ADDRESSING the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in 2016, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sounded uncharacteristically optimistic. “Those who think Americans scare easily enough to abandon our country’s ideals…underestimate our resolve,” said the former basketball player, betraying, as he stooped over the podium, his unconscious habit of trying to make his seven-feet, two-inch (2.18m) frame less conspicuous. Now hunched behind a table in his office in Los Angeles, Mr Abdul-Jabbar, who scored over 38,000 points in the National Basketball Association, a record never surpassed, says he enjoyed the experience. It was the first appearance at a party confab by anyone in his family since his father, a trombonist, accompanied Marilyn Monroe’s rendition of “Happy Birthday, Mr President” in 1962. He also cracked the convention’s best joke—introducing himself as “Michael Jordan”, on the basis that “Donald Trump couldn’t tell the difference.”
Yet Mr Abdul-Jabbar, who has probably...Continue reading
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