Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Once Wrote Open Letter Advising NBA Rookies To Educate Themselves

LeBron James may be passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the points tally soon. But he still has some ways to go to be his kind of role model.

As basketball players go, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stands alone among the most accomplished names of all time. This man won championships in high school, then college and finally in the pros.

In 20 years of playing in the NBA, Kareem amassed 6 championships and won 6 MVP trophies. He also made his name as one of the most erudite sportspersons in any sport.

Over the years, Kareem has transitioned exemplarily into the role of a media personality. He writes on his own Substack blog, in addition to also writing columns for The Hollywood Reporter and LA Times.

Also Read – “Forget Kareem Abdul-Jabbar”: When Michael Jordan refused to ‘outscore’ 7ft 2 Lakers legend

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar penned a letter to the 2018 NBA Draft class

Given his immeasurable experience of being an NBA megastar, Kareem can dole out advice for every player in the league. Most often, people would do that when approached by a specific individual.

But the great big man took it upon himself to pen down his thoughts and experiences for the rookies. He posted an article on The Guardian on the opening day of the 2018-19 NBA season, addressed to the rookies.

In this article, Abdul-Jabbar went into the details of his own rookie season, noting how he never got hazed. He did mention, however, that he would haze his own rookies. Notably, he talked about how he got Magic Johnson to deliver him his morning paper.

But most importantly, he advised them on how to deal with the pressures of stardom.

Also Read – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wanted $35,000 from a movie producer to buy a rug!

“You have everything to prove. You are going to be competing for playing time every single day against every other rookie on your team. Even if you beat them out, you’ll be competing against veterans on your team for playing time.”

“Regarding education: don’t stop. Most likely you will be out of the game somewhere between 25 and 35. That leaves you a lot of time. What are you going to do with the rest of your 50 to 60 years?”

When will LeBron James pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time scoring leaderboard?

LeBron is currently 36 points shy of overtaking KAJ’s monster 38,387 points tally in the regular season. The King is all but likely to finish his pursuit of the all-time scoring title in his next 2 games.

There’s a sizeable chance that LeBron finishes his quest in the Lakers’ next home game against the OKC Thunder. He has, after all, 36+ points in nearly a sixth of his regular season games (197). He’s also topped the mark in the playoffs nearly 50 times.

But the likely outcome is him overtaking Kareem when he plays the team he won his first title for. The Milwaukee Bucks visit the Lakers at the Crypto.com Arena on Thursday. That’s when history would probably be made.