Kareem Abdul-Jabbar remains an ever-present name in the conversations surrounding the game’s greats. Isiah Thomas, however, has notably taken matters up a notch by separating the 77-year-old from the coterie of NBA legends.
Recently, IT has endorsed ‘The Big A’ as the greatest ever to do it. The 63-year-old expressed his stance upon looking back at the latter’s NBA career, which spread for 21 seasons. Thomas also put the limelight on Abdul-Jabbar’s early years as a basketball player in school and college to justify his beliefs.
He outlined his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter) while re-sharing a short clip of Abdul-Jabbar’s farewell NBA game. Reminiscing about the latter’s legacy, Thomas wrote, “Let it be known The greatest basketball career ever [Kareem Abdul-Jabbar] grade school, high school, college, NBA”.
This hinted at how Abdul-Jabbar had disrupted the basketball circuit during his playing days. For instance, the iconic center emerged as a potent offensive force at UCLA, averaging 26.4 points, and 15.5 rebounds per game [per NCAA.com]. During those three years of college, he won the NCAA tournament thrice, securing the Final Four Most Outstanding Player award on each occasion.
This dominance remained intact from the moment he stepped on the NBA court. His initial years for the Milwaukee Bucks were enough to cement his status as a generational talent as he won the MVP award thrice in his six years there. On top of this, he spearheaded a 1971 championship win for the franchise, elevating his status in the league further.
All these grew exponentially when Abdul-Jabbar joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 1975. In his 14 seasons with the franchise, the 7ft 2 maestro won the MVP award on three more occasions, while getting his hands on the title five more times. Additionally, this stint paved the way for him to become the leading point scorer in the NBA regular season, recording 38,387 points, a record he held for 38 years.
These records do nothing but rationalize Zeke’s thoughts. It captures how respected a figure Abdul-Jabbar has always been around the league for setting new benchmarks for the upcoming generation.
Even the rivals used to admire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
During the 1970s and the 1980s, the Boston Celtics time and again became the biggest obstacle in the path of the Lakers’ success. The two superpowers collided for the ultimate glory in several instances, giving rise to an iconic rivalry.
For the Celtics, consequently, mitigating the risk of Abdul-Jabbar became the biggest concern. And despite their best efforts, they failed to make it happen on most occasions. Robert Parish, a leading figure of the franchise from that era, once opened up about it on NBA History & Storytellers, stating,
“Kareem is the best player I ever played against, period. The best thing I could ever say about Kareem is that no one ever devised a defense that could stop him. He figured out a way to exploit every defensive scheme ever thrown at him.”
So, Thomas is not the only name on the list of Abdul-Jabbar’s supporters. He merely utilized the current opportunity to back an all-time great, outlining the achievements.
That said, conversations surrounding the greatest of all time remain a debatable topic as always. Yet, it is about time the fans start to make a strong case for Abdul-Jabbar in those discussions.
