On April 16, 1947, Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr., a former professional basketball player from the United States, was born. His name is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
He spent 20 seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
In his career as a center, Abdul-Jabbar earned the NBA Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) a record six times.
He also made the NBA All-NBA Team 15 times, the NBA All-Defensive Team 11 times, and he was an All-Star record 19 times. In addition to helping two additional NBA championship teams, he played on six of them.
He received two votes for NBA Finals MVP. He was nominated to three NBA anniversary teams (35th, 50th, and 75th).
Where did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar go to college and high school? Did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar go to film school?
When Abdul-Jabbar attended the parochial high school Power Memorial in New York City, he played there under the alias Lew Alcindor and helped his team to a 71-game winning streak.
At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he played for coach John Wooden on three consecutive national championship teams, assistant coach Jerry Norman recruited him. He held the NCAA Tournament MVP record by winning it three times.
Alcindor spent six seasons in Milwaukee after the Bucks, who had only been in existence for one season at the time, selected him with the first overall pick. After helping the Bucks win their first NBA championship at the age of 24, he took the Muslim name, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
One of the top scorers in the league, he became well-known for his trademark skyhook shot. In 1975, he was transferred to the Lakers, where he spent the next 14 seasons of his career and contributed to five more NBA championships.
