Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game.
In his 20-year NBA career, the center won everything including six championships and six league MVP trophies before retiring.
Even prior to making his way into the NBA, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a regular winner in high school and college.
After retiring from the game of basketball, Abdul-Jabbar also inspired future NBA stars with words of wisdom.
The LA Lakers legend saw his scoring record being broken by LeBron James on Feb 8, 2023, but the fact that it took a player 39 years to break it is a testament to his greatness.
Prior to Abdul-Jabbar breaking the scoring record, it was held by Wilt Chamberlain who had 31,419 points in his career and it is well documented how special a player he was.
His record lasted for 18 years before being broken on April 5, 1984 by the ‘Cap’ who eclipsed it with a basket over two Utah Jazz defenders in Las Vegas.
Abdul-Jabbar ended the game against the Utah Jazz with 22 points and the Lakers managed to get a 129-115 win on the night.
After a dunk helped him tie the record, it was an assist from Magic Johnson, who has heaped praise on Abdul-Jabbar even years after retirement, that led him to break the record in a typical Abdul-Jabbar fashion where he finessed the opponents with a tough basket.
Speaking about the feeling on breaking the record, the Hall of Famer said: “It was a big burden off my shoulders and a big burden off the team’s shoulders.”
James breaking Abdul-Jabbar’s moment was special and the former Lakers center was there to witness it and give his appreciation to the four-time champion.
However, Chamberlain was not at the arena to witness the moment Abdul-Jabbar broke his record.
The then 36-year-old Lakers player was not disappointed and still gave Chamberlain his flowers after the game.
“I have immense respect for him. I know for a fact that Wilt doesn’t appreciate the fact that for a lot of his career he was taken for granted.”
There’s no way I can eclipse him totally, he proved his greatness a long time before I started playing basketball,” added Abdul-Jabbar.
To make up for not being present on the day Abdul-Jabbar broke his record, Chamberlain showed up to the ceremony honoring the six-time champion.
He said: “I want to say that all you people out there know how great the feat was that this man just achieved last night, I know how great the feat was this man achieved last night, congratulations Kareem.”
Chamberlain was one of the finest athletic centers in the NBA when he first came into the league.
His main rival at the time was Bill Russell, who was immensely successful with the Boston Celtics.
Chamberlain once even gave Russell the nod over him in the all-time center debate.
However, after Russell retired it was The Big Dipper’s time to take over the league, but that did not happen as Abdul-Jabbar made his way into the league.
In his first season the Cap won the rookie of the year, followed by the NBA title the next campaign.
He became the face of the league, leaving people to sometimes forget about Chamberlain and his scoring records.
He wrote autobiographies slamming Abdul-Jabbar and in one of them with Journalist Robert Cherry, which was called ‘Wilt: Larger than Life’ he slammed the recognition the Cap got for breaking his record.
“Kareem breaks my scoring record, and he gets a brand-new Mercedes, a $65,000 car, this is one of the 103 records I owned, and nobody gave me a popsicle,” said Chamberlain.
The two had their longstanding issues, but solved it after Abdul-Jabbar retired.
They both have had special careers and will always be remembered in history as two of the greatest NBA players.
