Every basketball player in the world wants to one day play in the NBA to showcase their talent on the biggest basketball in the league. Even after getting drafted into the NBA, making the debut is unarguably one of the biggest nights for any player. But that isn’t true for every player.
A prime example of that is former NBA player Kent Benson. Benson was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks using the first overall pick in the 1977 NBA Draft. Speaking of Benson’s debut, he got that opportunity against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Los Angeles Lakers. KAJ is widely regarded as one of the best centers to ever play for the Lakers.
The 1970s was an era where players took pride in being tough, and Benson got a taste of that when he messed with Abdul-Jabbar during his debut.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar And Kent Benson Got Into A Heated Scuffle
The incident happened when Kareem was getting into a spot to make his iconic hook shot. Obviously, Benson wanted to prevent Kareem from making that shot, and he got physical with KAJ. It resulted in Benson elbowing Abdul-Jabbar in the stomach.
While Kareem felt the blow, he decided to clap back at Benson by punching him in the face.
Kareem Abdul-Jabber rocks Kent Benson after catching an elbow to the stomach.
Benson was the 1st overall pick and this was two minutes into his first game ever. Welcome to the NBA 🤝
pic.twitter.com/dX6crFIJEd
— Hoops (@HoopMixOnly) November 2, 2022
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rocks Kent Benson after catching an elbow to the stomach. Benson was the 1st overall pick and this was two minutes into his first game ever. Welcome to the NBA.
Obviously, something like this can never be forgotten by a player even after retiring from the NBA. Benson once talked about his fight with Kareem in an interview.
Via Basketball Network:
“On the way back down court, he elbows me several times. I beat him down to his spot on the block where he could shoot his famous hook shot. As he comes down, he takes his elbow and barrels it into my chest. We’re jostling for position and I elbow him back. Nothing malicious, but I elbow him back. He hit me so hard he broke his hand. He was out 21 games and had the largest fine in NBA history at the time. That gave me an opportunity to learn about forgiveness. I had forgiven him. It was hard to do, no doubt.”
Benson openly admitted that the incident helped him in learning to forgive people. He also revealed that Kareem apparently broke his hand after the incident and ended up missing 21 games because of that. At the end of the day, it’s good to know that Benson forgave him and moved on with his life.
