Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greatest players in history, and many view him as the greatest center of all time. 6 MVPs and 6 championships speak for themselves. Over the course of his career, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar averaged 24.6 PPG, 11.2 RPG, and 3.6 APG.
During the era that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played in, trash talk among players was commonplace. It seems as though Kareem Abdul-Jabbar partook in talking trash as well.
Recently, Isiah Thomas revealed that he was on the receiving end of some of that, speaking about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when appearing in the NBA 75 Stories video for Abdul-Jabbar. Isiah Thomas was double-teaming Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and ended up giving up an easy layup to Magic Johnson while Abdul-Jabbar hilariously asked whether Magic Johnson was “his man”.
I remember I was a designated double teamer. We doubled teamed Kareem every time he touched the basketball. Magic threw it in. My job was to come back and double team.
So I come back and I double team. My hands are up I’m like (waving motion). I remember he looks me dead in my eyes and he goes “hey is this your man?”. He drops it right over my head and Magic lays it up… He was so smart… Every time he walked out on the floor, you knew he would try to give you his best performance.
There’s no doubt that this is a hilarious story from Isiah Thomas. He has spoken very highly about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar before, even picking the big man as the GOAT due to his dominance.
“My GOAT is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There is no person in the history of all sports, from grade to school to high school, to college, to the NBA that had a better basketball playing career than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. And then when you take into account what he’d done in terms of social justice during that period of time, the stance he took outside off the playing field, those are big things in my mind in terms of what the GOAT was.”
“When I look at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s six championships, six or seven MVPs, scored the most points than anybody in the NBA, lost one game in college, lost one game in high school and didn’t lose in grade school. To me that’s the GOAT,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is definitely viewed as one of the greatest players ever, and he’s one of the common answers when people ask about who the GOAT of basketball is. While most people think that the GOAT is Michael Jordan, it is understandable why some people think it is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
In terms of legacy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has the respect of most if not all basketball fans. There’s no question that people respected his ability, and his skyhook was virtually unguardable. His greatness will never be forgotten.
