Word: alcindor
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...slaves were generally agreed: "that they must change their names." This process of shucking off so-called slave names, commonly in favor of names with an African or Islamic flavor, persists. Malcolm Little became Malcolm X and then Malik al-Shabazz. Cassius Clay transformed himself into Muhammad Ali. Lew Alcindor became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Ture. The writer LeRoi Jones converted to Amiri Baraka...
...first," he says, "basketball was something I did when the lights were on in the playground just because I liked it." He was Lew Alcindor then, a bookish Harlem Catholic constructed of high-tension wires connected at right angles. He developed a hopping hook shot, calling to mind a praying mantis assembling a foldout lawn chair, out of early necessity: all his straightforward attempts were being blocked. He made a style of coming at things from a different angle...
...already re-enlisted. After he made two free throws at the end of Game 6, the 7-ft. 2-in. center was asked about those familiar butterflies that infest stomachs. His, he explained, had long since expired of old age. When he first arrived at UCLA as Lew Alcindor, Abdul-Jabbar was a sculpture of pipe cleaners, all connected at right angles, that later became high-tension wires. Now he is the most serene mobile in sports...
Great athletes deserve great names. We don't remember George Herman Ruth. We remember the Babe. We don't remember LEw Alcindor. We remember Kareem...
...Crimson has not lost a match since February 6, 1982, when Princeton slipped past Harvard, 5-4, in Cambridge. The racquetmen's 58-game winning streak represents the fourth-longest streak in college history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor) and Bill Walton led UCLA to 88 straight victories between 1971-'74, and that record still stands...