Tag: Milwaukee Bucks

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr.; April 16, 1947) is an American retired professional basketball player who played 20 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. During his career as a center, Abdul-Jabbar was a record six-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), a record 19-time NBA All-Star, a 15-time All-NBA selection, and an 11-time NBA All-Defensive Team member. A member of six NBA championship teams as a player and two as an assistant coach, Abdul-Jabbar twice was voted NBA Finals MVP. In 1996, he was honored as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. NBA coach Pat Riley and players Isiah Thomas and Julius Erving have called him the greatest basketball player of all time.
After winning 71 consecutive basketball games on his high school team in New York City, Alcindor was recruited by Jerry Norman, the assistant coach of UCLA, where he played for coach John Wooden on three consecutive national championship basketball teams and was a record three-time MVP of the NCAA Tournament. Drafted by the one-season-old Bucks franchise in the 1969 NBA draft with the first overall pick, Alcindor spent six seasons in Milwaukee. After winning his first NBA championship at age 24 in 1971, he took the Muslim name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Using his trademark “skyhook” shot, he established himself as one of the league’s top scorers. In 1975, he was traded to the Lakers, with whom he played the last 14 seasons of his career and won five additional NBA championships. Abdul-Jabbar’s contributions were a key component in the “Showtime” era of Lakers basketball. Over his 20-year NBA career his team succeeded in making the playoffs 18 times and past the 1st round in 14 of them; his team reached the NBA Finals 10 times.
At the time of his retirement in 1989, Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA’s all-time leader in points scored (38,387), games played (1,560), minutes played (57,446), field goals made (15,837), field goal attempts (28,307), blocked shots (3,189), defensive rebounds (9,394), career wins (1,074), and personal fouls (4,657). He remains the all-time leader in points scored and career wins. He is ranked third all-time in both rebounds and blocks. In 2007, ESPN voted him the greatest center of all time, in 2008, they named him the “greatest player in college basketball history”, and in 2016, they named him the second best player in NBA history (behind Michael Jordan). Abdul-Jabbar has also been an actor, a basketball coach, and a best-selling author. In 2012, he was selected by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be a U.S. global cultural ambassador. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. was born in New York City, the only child of Cora Lillian, a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Sr., a transit police officer and jazz musician. He was unusually large and tall from a young age. At birth he weighed 12 lb 11 oz (5.75 kg) and was 22 1⁄2 inches (57 cm) long, and by age 9 he was already 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) tall. By the eighth grade (age 13–14) he had grown to 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) tall and could already slam dunk a basketball on a regulation 10 ft (3.0 m) hoop. He would eventually reach his full height of 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) when he entered the NBA at age 22.
From an early age, Lew Alcindor began his record-breaking basketball accomplishments. In high school, he led coach Jack Donahue’s Power Memorial Academy team to three straight New York City Catholic championships, a 71-game winning streak, and a 79–2 overall record. This earned him a nickname—”The tower from Power”. His 2,067 total points were a New York City high school record. The team won the national high school boys basketball championship when Alcindor was in 11th grade and was runner-up his senior year.

Written by Dianne Washington

Moses Malone

Moses Eugene Malone (March 23, 1955 – September 13, 2015) was an American basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1974 through 1995. The center was named the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times and was a 12-time NBA All-Star and an eight-time All-NBA Team selection. Malone won his only NBA championship in 1983, when he was both the league and Finals MVP with the Philadelphia 76ers. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2001.
Malone began his pro career out of high school after he was selected in the third round of the 1974 ABA Draft by the Utah Stars. He was named an ABA All-Star as a rookie and played two seasons in the league until it merged with the NBA in 1976. He landed in the NBA with the Buffalo Braves, who traded him after two games to the Houston Rockets. Malone became a five-time All-Star in six seasons with the Rockets. After leading the NBA in rebounding in 1979, he was named league MVP for the first time. He led the Rockets to the NBA Finals in 1981, and won his second MVP award in 1982. Malone was traded to Philadelphia the following season, when he repeated as MVP and led the 76ers to a championship in his first year. In his first of two stints with Philadelphia, he was an All-Star in each of his four seasons. Following another trade, Malone was an All-Star in his only two seasons with the Washington Bullets (known later as the Wizards). He signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Hawks, earning his 12th straight and final All-Star selection in his first season. In his later years, he played with the Milwaukee Bucks before returning to the 76ers and completing his career with the San Antonio Spurs.
Malone led the NBA in rebounding six times, including a record five-straight seasons (1981–1985). He finished his career as the all-time leader in offensive rebounds after leading both the ABA and NBA in the category a combined nine times. Malone was nicknamed “Chairman of the Boards” for his rebounding prowess] Combining his ABA and NBA statistics, he ranks seventh all-time in career points (29,580) and third in total rebounds (17,834). He was named to both the ABA All-Time Team and the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Malone died in his sleep at the age of 60, on the morning of September 13, 2015, at a hotel in Norfolk, Virginia. He had been scheduled to play in a charity golf tournament that day and was found in his room when he did not appear for breakfast or answer his phone. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for Virginia listed the cause of death as hypertensive and atherosclerotic heart disease. Malone had previously complained of an irregular heartbeat and was reported to have been wearing a heart monitor when he died.
Malone is buried at Memorial Oaks Cemetery in Houston, Texas.

Written by Dianne Washington