Joe Starkey: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar somehow slips under the radar during G.O.A.T. debates

Joe Starkey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

LeBron James is not participating in these NBA Finals, so we could easily avoid the greatest-player-of-all-time argument this time around.

We could.

But we won’t.

I’d rather attack it head on, right this second, because ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy sparked up the anger factory in Game 1, and now the machines are cranking.

First of all, it’s more than a two-man debate. It’s not just LeBron versus Michael Jordan. I don’t know when it became illegal to mention anyone else, but if that’s the case, I’m about to break the law.

Actually, Van Gundy already did, and I commend him. The name “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar” surfaced several times in Game 1 — he led the Milwaukee Bucks to their only NBA title, which in and of itself could make him the G.O.A.T., considering Milwaukee’s sordid playoff history — and that prompted this Van Gundy take:

“When people talk about the best who’s ever done it, and they omit him, they are overlooking a dominant player from the moment he stepped foot on an NBA floor.”

Fellow analyst Mark Jackson chimed in: “And not just that, (but) from the moment he set foot on the floor at Power Memorial (High School) in New York City.”

Great point there. Abdul-Jabbar absolutely had the greatest overall career — from high school through the pros — of anyone who has ever laced up basketball sneakers.

That doesn’t make him the best player. We’ll continue that debate in a moment. But he did have the best career. His high school team won 71 games in a row, three New York City Catholic League titles and two state championships. He was named Final Four MVP in each of his three years at UCLA, and we’ll need about a year, or at least a separate paragraph, for his NBA career.

Abdul-Jabbar led the NBA in various years in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots. He was a 19-time All-Star, a six-time MVP, a six-time champion and a two-time Finals MVP. He had 50-point games and 30-rebound games. He had games with as many as 11 blocks and 14 assists. He won Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. He has more combined points and rebounds than anyone. He won the NBA Finals MVP, against a great Boston Celtics team, at age 37.

So yes, by all means, let’s keep this guy out of the G.O.A.T. conversation.

Did I mention he also possessed the most unstoppable weapon in NBA history, one that has unbelievably never been duplicated?

I once asked Hall of Famer Rick Barry about that, about how nobody ever really tried to replicate Kareem’s skyhook (realizing not everybody is 7-foot-2) or Barry’s underhanded free throw.

“Basketball is a game where people copy so many things, yet nobody copied my free throws, and nobody’s really copied Kareem’s skyhook,” Barry said. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

I watched one of those great NBA Films shows about the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, and Kevin McHale couldn’t help but laugh at the reality that Jabbar was the best player in the 1985 series at age 37.

Think about that for a second.

Another one of those shows featured James Worthy and Isiah Thomas narrating the epic Lakers-Pistons championship series of 1987.

Kareem scored the winning points in the final seconds of Game 6 to keep L.A.’s hopes alive (they would win the series). He was 39.

“He’s the greatest of all time,” Worthy said as he watched Kareem sink the winning free throws. “I don’t care what anybody says.”

“Yeah, I’m with you on that,” Thomas said. “That’s the G.O.A.T.”

Yes I know, Isiah has an axe to grind with Jordan. But his opinion counts.

I’ll just say this: If we were drafting our all-time teams, any player in his prime, and the first two picks were Jordan and James, I’d feel pretty good about taking a 25-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar third.

I don’t care what anybody says.

Categories: Sports