ICS
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. on April 16, 1947, in New York City, the only child of Lewis Sr. and Cora Alcindor. As a child and as a young man Jabbar went by the name of Lew Alcindor.He was 22" inches long at birth, and even as a very young boy he seemed to be following in the much larger footsteps of his forefathers. His grandfather, a native of Trinidad, was 6-feet-8-inches tall. Lewis Sr., at 6-feet-2-inches tall, went by the nickname "Big Al." Even Jabbar's mother, who was of Cherokee descent, was herself 5-feet-11-inches tall.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and a six-time NBA champion. He is also one of a handful of influential and respected black men in America who has a national platform as a regular contributing columnist for Time Magazine and The Washington Post, where he shares his thoughts on some of the most socially relevant and politically controversial topics facing our nation today. After 50 years as an athlete, activist, and New York Times best-selling author, he says he wants to offer his perspective on how we can work together to solve some of these issues.
In 2012, Kareem was appointed to be the US Cultural Ambassador by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. That same year he and was named California's STEAM Education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics) Afterschool Ambassador. He is an inspirational leader who has become a passionate advocate for cancer research and a healthy living style after being diagnosed with Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (Ph + CML) in 2008.
His current projects are the HBO documentary film, Minority of One: The Life Story of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar released on November 3, 2015. His debut novel Mycroft Holmes - a mystery novel and the first of an action/mystery series based on Sherlock Holmes's savvy older brother - debuted in September, 2015.
