Background and career
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr.; April 16, 1947) is an American former professional basketball player. He played as a center for 20 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins. A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Abdul-Jabbar won a record six NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards. He was a 19-time NBA All-Star, a 15-time All-NBA Team member, and an 11-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection. He was a member of six NBA championship teams as a player and two more as an assistant coach, and was twice voted the NBA Finals MVP. He was named to three NBA anniversary teams (35th, 50th, and 75th). Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Abdul-Jabbar broke the NBA's career scoring record in 1984, and held it until 2023.
Abdul-Jabbar was known as Lew Alcindor when he played at Power Memorial, a private Catholic high school in New York City, where he led their team to 71 consecutive wins. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, winning three consecutive national championships. Abdul-Jabbar was a record three-time most outstanding player of the NCAA tournament. Drafted with the first overall pick by the one-season-old Milwaukee Bucks franchise in the 1969 NBA draft, he spent six seasons with the team. After leading the Bucks to their 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 final 14 seasons of his career, during which time the team won five NBA championships. Abdul-Jabbar's contributions were a key component in the Showtime era of Lakers basketball. Over his 20-year NBA career, his teams reached the playoffs 18 times and reached the NBA Finals ten times.
At the time of his retirement at age 42 in 1989, Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA's regular season career leader in points (38,387), games played (1,560), minutes (57,446), field goals made (15,837), field goal attempts (28,307), blocked shots (3,189), defensive rebounds (9,394), and personal fouls (4,657). He ranks second in career points, minutes played and field goal attempts, and is third all-time in both total rebounds (17,440) and blocked shots. ESPN named him the greatest center of all time in 2007, the greatest player in college basketball history in 2008, and the second best player in NBA history (behind Michael Jordan) in 2016. Abdul-Jabbar has also been an actor, a basketball coach, a best-selling author, and a martial artist, having trained in Jeet Kune Do under Bruce Lee and appeared in his film Game of Death (1972). He also appeared in Airplane! as Roger Murdock, a pilot who is repeatedly mistaken for Abdul-Jabbar. In 2012, Abdul-Jabbar 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.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. in Harlem, 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. Cora was born in North Carolina but came to Harlem as part of the Great Migration. Ferdinand Sr. was the child of immigrants from Trinidad; his uncle was the Black activist and medical pioneer Dr. John Alcindor. Abdul-Jabbar grew up in the Dyckman Street projects in the Inwood neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, which he moved to at the age of 3 in 1950. At birth, Abdul-Jabbar weighed 12 lb 11 oz (5.75 kg) and was 22+1⁄2 inches (57 cm) long. Always very tall for his age, he was already 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) by the age of nine. Abdul-Jabbar was often depressed as a teenager because of the stares and comments about his height. By the eighth grade (age 13–14), he had grown to 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) and could already dunk a basketball.
Abdul-Jabbar attended Power Memorial Academy, a private all-boys Catholic high school, where he was one of the few Black students. He wore the jersey number 33, which he chose in tribute to his favorite player, New York Giants fullback Mel Triplett. He would continue wearing this number throughout his college and professional career. He led coach Jack Donohue's teams to three straight New York City Catholic championships, a 71–game winning streak, and a 79–2 overall record. This earned him "The Tower from Power" nickname. His 2,067 total points were a New York City high school record. The team won the national high school boys basketball championship when Abdul-Jabbar was in 10th and 11th grade and was runner-up his senior year. He had a strained relationship in his final year with Donohue after the coach called him a nigger.
How Kareem Abdul-Jabbar makes money
Before the 1983–84 season, Abdul-Jabbar signed a two-year, $3 million contract with the Lakers, with none of the amount deferred. On December 5, 1984, Abdul-Jabbar agreed to a one-year, $2 million contract extension with the Lakers, with none of the money deferred.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth, in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
