He was the greatest basketball player in history. When
Lew Alcindor
played three seasons for the UCLA Bruins from 1966–69 under coach John
Wooden, contributing to the team's three-year record of 88 wins, he
recalled that Wooden "broke basketball down to
it's basic elements. He always told us basketball was a simple game, but his
ability to make the game simple was part of his genius. There was no ranting
and raving, no histrionics or theatrics. To lead the way Coach Wooden led
takes a tremendous amount of faith. He was almost mystical in his approach,
yet that approach only strengthened our confidence. Coach Wooden enjoyed
winning, but he did not put winning above everything. He was more concerned
that we became successful as human beings, that we earned our degrees, that
we learned to make the right choices as adults and as parents. In essence,
he was preparing us for life." The
NCAA subsequently outlawed the dunk shot for a few years because of Lew's
dominance at center for UCLA.
On May 1, 1971, the day after the Bucks won the NBA championship, Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr.'s
adopted the Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, its Arabic translation roughly
"generous/noble (Kareem), servant of (Abdul) the mighty/stern one (Jabbar).Kareem said "I saw Islam as the correct way to live, and I chose to try to
live that way."
During his remarkable NBA career with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles
Lakers, he scored 38,387 points, more than any other player in league
history, won six NBA championships and a record six regular season MVP
Awards .and was the NBA's all-time leader in games played, minutes played,
field goals made, field goal attempts, blocked shots, defensive rebounds,
and personal fouls. He holds a record nineteen NBA All-Star call-ups
and averaging 24.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.6 blocks per
game. He is also the third all-time in registered blocks (3,189). After
retiring from the NBA, Kareem coached the Oklahoma Storm of the United
States Basketball League in 2002, leading them to the league championship
before resigning.
But not satisfied with his legendry sports status, Kareem is also an
occasional ctor and best remembered for his portrayals of a 7' 2" adversary
to the diminutive Bruce Lee during a memorable fight sequence in The Game
of Death 1978), and an airline pilot with a remarkable similarity
to "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar" in Airplane! (1980). He also guest starred
in several TV shows including
including Man from Atlantis(1977), 21 Jump Street (1987),
Tales from the Darkside (1983), and Scrubs.(2001).
So to celebrate Kareem's birthday, we suggest playing Pearl Jam's "Sweet Lew" on the album "Lost Dogs" which is about the urban myth that Kareem lost all of his money investing in hotels for tall people and enjoy a batch of Butterscotch Basketball Cookies. Don't forget to cap it off with The Archangel of Basketball (1995) in which he plays Slam Dunk Ernest.
Butterscotch Basketball Cookies
| Cookie Ingredients | Frosting Ingredients | |
| 3/4 cup shortening 1/4 cup water 2 TB all-purpose flour 1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract 4 cups confectioners' sugar Paste food coloring || |
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| Instructions |
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