Speaking of the best players to ever play in the league, one cannot overlook Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The NBA Hall of Famer had an illustrious career and amassed the most points in NBA history. As of now, he still holds the top spot on the All-Time NBA scoring list.
Just taking one look at his resume, one might feel like regardless of the era, Kareem would be successful in the NBA. On the contrary, Kareem believes that won’t be the case. During that time, when Abdul-Jabbar was in his prime, the league was much different from now.
The most obvious thing anyone would notice is the little to no use of the 3-point shot back in Kareem’s playing days. Nowadays, regardless of the position, organizations expect the players to have at least a working 3-point shot.
Moreover, being a center, Kareem lived in the paint and gave opposing defenders a run for their money. But could he do the same in the modern-day NBA? Well, here is what he thinks about it.
“I think the 3-point shot has forced everybody to be versatile in the game. Prior to the 3-point shot, as a center, I never left the paint. If I got a rebound on the defensive end, coach would say give it to the guard and go down to the offensive end and get in position for whatever play we’re going to run. Now, people learn how to play the game differently. The young man from Milwaukee — Antetokounmpo, oh my goodness. He gets it off the defensive board, and he’s almost seven feet. He turns into a guard and attacks the offensive end of the court.”
He joked, “If I tried to do that, I would have been sitting on the bench. I would’ve been over there with John Black (Lakers former VP of Public Relations) keeping stats.”
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While it is true that the game has changed a lot since Kareem was playing in the league, it is hard to believe that he won’t be able to adjust to the new era. It might take him some serious time in the gym to adapt his game to the current requirements.
After all, he spent his entire career honing his game to the standard of what was considered the best during the 80s.
