Two icons from different sports getting together always gets fans intrigued. The bigger the stars, the more the eyeballs. Sadly, there wasn’t social media or too much TV coverage from back when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Muhammad Ali got together to explore their musical sides. But thankfully, Kareem was there to narrate the incident on a recent episode of the Jennifer Hudson Show.
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Ali is arguably the greatest boxer of all time, and Kareem has similar credentials to be in that conversation in basketball. Long before ‘The Captain” made his NBA debut, however, Ali had already become a superstar, and he was admired by pretty much everyone in the sporting world.
That included Kareem, who continued to talk highly of him, years after they both retired. “Throughout all, any of the problems that he had, his spirit was indomitable, and he always kept us smiling,” Kareem said after Ali’s passing in 2016.
Speaking to Hudson, Kareem recalled being in the same room as Ali during his freshman year at UCLA. Nothing was planned. Kareem simply saw Ali on the guitar and decided to chip in. Oh, what an iconic moment that was.
“He was fooling around with a guitar,” Kareem recalled. “So I slipped in behind him, got behind the drum set, and tried to back him up. We didn’t make anything but noise, but it looks good in the picture, though.”
It was perhaps the early stages of their friendship, one that lasted for years. Kareem, who was inspired by Ali, went on to dominate the NBA, winning six championships and six MVP titles. Ali was right there, supporting the man, who considered him his big brother.
It was after the ‘musical’ endeavor that Ali took on that role in Kareem’s life. In an interview with Time Magazine, the Los Angeles Lakers legend stated, “After that evening, Muhammad took on a big brother role in my life. He invited me to attend a meeting in Cleveland to discuss his protesting the draft.”
Kareem was, of course, talking about the days leading up to the Vietnam War, describing how it was the Black community that was affected the most and sent halfway across the world to fight. Along with Ali and Kareem, other legends like Bill Russell and the NFL’s Jim Brown were there. Those early meetings created a bond between them, especially between Kareem and Ali.
