Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court

Abdul-Jabbar surprised his teachers by not being a stereotypical jock, and he excelled academically. In his English Composition class, he wrote about his love of jazz and his memories of the jazz clubs in New York that he used to frequent. He was proud when his professor loved his essay and read it out to the class.

Abdul-Jabbar bonded with Jimmy Johnson, an upperclassman from South Central Los Angeles, over embracing Black pride and their interest in Black culture and history. While he was not used to sharing a room, he soon became friends with his roommate Lucius Allen, a basketball player from Kansas City, and grew to like his “unselfconscious enthusiasm.” A constant challenge that Abdul-Jabbar faced was that he didn’t have any spending money—his scholarship only covered tuition and his rooming fees. He was unhappy with the fact that the college’s basketball program earned the university millions of dollars while its players scraped by financially; however, he did not complain.

The author recalls the incredible talent on the UCLA freshman team, all of whom had great respect for Coach John Wooden. Coach Wooden had an eye for details: His first lesson to his team was to put on their socks and shoes correctly, insisting that “snug” socks and shoes prevented blistering, which would take players out of the game. Bemused, Abdul-Jabbar and his peers did as the coach wanted. Wooden encouraged players to value their family, faith, and education even more than basketball.

Abdul-Jabbar felt that he and the coach were both evaluating each other, and he hoped that Coach Wooden would help him develop as a player so he could secure a spot in the NBA. Abdul-Jabbar was intrigued by Wooden’s approach to coaching: Wooden could focus on the micro and macro seamlessly, and he saw each player as an individual rather than an interchangeable teammate. During a televised game in the Pauley Pavilion, UCLA’s 13,000-seat arena, a nervous Abdul-Jabbar missed his first shot. He soon made up for his fumble and helped his team win the game. His coach’s positivity and respect for all the players made Abdul-Jabbar realize that he wanted to foster good relationships, too, and that these were more important than winning.

The author recalls that, as a child, he idolized Muhammad Ali, who proved that Black Americans could succeed in professional sports. While Abdul-Jabbar especially admired Ali’s “skill, power and grace” in the ring (195), he was also inspired by Ali’s frank and outspoken nature, talent for self-promotion, and refusal to fight in the Vietnam War. Abdul-Jabbar briefly bumped into Ali on an LA street, and he later reconnected with him at a party for college and pro athletes. Ali soon became a “big brother” figure to Abdul-Jabbar, who wanted to emulate Ali and become a force for social justice, too. While Abdul-Jabbar had always been coached to win, he felt that Ali demonstrated what winners should do with their fame.

The UCLA team hired Coach Jay Carty to work specifically with Abdul-Jabbar. Because of his towering height, Abdul-Jabbar had to learn how to face aggressive players who would target him with physical plays and blocks. Coach Carty taught Abdul-Jabbar how to avoid the worst of these moves, and he also helped him perfect his hook shot.

Coach Wooden believed that careful preparation was the key to winning games, and he made his players build their stamina through long-distance running. Abdul-Jabbar believes that Wooden’s emphasis on conditioning helped him enjoy an unusually long career. While he found these practices exhausting, the benefits were obvious since the UCLA freshman team enjoyed a year of victories.

Coach Wooden invited Abdul-Jabbar to dinner, and he shared his advice about how to deal with the media. He encouraged Abdul-Jabbar to keep a low profile and not give the media anything “new” to write about. Abdul-Jabbar felt that Coach Wooden wanted to keep his players insulated from media attention and the general social upheaval happening throughout the country. He was unsure of how to feel about the coach personally, but he admired him as a professional.

After dinner, in the parking lot, Abdul-Jabbar was shocked when an elderly white woman approached him and used a racial slur against him. Coach Wooden was clearly aghast, but he said nothing. Abdul-Jabbar noticed that Coach Wooden was upset by the incident and felt that the coach understood how painful it was for him. While they did not discuss it further, Abdul-Jabbar felt that the incident bonded them.

During his summer break, Abdul-Jabbar read voraciously, eager to continue learning. Upon reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Abdul-Jabbar recognized distinct parallels between Malcolm X’s life and his own, including their personal backgrounds, experiences of racism, and frustration with the lack of Black curriculum and representation in schools. After reading about Malcolm X’s personal transformation, Abdul-Jabbar reflected on his own identity and was inspired to read the Quran. Like Malcolm X, he found that Islam made him feel more connected to his African ancestors, and it felt more “comfortable and authentic” than his Christian upbringing. Looking back, Abdul-Jabbar considers reading Malcolm X’s work as a pivotal moment in his life that sent him down a new religious and political path.

In his sophomore year, Abdul-Jabbar used his summer job savings to move off campus with his friend and teammate, Edgar Lacey. The two were frustrated by how they were unpaid for their efforts on the college team, and they joked about leaving the university. Abdul-Jabbar was feeling the pressure of increasingly being in the media spotlight; he had recently been featured in Sports Illustrated. While he liked the attention, he also missed his anonymity.

Abdul-Jabbar knew that his scholarship and potential NBA career was dependent on winning games, so he was flabbergasted by Coach Wooden’s suggestion that winning was the “by-product of hard work” and wasn’t their only goal (221). Wooden valued teamwork and encouraged the team to practice their collaboration on the court. As such, Wooden disapproved of what he considered showmanship, such as dunking. However, he saw the value in Abdul-Jabbar’s hook shot and continued to refine it with him. Coach Wooden insisted that players stay clean and sober so they could play their best, and he discouraged them from participating in the anti-war protests that were ongoing at the time. The team was triumphant once again in their final game of the season, finishing their year undefeated and becoming the NCAA basketball champions.

By the time Abdul-Jabbar was 20 years old, he was well-known in the sports world after his undefeated sophomore year. The media began to write more articles about him, some of which speculated about his personal life. He was cautious about using his new fame for a social cause since he wanted to be taken seriously.

The football player Jim Brown invited Abdul-Jabbar to a meeting called the Cleveland Summit, a group composed of prominent Black athletes and activists, to discuss Muhammad Ali’s refusal to be conscripted into the Vietnam War; the group decided they would publicly support him in doing so. After hours of discussion, Ali insisted that he would not be drawn into an unjust war that harmed both Black Americans and the Vietnamese. Listening to Ali speak about his faith and his determination to disobey his draft order inspired Abdul-Jabbar. His participation in the Cleveland Summit cemented his reputation as a politically active basketball player, and he strove to live up to the responsibility of being one of the Black community’s most prominent voices.

At the time, Coach Wooden did not like Ali, and he sometimes made critical comments about his decision to avoid the draft. While the issue was an “irritant” to Abdul-Jabbar, it did not break his relationship with Coach Wooden. Over the years, Abdul-Jabbar saw how his coach’s values evolved as he opened his mind to new ideas, including Ali’s.

That summer, Abdul-Jabbar taught basketball clinics to Black youth in New York City, hoping that the lessons would foster their self-esteem. When he returned to UCLA, he was disappointed to learn that the NCAA had recently banned the dunk shot, which was a favorite of his. Coach Wooden insisted that he could still be a high scorer, and they worked on his hook shot. Many years later, Wooden revealed that he had also voted to ban the dunk shot because he considered it an “ugly” shot that used “brute force” (238).

Abdul-Jabbar encountered other challenges that season, such as being trash-talked in the press by his rival Elvin Hayes, and injuring his eye in a game and requiring hospitalization. However, he had a triumphant finish that year as his team defeated their rivals, the Houston Cougars. Feeling joyful, Abdul-Jabbar took the opportunity to wear his dashiki, an African robe, in public for the first time.

That summer, in New York, Abdul-Jabbar was inspired to train in aikido, a Japanese martial art, after watching a samurai film. He felt that his new training would help him be more agile on the court and avoid others’ aggression without fouling. When he returned to UCLA, he decided to continue this training, and a friend recommended meeting with Bruce Lee, a martial artist and actor based in Culver City. Upon meeting with Lee, Abdul-Jabbar was instantly impressed with his friendly demeanor and skill, and he agreed to train with him. As a stickler for foundational strength and conditioning, Lee reminded him of Coach Wooden.

Abdul-Jabbar also connected with Lee over philosophy and their similar experiences as people of color in America. Several years later, Abdul-Jabbar was saddened to learn that Lee had died suddenly while filming his latest movie. He shares that Lee’s wisdom as a person and athlete continued to guide him his whole life.

During the 1968 Olympics, Abdul-Jabbar was a 21-year-old and still in college, playing for the UCLA team. While he was offered a spot on the Olympic team, he felt torn about accepting it. He believed that if he played as part of Team USA, he would be supporting an unjust government and tolerating racist treatment of Black Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. had recently been assassinated, as had Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Robert F. Kennedy, all of which deeply affected Abdul-Jabbar. Moreover, he resented the government for allowing police to beat Black protestors and work against the civil rights movement. However, he was also worried that he would be judged as being un-American if he declined to play. He and other Black athletes discussed the pros and cons of their options, and in the end, he chose to reject the offer.

At the Olympics, American athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith won medals for running. When they made the Black Power salute, however, they were stripped of their medals and kicked out of the Olympic program, becoming heroes to many Black Americans, including Abdul-Jabbar. He spent his summer teaching basketball clinics in New York, as he had done before, and he received vicious hate mail from people who were angry with his decision not to play on the Olympic team.

That summer was a painful time for Abdul-Jabbar as police brutality against protestors continued, including at the Democratic National Convention. He felt determined to continue speaking out against such violence.

Abdul-Jabbar wrestled with which of his childhood influences to retain, and which to discard. The Catholic religion was a major influence on Abdul-Jabbar when he was growing up, but as an adult, he began exploring other faiths and philosophies, such as Buddhism, Taoism, existentialism, Protestantism, Hinduism, and Islam. He felt certain that he believed in God and that religion could help motivate people to do good, but he was uncertain about which faith suited him best. Rather than a particular theology, he mostly wanted to find “a religion that [he] identified with culturally as well as spiritually” (260).

Abdul-Jabbar was unimpressed with the Catholic Church’s history and dissatisfied with the church’s toleration of slavery, noting that the church only condemned slavery in 1965. Moreover, the white people who had once owned his ancestors were Christians; Abdul-Jabbar found this alienating, even though other Christians had opposed slavery. After reading Malcolm X’s autobiography, Abdul-Jabbar became more interested in Islam and began attending a Sunni mosque in New York. His teacher there encouraged him to memorize verses from the Quran and eventually, Abdul-Jabbar completed his conversion by reading the Shahada (an Islamic oath) and accepting a new name: Abdul Kareem. He told only his closest friends and his parents about his conversion and his new name.

While he felt that he was on the right track, the author was also aware that his parents had given him his first name, and his Islamic teacher gave him his second. He wanted to be more active in embracing his own identity and understanding how to be a more devout Muslim. His new teacher, Hamaas Abdul-Khalis, helped him learn the rules of devout Islam, and also changed the way he thought about his country and citizenship. At the time, Abdul-Jabbar felt alienated from America and resisted thinking of himself as American, but Abdul-Khalis insisted that he should claim and affirm his citizenship. He urged Abdul-Jabbar to participate in the good works that would move the country forward, and he reminded him that some white people were working toward the same progress. By the end of the summer, Abdul-Jabbar affirmed his conversion by repeating the Shahada, shaving his head, and sharing a meal with his community. His teacher added the name “Jabbar”—meaning powerful—to reflect his personality.

While Abdul-Jabbar was pleased to have embraced Islam and learned more about his Black heritage, he also felt that these interests isolated him from his team. One night, the team was riding the bus together from game to game. During a quiet lull during the bus ride, Steve Patterson, a devout evangelical Christian, began talking about his beliefs, positing that Christ was the only route to salvation. Abdul-Jabbar questioned these beliefs, and the whole team engaged in the discussion, listening and sharing openly about their own personal experiences with religion and spirituality. Abdul-Jabbar felt moved by everyone’s goodwill, and he shared that he had converted to orthodox Islam. His teammates were supportive, and they asked him questions about his decision and Islam in general. Coach Wooden also sat in and listened. Abdul-Jabbar realized that he and his teammates were the “mature, respectful gentlemen” that Coach Wooden had encouraged them to be (273).

Abdul-Jabbar had a successful senior year at UCLA; his team won the NCAA basketball championship for the third year in a row, and he personally won the Naismith College Player of the Year trophy. Feeling bored of his college routine, Abdul-Jabbar was eager to sign with the NBA and begin his professional career. He was courted by the NBA and the ABA (American Basketball Association) and ultimately, he decided to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks. When the ABA suddenly made him a much higher salary offer at the last minute, Abdul-Jabbar was tempted, but he had given his word to the Bucks and wanted to keep his promise.

Abdul-Jabbar’s transition into the NBA was difficult, as he felt isolated living alone for the first time in a strange new city. In addition to being very cold, Milwaukee did not have a Muslim community at the time, and Abdul-Jabbar did not have any friends or family in the area. While he tried to maintain his devotion to Islamic rules and abstained from gambling and drinking, he did continue to date.

The NBA games and practices were significantly different from college basketball: Abdul-Jabbar now played four games a week instead of two, and the players were much more physically aggressive. They knew how to abuse him without the referees noticing. At the end of the season, the Milwaukee Bucks finished second in the Eastern Division and Abdul-Jabbar won the Rookie of the Year award. The next year, the team welcomed Oscar Robertson, whom Abdul-Jabbar credits with helping him become a better player. The team became the NBA champions, which was an incredible accomplishment considering that the team had only been established three years prior. Shortly after, Abdul-Jabbar made his name change and religious conversion public.

The author reflects on how he went on to enjoy a long and illustrious career in basketball, setting records and winning awards, as well as continuing to advocate for social justice. He realizes that as long as he is alive, he will always be “becoming Kareem”—he continues to strive to be “the kindest, gentlest, smartest, lovingest version” of himself (287). He expresses gratitude to all his life “coaches,” including those he rejected, for helping him to find his own unique path in life. He reveals that he wrote his autobiography to encourage readers who are on their own journey of self-discovery and act as a coach to them.