Talk:Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Biography Portal
B This article has been rated as B-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
This article is supported by the Sports and games work group.
Good article Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a nominee for good article, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There are suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
August 3, 2007 Good article nominee Not listed

Contents

[edit] Caption

The caption in the article: "Look ma! I can fly!"

Um...is this really an appropriate caption for an enclyclopedia? Also the picture has a noticeably black square in the top right corner - maybe a better quality picture could be found?

  • Sir, you can change the caption, something like "Kareem dunking in Lakers uniform during team photo shot", might be better. Also, you can crop the photo, it has a lot of wasted space on the right side. As far as a better picture, you need one with permission, so you can post one without permission that may get removed, post one of your own, or try and obtain one "WITH" permission, which may be difficult. Thanks WikiDon 17:47, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright infringement

I'm afraid we have here a HUGE copyright infringement. See this web page : [1]. We may have to rewrite the article Mrbluesky 23:19, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Wow. That text was totally ripped. I'll see what I can do. Kaisershatner 16:46, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Here's the rest of it:


Chamberlain had retired two years earlier, a fact that helped explain the Lakers' 30-52 record and last-place finish in 1974-75. Abdul-Jabbar helped bring about a 10-game turnaround in his first season in Los Angeles. His contributions (27.7 ppg, 16.9 rpg) won him yet another NBA Most Valuable Player Award, his fourth in only seven years in the league.

The following season Jerry West was hired as the Lakers' coach, and he guided the team back into first place with a league-best 53-29 record. Abdul-Jabbar (26.2 ppg, 13.3 rpg, .579 field-goal percentage, 261 blocks) was named Most Valuable Player for the fifth time in eight years, tying Celtics legend Bill Russell's record.

In 1979, using a first-round draft pick obtained from the Utah Jazz, the Lakers selected a 6-9 point guard named Earvin "Magic" Johnson from Michigan State. Johnson's arrival marked the beginning of a decade that would bring Abdul-Jabbar five more championship rings. With a blitzkrieg fast break that came to be known as "Showtime," the Lakers won nine division titles in the final 10 years of Abdul-Jabbar's career.

In Johnson's first season the Lakers won 60 games, and they lost only 4 of 16 postseason contests en route to the 1980 NBA Championship. In a moment that would link the two superstars forever, Johnson jumped center for the injured Abdul-Jabbar in Game 6 of the NBA Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers. Abdul-Jabbar had severely sprained his ankle in Game 5 after scoring 40 points to help the Lakers take the series lead. The 33-year-old center couldn't play in Game 6, so the 20-year-old rookie took Jabbar's position and went on to tally 42 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists, leading the Lakers to a 123-107 victory and the championship. For the season, Abdul-Jabbar (24.8 ppg, 10.8 rpg) further cemented his place in history by winning a record sixth MVP Award.

Abdul-Jabbar continued to average at least 20 points for the next six seasons. He practiced yoga and martial arts to keep his arms and legs strong and limber, and he meditated before every game to reduce stress.

On April 5, 1984, in a game against the Utah Jazz played in Las Vegas, Abdul-Jabbar had perhaps his finest moment. Taking a pass from Magic Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar whirled and launched his trademark sky-hook toward the hoop. The shot drew nothing but net, giving Abdul-Jabbar career point No. 31,420, which vaulted him past Wilt Chamberlain as the NBA's all-time leading scorer.

The Lakers reached the NBA Finals eight times in the 10 seasons between 1979-80 and 1988-89. They won five titles, beating Boston and Philadelphia twice each and the Detroit Pistons once. The 1985 series against Boston was perhaps the most satisfying for Abdul-Jabbar. At age 38 the league's senior center was thought by many observers to be washed up. In Game 1 it looked as though they were right -- Abdul-Jabbar had only 12 points and 3 rebounds in his matchup with Robert Parish. The Celtics romped to a 148-114 win in what became known as "the Memorial Day Massacre."

In Game 2, Abdul-Jabbar recorded 30 points, 17 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 blocked shots in a 109-102 Lakers win. Los Angeles went on to win the series in six games. In the Lakers' four victories Abdul-Jabbar averaged 30.2 points, 11.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.0 blocks. In one memorable sequence Abdul-Jabbar grabbed a rebound, drove the length of the court and swished a sky-hook. He even dove for a loose ball. "What you saw," Riley told Sports Illustrated, "was passion." Abdul-Jabbar was named Finals MVP.

Abdul-Jabbar's retirement marked the end of an era for the NBA. He left the game as the games all-time scorer, which may never be surpassed, with 38,387 points (24.6 ppg), 17,440 rebounds (11.2 rpg), 3,189 blocks, and a .559 field-goal percentage from a career that spanned 20 years and 1,560 games. He scored in double figures in 787 straight games.

[edit] Celebrity Jeopardy

Someone should mention his dominating performance on Celebrity Jeopardy. (The actual show, not the SNL parody.) I think he was up against Martina Narvatalova and Reggie Jackson. Kareem finished with something obscene like $150,000 (back before they doubled the values), I think the other contestants were still in the hundreds!

[edit] Relationship with Bruce Lee

Why so little about that? I thought that was a big highlight of his life, but this article barely covers it.

[edit] Strange rug

It mentions that upon retirement he received an Afghan rug which is described as a strange gift. Now I'm not sure what kind of rug this was, but if it was a prayer rug, I don't see what's so strange about it considering the man is a Muslim. Can anyone clarify why the rug is described as strange?

[edit] Ok...

His Lakers career is barely mentioned. Just passed over. That definitely needs to be worked on (his role in the "Showtime" Team - semi-rivalry with Robert Parish etc.) --Knucmo2 12:12, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I thought it was a good/great summary of his life. I could of had more about the playing though. There wasn't enough detail of the playing. I taught me some new things.

on another note what about his appearance in Airplane, or his relationship with bruce lee.

[edit] Yoruba?

That should not be put down without a citation. I have never heard of this.

[edit] Converting to Islam/Name Change?

I'm reading this article and I'm a little confused. Did Kareem change to his current name during his UCLA years or during his Bucks years? I'm seeing two answers in the article and I'm kinda miffed (I don't know much about him so I'm reading to learn).

By the way, I fixed the Lew Alcindor redirect which was previously 1337.Penpen35 19:27, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Islam... hmm... I think that Mr. Abdul-Jibberjabbar is mighty confused on his history... I have read few accounts of slaves being brought over to the US that followed Islam. Of course he was in the NBA... who was it that said they were going to turn their team around 360 degrees? Jason Kidd I believe... as to be expected. I'm not fond of basketball at all. Now unless someone can prove me wrong, I'll take back what I said but until then, I think that's one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever had the utmost misfortune to lay my eyes upon. BurningAfterTheDawn 03:32, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NYC was his mother?

'He was born to New York City and Ferdinand Lewis "Al" Alcindor as an only child in Harlem, New York City'

I'm fairly sure that's not right. But without enough knowledge to fix it, can someone else? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 130.119.248.12 (talk) 12:16, 15 May 2007 (UTC).

[edit] GA Review

Overall, I think it's very complete. A good deal of work has gone into this. But I think there's still quite a few issues before attaining Good article status. I'd put it at a high B at present.

GA review (see here for criteria)
  1. It is reasonably well written.
    a (prose): b (MoS):
  2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.
    a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
  3. It is broad in its coverage.
    a (major aspects): b (focused):
  4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.
    a (fair representation): b (all significant views):
  5. It is stable.
  6. It contains images, where possible, to illustrate the topic.
    a (tagged and captioned): b (lack of images does not in itself exclude GA): c (non-free images have fair use rationales):
  7. Overall:
    a Pass/Fail:


The prose is still quite choppy throughout, and could use a good copyedit. The sections on 'post NBA career', 'acting career', 'player profile', and 'personal life' could probably use the most work. It probably isn't necessary to go into too much detail on the Bruce Lee and Airplane! roles (a play-by-play of the Roger Murdock scene is not exactly encyclopedic -- it looks more like an obsessed fan writing about his favorite Abdul-Jabbar scene in the movie). The 'in popular culture' section should be eliminated, with the important material from that section moved to the section on 'acting career'. Some of the television & movie appearances mentioned in that list are notable, but merely referencing that he was, "mentioned in a song," or, "mentioned on saturday night live," is not really important. The 'appearances in the media' section looks like somebody spilled something over from 'in popular culture' -- get rid of it.

The list of dates he appeared on the cover of sports illustrated doesn't really add anything to the article, and is really just a list. It might be better to move this to a separate page, linked to under 'see also'. Or, better yet, find a list of the covers of sports illustrated and link to that, with a reference to how many times Kareem was featured.

Since 'Professional basketball career and statistics', 'athletic honors' and 'books authored' are mainly just lists, you might want to move them closer to the end. Keep the prose nearer to the beginning.

The 'sky hook' subsection might be better done if it was shortened a little bit, and integrated into some of the preceding sections regarding his basketball career.

There are some sections early in his college career section where he is referred to as 'kareem abdul-jabbar', when in fact, he hadn't changed his name yet. He should be referred to in the article at this time as 'Lew Alcindor', changing to 'kareem abdul-jabbar' only after the point where he changed his name.

Overall, there's a lot of uncited material in the article (sometimes, entire sections). Too many specific instances to mention here. The references should also be formatted in accordance with WP:CITE (e.g. full author, title, publication, date of publication, and date of URL retrieval) should be included, instead of just a link to the website. The importance of this is such that, should the web page ever disappear, we still have information on who wrote it and where it was published, so that it's still a reliable source, even if inaccessible.

Again, I think a good amount of work has been done on this so far, and the article is looking good. It's just not quite to GA status yet. Editors might find the following pages helpful: WP:LEAD, WP:WIAGA. Cheers! Dr. Cash 21:36, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Early Life

I've changed the information regarding his size at birth from "twenty-four and a half inches" to "twenty-two and a half inches" because that's what the linked article (Reference 3) states. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.56.125.48 (talk) 19:35, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Isnt he from Dyckman /Inwood? Not harlem. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.23.245.3 (talk) 00:08, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Game of the Century

This section seems to imply that there was a direct rivalry between Hayes and Abdul-Jabbar. They were not guarding each other at any point during that game, so there is no way that Hayes could have "limited" him to 15 points. This limitation is more likely due to the fact that he had missed two and a half games prior to that due to an eye injury and had not practiced for over a week. --Justintree (talk) 13:44, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Introduction

This section contained information duplicated in the early life section, so it was removed for redundancy. --Jbossbarr (talk) 22:40 5 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] iPhone

Have you noticed that this article has been seen in an iPhone commercial? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mumble45 (talk • contribs) 17:06, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I just saw that iPhone commercial last night. The user does a Google search for Abdul-Jabbar and this article is the top result. The user then scrolls down past his picture in the infobox to a section headlined "Career Records". Anton Mravcek (talk) 19:51, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Martial Arts

Yeah so I read in a book that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar used to get private martial arts lessons from Bruce Lee. Apart from this, I don't know much else about their relationship. Other than the fact KAJ was in a fight scene with BL in his movie.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.140.218.115 (talk) 18:25, 11 June 2008 (UTC)