Famous for his signature ‘Skyhook’ shot, Kareem Abdul Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He was born in the city of New York in 1947. He’s a member of six NBA championship teams as a player, has coached teams. He’s been the NBA finals Most Valuable Player twice.
Net worth
After playing 20 seasons as a dominant force in National Basketball Association for Milwaukee bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, Kareem holds a net worth of about 20 million dollars from his unshakable basketball career of 30 years. The most of his earnings are from his basketball career, his celebrity status riches from show business adding to it.
Life history
Born for Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Sr., a policeman and Cora, he was named Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. Being exceptionally tall at young age, he started to play basketball at the eighth grade setting New York City school records to be called as ‘High school team of the century’. He pursued his college education from University of California, Los Angeles in 1965.
He went on to win 3 national championships under Coach John Wooden (1967-69) being named as the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s most outstanding player of that year. He then won his first Most Valuable Player award while playing for Milwaukee bucks. After requesting the Bucks management to send him back, he turned Los Angeles for next fifteen seasons into a recurrent winner.
Conversion to Islam
Kareem studied Islam with Hamaas Abdul Khadir, about whom he has mentioned in his books as the one who taught him about life.
Wanting to fight against racial discrimination through religion changed his name to Kareem from Lew Alcindor, meaning ‘a noble, powerful servant to Allah’.
Known for
Kareem has written books based on his life experiences and has appeared in a number of movies and Television shows both as himself and in other roles. He’s also a spokesperson and a public speaker. He was also given a position of cultural ambassador for the United States.
His autobiographies are ‘Giant steps’ and ‘Becoming Kareem’. His other books include ‘Coach Wooden and me’, ‘On the shoulders of Giants’ about Harlem Renaissance where he served as a Coach for a year. He has acted in movies such as Airplane, Game of Death, That fish that served Pittsburgh and more. His TV shows include 21 jump street, Mannix and Different Strokes.
Business Affiliations
According to several celebrity net worth blogs, Kareem has worked as executive producer for a movie which is about a civil rights pioneer and a motion picture on Negro baseball leagues and a television movie about black unit serving in World War II.He is the president of Cranberry records, a Jazz recording company.
Honors and Awards
From being honored as one of the 50 Greatest players in NBA history to being called as ‘The Greatest Basketball Player of all the time’, he has won many accolades. Apart from this he has been honored with the ‘National Memorial Basketball hall of fame’ in 1995. Honored by President Clinton as one of “The Great Ones” among many others in the first National Sports Awards.2016- Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama. He has procured six Most Valuable Player Awards.
He’s the all-time leading scorer and first NBA player to play for 20 seasons with 38,387 points, 17,440 rebounds 3189 blocks and 1560 games.
Final Words
Retiring in 1989, from a tireless basketball journey for a period of 30 years to fighting for racial justice, Kareem has out livened cancer and stays as a symbol for fitness and strength.
