Word: kareem
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...game is nearly always won or lost at the center position. Julius ("Dr. J") Erving of Philadelphia and Earvin ("Magic") Johnson of Los Angeles lead their teams artistically, but Erving is a forward and Johnson a guard. It is around the 76ers' Moses Malone and the Lakers' Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the centers, that the current championship series, and the basketball universe itself, revolves...
...third time, is the "center of the '80s." They are so unalike they are fascinating. Abdul-Jabbar is complex, Malone uncomplicated. When Moses won his first M.V.P. distinction, largely on the strength of his relentless offensive rebounding, he thanked his teammates for missing so many shots. "Kareem is the best player of all time," says Moses flatly. But he also says, "If I can get close to the hole, I don't care who is in there. It's over." For him, basketball and life seem to be simple matters...
...able to hide the shame of his height. Fourteen years ago, Abdul-Jabbar (né Lew Alcindor, U.C.L.A. '69) told Teammate Jon McGlocklin that he intended to play no more than five seasons of pro ball. Recently he ran into McGlocklin, who reminded him of this. It started Kareem reflecting on this job that he has only lately considered a profession. "It's getting to be scary," he says, "all the teammates and opponents who have come and gone." Often it seems that the only constants are himself and the road. "Sometimes I think of the N.B.A...
Even to himself, Kareem has a hard time explaining why he is still here, aside from his $1.1 million salary. "It's talent in the beginning and good fortune throughout, but desire maybe most of all," he says, as if it surprises him to realize he loves the game that much. "I just hung in there until in the last few years I came to appreciate the game as a career...
...private geneaologist discovers that Dean of the College John B. Fox Jr. '59, Economics Professor John Kenneth Galbraith, and Los Angeles Laker star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are, in fact, distant relatives. "No one ever believed me when I said I have a great fade away jumper, and now they will," says an elated Galbraith. "We are all Keynestans now," intones the 6-foot, 9-inch Fox, tossing the College's 1983 budget into the wastebasket...