wonderful human being.

I had the fortune to be his friend,

and the next thing you knew,
he was gone.

I really miss him.

As personal losses and complications
mounted in the early 1970's,

even as he won two more
MVP awards,

his team failed
to win another title,

culminating in a heartbreaking
seven-game loss in the finals

to the Boston Celtics
in 1974.

The next season,
with Robertson retired,

the Bucks plunged
to last place.

It was the first time Abdul-Jabbar
had ever played on a losing team.

With his contract set to expire
the following year,

he used his leverage
to demand a trade.

Are we ready ?
We've invited you here

to share with us the most explosive
sports announcement of our time.

So join us, won't you,
in welcoming the newest Laker...

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar !

We are very happy to announce today

that we have signed Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar to a new 5 year contract.

Do you feel
any particular great pressure

as the man that's supposed
to bring the championship ?

No, not really, everybody involved
knows it'll take more than one man.

I'm going to be very instrumental
in helping to achieve that goal,

but it's going to take
more than one man.

- Do you feel you can do it ?
- I know I can do my part of it.

You had the hope diamond
when you got him.

Everybody thought they were going
to win a championship.

When I came back to Los Angeles
I didn't have very many expectations,

I was just happy to make it
some place where I felt at home.

Back in the city
where he'd scaled his greatest heights,

Kareem won his fourth
and fifth MVP awards

in his first two seasons
with the Lakers.

But while he instantly
made Los Angeles contenders again,

he failed to deliver a championship,

as the team continually
fell short in the playoffs

to other deeper Western
conference powers.

In this league, it's about players.
It's about players that fit together.

They weren't good enough.

I did take a lot of heat in the press
and there was nothing I could do.

I was making the All-Star team,

leading the league
in all kinds of categories

and we didn't win

and a number of the writers felt
that it was me not getting it done,

when basically we did not have
the right personnel to get it done.

Even though he was dominant,
he was empty.

I mean, you can be dominant
and win scoring titles and be an MVP.

But if you're not a champion,
what the hell's it worth ?

There were also continued difficulties
in his personal life,

including alienation
from Hamaas and the Hanafis,

and the collapse
of his marriage to Habiba.

I know one thing I've heard them,
maybe the only thing they agree on.

At the time they were young,
they were somewhat impressionable.

But you live and you hope you learn.

Because I was doing it
for ideological reasons,

it didn't take the way
it should have.

My marriage broke up because of that.

But it wasn't my wife's fault.
It was my fault.

I just didn't know what I was doing.

At times, Kareem's frustration
could boil over on the court.

Never more dramatically

than two minutes into opening night
of the 1977-78 season,

when he squared up
with Bucks center Kent Benson.

I don't want to say he deserved it,
but he did.

Everybody who's played knows
that you're going to run into an elbow,

you're going to get clipped
by somebody's shoulder,

or run into somebody's hip.
Those things happen.

It's intentional things
you really tend to resent.

He took a swing at me, and hit me
with an elbow in my solar plexus,

knocked all the wind out of me.

It was a dirty play on Benson's part.

All I wanted to do was retaliate...
and I did.

I didn't see it, I heard it.
This loud crack.

Kent paid the price

for everyone else that roughed me up
and gotten away with it.

I was ready to fight everybody
at that point.

A broken hand from the punch would
leave him sidelined for two months.

The incident, meanwhile,

perpetuated a frosty,
at times even irritable aura,

that had surrounded him
dating back to his days at UCLA.

I don't smile because they don't say
anything funny.

I mean, I just react to people
the way they come off.

If you come off
like you don't know anything,

that's how I'm going to react to you.

He did not have a lot of patience
with the public, with the fans.

I think in the late 70's
he became more distant.

Kind of aloof, shy,

he didn't feel comfortable in the
environment that other players did.

Unfriendly might have been correct
at the time.

But Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
is one of the most

misunderstood people
ever in sports.

People saw me as just
a very serious person

who didn't have any fun
or enjoy anything.

I'd already been typecast
as the brooding black guy.

I think it had a lot to do
with the era that we were raised in.

I had to toe a certain line
and not be too controversial

or too much my own man.

I just seemed to be like Mr. Grump,

so being able to poke fun
at my image was fun

and changed people's minds.

Wait a minute, I know you !
You're Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

You play basketball
for the Los Angeles Lakers.

You must have me confused
with someone else.

My name is Roger Murdoch.
I'm the co-pilot.

Our original idea for the role of
the co-pilot in Airplane was Pete Rose.

But I think we started
shooting it in the summer,

so he was active in baseball
at the time, and gambling of course.

And so kind of late in the game,
we rewrote the part for Kareem

because we were also huge fans.

I think you're the greatest

but my dad says you don't work hard
enough on defense.

And he says that lots of times
you don't even run downcourt.

And that you don't really try,
except during the play-offs.

Listen kid, I've been hearing
that crap ever since I was at UCLA.

I'm out there busting my buns
every night.

It was easy to write dialogue
for Kareem

because, back in those days,
on a slow news day,

if you wanted to take shots at Kareem,
you would go to his defense

and whether he works
as hard during the regular season

as he does
during the playoffs.

It was great for the film world,
and I'm sure fun for Kareem.

But I think for us, it said,
Kareem's doing comedy. He's not mad !

We talk about how comedy heals,
and how it cures so many ills,

it was a public relations cure
for Kareem's ill.

Because after that movie,
the world kind of exhaled

and said,
ah, it's all right to like him.

While Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's personality
may have long been hard to figure,

through all the highs
and lows of the 1970's

his dominance as a player took on
an almost mystical component.

Thanks to the shot he'd been perfecting

ever since he'd first walked
onto a basketball court.

The sky hook.

This is my body,
and this is where I want to go.

This is what I'm going to do, and
there's nothing you can do about it.

We were all helpless.

He's like a watch, one of the best
watches in the world.

The precision that he had.

By using movement to a place where
I can get the shot off at eight feet,

I knew I could make those shots
on a regular basis.

He jumped so high

and he's got his body in between
the defensive player and the ball.

There's no way for a defender
to even get near him.

It's the prettiest shot
that I've ever seen in my life.

I'll tell you one thing,
you just couldn't guard it.

The leap with grace and with style

and then the
aiming and throwing the ball down.

And once he got up here,

and had his eyeballs on the rim,
forget it.

The cruise missile,

the most unstoppable weapon
in the history of the NBA.

And that ball just taking its time...

That's nice, that's nice.

There's a new sports
magnate in Hollywood.

Dr. Jerry Buss, a real estate
mogul and former rocket scientist,

is now the owner of pro basketball's
Los Angeles Lakers and the Forum,

the team's home arena
in Inglewood, California.

When Jerry Buss
bought the Lakers in 1979,

his unabashed focus

was on increasing the star power
at the Forum in every respect.

He brought in live band,

he brought in the Laker girls,
he made it the place to be.

- The Lakers are number one.
- Fantastic.

With Abdul-Jabbar, Buss had arguably
the league's most talented player.

And with his first draft pick,

he instantly acquired its brightest
new personality to boot,

The Los Angeles Lakers select Earvin
Magic Johnson from Michigan State.

I was such a Kareem freak,

I loved Kareem
before I actually came to the Lakers.

So when I got to the Lakers they said,
oh, you're gonna be Kareem's rookie,

I said, great !
I'm excited, what do I need to do ?

So I went over to Kareem,
what do you need ?

I'm like this 2 year old
you know, goin' up to him.

He said, I'd like 2 Gatorades after
every time-out, or break in practice,

and I want you to get my newspaper,
have it at my door every morning.

I said, what else ?

I was so excited to just be
a part of his life,

because I wanted to get up
under him and learn a lot.

The rookie's elation about playing
alongside Kareem, and being a Laker,

was on full display
in his very first NBA game.

Magic Johnson and Kareem.
Ford sends it to Kareem.

Sky hook...
Lakers win.

Magic Johnson is celebrating like
they've won the NCAA championship.

What the hell's he doing ?
We played one game.

We only have 81 more to play.

Kareem immediately recognized
the value that was there,

but it was like,
can you please turn it down ?

Can you turn it off sometimes ?

He didn't stop his enthusiasm, but he
had so much respect for Kareem.

He didn't come in and just take over
the leadership role.

So we figured out
how we could help each other.

He knew how to get me the ball,
I knew how to help him on defense.

Kareem sort of said, you lead the team,
and you throw me the ball.

All of a sudden,
people had to focus on him

to make sure that he wasn't a guy
who was going to beat them,

and that gave me opportunities.

He was unstoppable.

The bigger the moment,
the more dominant he becomes.

The world's best are prepared
to go head to head

for the National Basketball
Association Championship title.

Together that season,

Magic and Kareem led the Lakers to the
finals for the first time since 1973

where they'd face off against Julius
Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers.

The teams split the series'
first four games,

and then in a tight game 5,

Abdul-Jabbar
was dominating the offensive end.

Kareem turns underneath and puts it up.
But Kareem is hurt. He turned an ankle.

If you're there, you're saying, this
isn't going to continue without Kareem.

I don't think Kareem is going
to be able to go anymore.

It was so unusual for him to be hurt.

No matter how bad he was,
he was always there.

They brought him back out
for the fourth quarter.

He plays the last quarter on one foot.

He goes head to head with Dr. J.,
and he really wins Game 5.

After the game, I was just like,
wow, what am I going to do now

because I need
like two weeks for this to heal.

We've got to play Philadelphia
in a couple of days.

I wish I could do something
but you feel very helpless.

I don't think any of us
knew how bad it was

until we get to the airport
and they say he can't play.

So we have to figure out
how we are going to replace

not just his points,
but his defensive skills.

We didn't know
how we were going to do that.

And Kareem was really a guy
who you can't replace.

You are looking live at the sold out
crowd at the Spectrum in Philadephia.

Kareem remained back in Los Angeles
when the team travelled to Philly.

His Laker co-star, meanwhile, would
take his place for the opening tip.

A young man by the name of Magic
Johnson is going to start at center.

Magic's performance would be one
for the NBA annals.

Another assist for Magic.

The Lakers won the game
and the title.

There it is, it's over,
and the MVP is Magic Johnson.

42 points, 15 rebounds and 7 assists.

He starts at center, plays forward
and guard

and leads the L.A. Lakers
to world championship.

123-107 over Philadelphia
without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

I just tried to do my best
and it has been beautiful.

You are the MVP. You have some words
to say to the big fella back in LA ?

Yeah, Big Fella, we love you,
we did it for you,

and we want you to get up
and dance a little bit tonight.

I know that ankle hurts,
but get up for us.

So we fly home, they're all celebrating
and we arrive back in LA.

All of a sudden, Kareem bolts
into the plane. He's just beaming.

When they opened the door,
instead of us going out, he came in.

Didn't even wait for your boy ?

They've got everything waiting for you.
All the ladies...

For us !

I'm the valet now.

Kareem just dominated that series.

He was averaging over 30 points in
that series. He was actually the MVP.

Magic offered to give me the trophy,

and I was like, no, we're not going to
let that become an issue between us.

He helped me because I wanted
to be a champion and a winner,

and I helped him
because he loosened up.

I just want to thank you
and tell you that you are beautiful.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been almost
as difficult to profile as to guard.

He has spoken candidly
on television only rarely,

and he has shielded
his private life jealously.

But now Kareem is changing,

and the story of his change
is only incidentally a sports story.

It is more of a love story.

He'd first introduced himself to Cheryl
Pistono on an escalator in Los Angeles.

But she didn't reciprocate his interest

until he took her to watch him play in
a celebrity game at Dodger Stadium,

and then climbed the upper deck
to get her.

I'm thinking to myself,
he's not really doing this,

because everyone stopped
watching the game down there,

and started to watch him,
as he walked up to me,

and took my hand
and walked me out of the stadium.

And at that moment I fell.
I fell off the Grand Canyon.

I never ever saw him
as a basketball player.

I fell in love with a man.

Charming, enigmatic, gentle, kind.

We would have these discussions about
politics and religion and the economy

and he was an amazing human being.

Cheryl was a pretty outgoing person,
and that was a wonderful thing for me.

She was a Buddhist, I was a Muslim.

We cared about each other
and we appreciated each other.

She also was instrumental

in repairing a rupture in his life
that had persisted for years.

I'd been separated from my parents
and a lot of my friends

because Hamaas felt that anybody
outside the community was suspicious.

And Cheryl said that your parents
are your parents,

they love you
whether you're Muslim or not.

You need to have them back
in your life.

So I surprise him
and flew them to LA.

Eventually they moved to Los Angeles.

He's very much a family person.

And he was happy
to have his parents in his life.

In 1981, Cheryl gave birth
to Kareem's fourth child, Amir.

After Amir was born, held him up in his
arms, and he named him at that moment.

You saw a love
that I've never seen.

I gave birth to him,
so I know he's mine, okay ?

Beyond that, he's a mirror image
of his father.

One of the things I got from my father
was a lot of Japanese Samurai movies.

We used to watch those countless times.

Music is another thing.
I really enjoy jazz music

and had it not been
for my dad's influence,

I definitely wouldn't
have been introduce to it

and have an appreciation for it.

My brother's experience
was different than mine,

in terms of
our father's presence.

I spent more time with him
when I was younger.

He's my father,
but he felt more like my uncle,

just because, you know,
seeing him sporadically.

I remember he did an interview where
he described himself as Uncle Dad.

But at the same time,
I always knew we had food on the table,

we never had to worry about paying
the bills or getting books for school.

And I knew it was because he made
a good living being an athlete.

I didn't have nearly enough
with them that I should have.

That's something that you regret.

But after I realized
that pursuing Islam

in the way that Hamaas
had thought was ideal,

that wasn't the right way to live,
I did a much better job,

and things went better for me.

And as the 80's continued,

things continued to get better
and better for the Lakers as well.

Eleven games into the 81-82 season,

Pat Riley became LA's interim
head coach,

and immediately increased
the team's offensive tempo.

And with that,
the showtime era took off.

It was fresh and it was very intense
defensively and offensively.

All the different elements
of that team,

the joy of Magic,

and Kareem,
who was used so beautifully,

and Byron and Worthy and Cooper

and the coach in the Armani suits,
it was phenomenal.

The centerpiece was the scene.

If you weren't in the Forum Club,
you were a fucking nobody, okay ?

The players would go,
all the girls were there.

We'd be all be going this way and down
that long dark tunnel would be Kareem.

He didn't want any part of it.

Guys would be jumping
around all over the place,

and he'd be reading a book.

He would never look up.
Never.

Kareem was just a different
piece of toast, man.

By January of 1983,
he was 35 years old,

but still an all-star averaging more
than 20 points a game

for a team defending
another championship.

Then came a harsh reminder of just
how much else he had to lose.

Fire today caused an estimated
three million dollars damage

to the Bel Air home of Los Angeles
Lakers star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

I was in Boston.
We had played the Celtics

and I got a call like
at five or six in the morning.

From Cheryl,
who I was living with at the time.

She said that the house
had burned down. I said, c'mon.

She said nobody was hurt,
but the house is burned down.

And I couldn't believe that.

I'll never forget as long as I live,

he picked me up on the way in town
to take me to see his house,

and he was so calm, like he usually is.

And we look at this devastated place.
Just down to the ground, man.

The rugs were burnt up. All of his
trophies were melted. Everything.

The losses also included
his extensive jazz collection

which he'd been accumulating
for decades,

all the way back to when his father
had first introduced him to music.

My first thought was,
was Kareem there ? Is he okay ?

And that jazz collection.
If it had survived.

And if it didn't,
how devastating that would be.

For him to endure this tremendous fire
and have his house burn down,

and so much
of his jazz collection destroyed,

I'm sure that tore at his heartstrings.

He and his dad would just go in there
and get lost in music.

And when that burned, it's like someone
put an arrow in his heart.

It didn't take him long to realize
that his son was alive.

And that so far outweighed
any thing that was lost in the fire.

Kareem and Cheryl Pistono
parted ways later in 1983,

though they'd remain close
as the years went on.

Meanwhile a year after the fire

came one of the biggest
milestones of his career.

Not to mention a chance to pass
an old friend in the record book.

Tonight fans, a possible history-making
basketball moment.

Kareem needs just 21 points
to pass Wilt Chamberlain

and become basketball's
all-time leading scorer.

I really felt a strong
connection to Wilt,

in that I had known him
since I was in grade school.

And here I was getting ready
to break his record.

I had a dream about it.
We were running in the woods,

and I'm trying to pass him,
it's like a long, cross-country race.

I remember talking to Ervin,
and he said,

I don't know
what the situation's going to be,

but there's no way that anyone else
is going to pass him the ball but me

when he breaks the record.

Kareem, he did like a little ballet.

He went back baseline
and threw about a 15-foot hook shot.

They love their captain.
They love their leader.

Ladies and gentlemen, the new king
of scoring has ascended his throne.

Two decades had passed

since Wilt had taken the kid
from New York under his wing.

Over that time,

Kareem had hardly followed
in his one-time mentor's footsteps.

Off or on the court.

They were completely opposite.

Chamberlain was more about force
and strength.

Kareem was more about finesse
and "ballet-like."

They were just completely opposite,
but yet they were alike.

They were 2 apples. And depending on
which apple you like, you eat the best.

That's who they were.

Each of them had a different effect
on how the game was played.

Why aren't you guys closer ?

Athletes are really tough people...
they have a lot of pride.

They're very competitive.
And him and I are natural rivals.

There was not a whole lot of love lost,

and I think it was more
from Kareem's side, as the competitor.

He's the guy that I've got to take out,
to surpass, to beat.

Wilt Chamberlain was jealous of Kareem

and never missed an opportunity
to attack him in print.

At one time, he said
I named my dog Kareem

but I spelled it with a C
because he has a heart.

I think that really hurt Kareem.

Wilt had a big ego.
And he started taking shots at me.

And when that happened,
I didn't like it.

And I let him know about it,

and I let anybody
who asked me know about it,

and that's when things
more or less went south.

Now the crowd is chanting beat L.A.

Surpassing Wilt Chamberlain at least in
one way brought his career full circle.

But as Kareem remained
an impact player deep into his 30's,

he became part
of another kind of rivalry

that took over basketball's
center stage.

We don't often have a series which
people anticipate that become reality.

This is one that has. People have
been talking about it for a long time.

And today is going to happen.

The 1984 Finals were a fierce
a rivalry as I've ever seen.

The Lakers are leading Game 4 against
the Celtics, up two games to one.

Next thing you know,
Rambis is cruising in

when he just got taken down
by a really hard, hard foul.

Instead of us just keeping our cool, we
turn into a bunch of street fighters.

Bird fights.
Kareem swings the elbow

and now he's yelling at Larry Bird.
Jaw to jaw.

He tried to take my head off.

If he would have connected,
I'd still be asleep.

You know, it was so close.
I could feel the wind off his elbow.

And I wasn't too happy.

And they better pull them apart.

That whole thing was retaliation,
trying to get back.

And I should have tried to quell that
more than I did.

And so we ended up losing in '84.

Final seconds.

Five, four, three, two, one.

The Boston Celtics are the NBA
world champions.

PRIDE

I was feeling so bad, so down,

I was crying, staying
in my house all the time.

Because I made some crucial mistakes
to lose that series.

He said, don't worry about it,
we're going to play them again.

And we were just hanging out, talking
as guys, and that was the breakthrough.

All of us looked
at each other that summer,

and looked at that loss

as the turning point in the dynasty
that came five years after that.

The next season,
the Lakers made it back to the finals

for the rematch
they wanted with the Celtics.

But in the series opener,

LA's center suddenly
and unexpectedly looked his age.

So now it's 1985, and the Boston
Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers,

it's Game 1 of the NBA Finals,

and there we all are again,
and Kareem had a horrible night.

Parrish is beating Jabbar
up the court every single time.

Every newspaper
was calling him an old man.

You know, it's over, he's too old.

I mean, he was brutally
criticized by the press.

And I felt for the guy.

It was like I got to the game late

and I was trying to catch everybody
as they ran away from me on the court.

I just, I wasn't there.

The next day, we come in
for a film session.

He was the first guy sitting there,

in the center seat, first row,
right in front of the video.

And he looked up at me, and he said,
give it to me, and don't stop.

I was hammering him,
you've got more guts than that, Cap.

We spend the next two hours
rebounding and transition drills.

and Magic finally comes up and says,

Coach, save him,
he'll be dead by Thursday night.

Kareem overheard the conversation,

and said, no, don't take me out,
I'm doing it all,

what everybody else does,
I'm doing it.

We all were just feeling bad,
how bad Boston beat us.

So we come down
for the bus for Game 2.

Pat Riley had a rule,
can't nobody ride on the bus.

And so I look out on the window,
and he's running towards the bus,

and his father is coming with him.

And then Mr. Alcindor gets on.

Okay, maybe they came in
to just say hi to him.

And then the next moment,
the door closes, and the bus takes off.

So here's the oldest guy on the team,
why you riding with your dad ?

I still to this day don't know what
that meant, but it gave us something.

You know having my dad there was

someone familiar that I trusted, someone
that wanted to see me succeed.

Maybe the most important game
that the Lakers and him ever played,

that he needed the solace
of his father's wisdom

When he was backed into a corner,
who he reached out to ?

It wasn't one of us.
It was his parents.

And that says a lot to me about Kareem,
and who he is as a man.

"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar out to prove
Game 1 sleepwalk a fluke."

Kareem was very criticized after the
most embarrassing loss in team history.

He conjured up something from 1973.

And he moved like a graceful gazelle,
like a young kid.

He is playing like a rookie,
watch him come over on this shot.

I can remember him taking Robert
Parrish and Kevin McHale to school

as if they were midgets.

His position on the offensive play
was harder, he was contesting shots,

he was moving to help,
he was just all over the court.

There was nothing we could do.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
has come back with a vengeance.

30 points and 16 rebounds,

he indeed has been the spearhead
for this Laker comeback.

I just ratcheted everything up
and said,

I've got to get back
to what I know I can do.

If you watched him tonight,

he played with tremendous passion
and lead us, got every big rebound.

Without him tonight,
we're an average team.

They had buried him,

and he came up and stuck his hand up
out of the grave, and said no.

It feels good to know
that you're not dead,

they had people throwing dirt
on my face.

It's good to know that
that was a little premature.

LA took two of the next three at home,

and then looked to close it out
on enemy grounds.

And welcome to the Boston Garden,

which through the years,
has been the home court advantage.

It's Game 6, and the Lakers are one
victory away from a world championship.

and ending one of the longest jinxes
in the history of professional sports.

The tip controlled by Boston.

Kareem tips it in.

Kareem ! It's the Lakers
showing their offensive class.

Four on the shot clock,
Kareem goes up and scores.

We saw that he was animated,
and ready to play... and it was great.

Kareem hits again with a skyhook.

What that was, that's who he was
inside... he was a champion.

Three in six years, LA comes to Boston
and wins the world title !

Kareem never gloats,
it's just not his personality,

but for that one time,
he's got this smile on his face,

like, I gotcha and I'm still here,
don't count me out.

It's a great feeling to beat the
Celtics and to beat them in Boston.

We're the only team to ever
win a world championship in Boston

other than the Boston Celtics.

The Lakers would win two more titles,
back to back, in 1987 and '88.

The championships made it
six in all for Kareem,

alongside six MVP awards,
more than any other player in history,

as well as a record
19 All-Star Game appearances.

Now past 40,

he was still playing a significant role
for the league's best team.

But at the dawn of the 1989 campaign,

he announced he'd finally
be retiring at season's end.

And what ensued over
the next several months

was evidence of just how
far a road he'd traveled.

When Kareem retired,
he had his farewell tour.

And it was the last chance for everyone
to give this guy his due.

People that would boo him
and call him the N-word his whole life.

The tour went to every arena
in the league.

And at every stop,
the response was the same.

Even the Boston Garden.

He didn't have any clue how well
they were going to receive him.

What he's done for the game
is unparalleled.

We don't want him to forget
anything about this building.

We've got to give
him a piece of this floor.

KAREEM,
TWENTY BIG SEASONS

I was proud of our fans.

They respected the man,
and they gave him a hell of an ovation.

When you begin to characterize

what truly the greatest player
of all time was,

would be, a dominant player
and his longevity.

Kareem played for 20 years.

You've got to put him right there
at the top with all of these guys.

He's on my Mt. Rushmore,
I always tell people.

When you think about
what he's meant to LA sports

and what he's meant to the NBA,

and what he's meant to young players
like myself,

it's off the charts.

So I'm just happy I got a chance
to play alongside of him.

I'm just happy we can call
each other friends.

The retirement tour's official
final goodbye

came on the final Sunday
of the season.

With family and former teammates
crowding the arena

to bid farewell to a star
who looked perhaps

more at ease than ever before
in the Forum's spotlight.

He wanted his be steady
in that whole thing.

He wanted to be the guy

that had the character that John Wooden
talked to him about.

And I thought to myself,

oh my god, just as he started
to say hello, he said goodbye.

First of all, I gotta give thanks
to these folks, my mom and my dad.

When your dad is a cop,
and your mom believes in what's right,

they set exacting standards for you,
and I tried to live up to them.

And they did with a lot of love.
Thank you mom, thank you dad.

Thank you very much.

I want to thank
these four little people over here,

because my relationship with them
wasn't what it could have been

because I had to come out here
on this court,

and they never responded with anything
other than love and appreciation,

and I love you guys, and it's wonderful
to have you here at this moment.

Thank you.

As you go along the path of life,
you meet people,

people that have an influence on you,

people that can turn you
the right way.

And I've been very fortunate to know
a number of people like that.

I'm thinking about one
of my teachers in grade school,

Sister Hannah,
she was beautiful.

My high school coach,
Jack Donohue.

Then I came out to a place
called Los Angeles

and hooked up with a very wonderful
man named John Wooden.

Finally, I got to come back out here
and play here in this building,

and that has been
a wonderful experience,

because I got an opportunity
to share that with you people.

We've grown together,
and learned to appreciate each other,

and appreciate
this great game that we play.

I could certainly not have had
a professional life

if I did not get to work
with people of this caliber,

who care and who are my friends.

I've run out of words,
I'm losing my voice,

and I want to say I love you all.
Thank you very much.

What do you see for yourself 20 years
from now ?

Maybe I'll be sitting on the beach
with you, sipping a cool drink.

Let's make a date.

So many years later,

maybe what he has now is indeed
all Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ever wanted.

A life that's become about
so much more than basketball.

An identity as a writer,
commentator and activist

that's served as a significant epilogue
to his athletic career.

Looking back, he almost had no choice
but to embrace all the game gave him.

It just took some time for the man
to get there.

It's pretty amazing to have taken
this journey.

You don't really understand it
as you're going through it.

Many times I turned people off with my
reticence about personal engagement.

It has something to do with the fact
that I've been shy all my life.

But it had nothing to do
with lack of appreciation of the fans.

And when I've gone through
some of the trails of middle age,

and dealing with leukemia
and heart troubles and stuff,

and all the fans that sent
their best wishes and their prayers,

it's awesome and I really appreciate
it, and I'm thankful for it.

THE END