Kareem Abdul Jabber

A legendary basketball player, movie star, book author, basketball assistant coach, public speaker, cultural ambassador, devoted Muslim, Kareem Abdul Al Jabber has got it all. I’m talking about an extraordinary Muslim who is certainly a pride for the nation of Islam. For all of us, Kareem Abdul Al Jabber symbolizes strength, determination, and success.

He was born on April 16, 1947 (as Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr.) in New York City, United States of America. He was raised as a Roman catholic until he decided to embrace the religion of Islam at the age of 21. At an early age, he started to show basketball’s phenomenal skills and abilities, and what surely was a helping factor is his tallness as he is 2.17 M long. He began his professional basketball career in NBA at the same year, he converted to Islam in 1969. He played for two major NBA clubs which are Milwaukee Bucks (1969-1775) and Los Angeles Lakers (1975-1989). His achievements as a basketball players are countless, and for us to talk fairly about the multitude of those achievements, one article will do us nothing. However, we could sum up his achievements by stating that at the time of his retirement, he was the leading scorer in NBA history, but not only that, he was all-time leader in minutes played, games played, blocked shots, personal fouls, defensive rebounds and field goals made. Thus, there is absolutely no shock to know that ESPN announced him as the greatest player in the entire history of college basketball.

Beside his glorious career as a basketball player, Abdul Jabber worked as an actor as he was featured in various movies and TV shows; however, he is most famous for two particular big screen roles. The first was in Bruce Lee’s last film (Game of Death) when he played the role Bruce Lee’s adversary in the famous fight scene. The second was the role of a co-pilot in 1980’s hit comedy (airplane). As well, he worked as basketball assistant coach for numerous basketball teams, and since 2005, Abdul Jabber has worked as special assistant coach for Los Angeles Lakers. Furthermore, Kareem Abdul Jabber is a best -selling author for many books, but perhaps the most important one is his autobiography (Giant Steps).  In 2012, Abdul Jabber was selected for the position of cultural ambassador for the United States of America, and for Abdul Jabber long versatile career that was the icing on the cake.

Abdul Jabber is a proud dedicated follower of the religion of Islam.  He said that the main reason behind his conversion to Islam is finding the life he wants to live in Islam. He saw that Islam is the right way to live his life, and he decided to go that way. Kareem is an excellent example of a successful, intelligent, generous, and pioneer Muslim Character. He chose Islam as his religion and way of life by his free will, and he has become a source of pride for All Muslims around the globe.

 

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