Former UCLA Bruin, former New York high school basketball legend, and the former Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr., Kareem Abdul Jabbar was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Mo. on Sunday.
Amazingly, a full 38 years since Abdul Jabbar threw up his last sky hook for the UCLA Bruins in 1969 — where his teams won three NCAA championships and accumulated an unmatched record of 88-2 — was he was finally inducted in the HoF. Let’s not forget, he went 72-0 in high school and was considered a pioneer in college sports by crossing the country to attend college for the John Wooden led-Bruins during a time of racial crisis and the Vietnam War.
“When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar left the game in 1989 at the age of 42, nobody had done more for the game of college basketball or the NBA as he did,” said Hall of Famer Bill Walton, Abdul-Jabbar’s presenter.
Abdul-Jabbar entered the hall with former players Austin Carr, Dick Groat and Dick Barnett, along with coaches Norm Stewart, Lefty Driesell, Vic Bubas and Guy Lewis. Phog Allen, Henry Iba, Adolph Rupp and John McClendon also were honored as founding fathers.
Each inductee put a significant imprint on college basketball. None did it with quite the depth of Abdul-Jabbar. [LINK TO STORY]
Astonishing that it took this long to induct Kareem! It is the year 2007, right?! This man was arguably the most dominate player to ever play the game of college basketball. Yes, he was controversial. Yes, his conversion to Islam may have ruffled some feathers in the 1970’s, but I would have supposed this honor to have been bestowed many, many years ago. The world is an interesting, curious place sometimes.
