That's the one mate.
Do you mean you hate the Lakers? At first I read that as Kareem hated Lakers his whole life but played for them!
Where was he from? Was he from the US?
no no...I hated the Lakers. I was a Celtics fan. So hating the Lakers was second nature.Its like Liverpool / Man U or Celtic / Rangers.
You picked a side and hated the other team. But at the same time you enjoy watching a good match. It would be like watching Liverpool Man U play for the FA Cup and the match is 2-2 and it is the greatest match you have ever seen and even if Liverpool lose on a Penalty shootout, you still know you just watched one of the greatest games ever. So, it takes a little of the misery of losing to Man U away. The Celtics beat the Lakers a lot too. They used to have really bad blood between them. A lot of hard fouls, fights, just raw street Ball, NBA Finals.
I hated the Lakers but watching those old Celtic Laker NBA championship games were the best games ever. I hated watching Kareem score 40 a night against the Celtics, but at the same time you were watching greatness so I kind of knew that I was watching one of the best players ever.
Yeah, Kareem was an American. He was originally born Lew Alcindor. He became a Muslim and adopted a Muslim name, thus he became Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Like Muhammed Ali used to be Cassius Clay.
I thought he won gold on the Dream Team but I think I'm wrong. I cant find him listed on the roster. I think he had already retired. Sorry. My bad.
I listed his stats below.
* 6× NBA Champion (1971, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)
* 1× NBA Champion (2009) as an Assistant Coach.
* 6× NBA MVP (1971-1972, 1974, 1976-1977, 1980)
* 19× NBA All-Star (1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989)
* 2× NBA Finals MVP (1971, 1985)
* 10× All-NBA First Team Selection (1971-1973, 1974, 1976-1977, 1980-1981, 1984, 1986)
* 5× All-NBA Second Team Selection (1970, 1978-1979, 1983, 1985)
* 5× NBA All-Defensive First Team Selection (1974-1975, 1979-1981)
* 6× NBA All-Defensive Second Team Selection (1970-1971, 1976-1978, 1984)
* 1970 NBA Rookie of the Year
* 1970 NBA All-Rookie Team
* NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team
* 3× NCAA Men's Basketball Champion (1967), (1968), (1969)
* 3× NCAA Basketball Tournament MOP (1967), (1968), (1969)
* 1× Naismith College Player of the Year (1969)
* 2× USBWA College Player of the Year (1967-1968)