Most former NBA players have Michael Jordan as their GOAT but not the 75-year-old Lakers legend, he doesn’t even consider him the ‘Black Jesus’.
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as we all know is as competitive and as blunt as they come. The Bucks and Lakers legend never shy away from proclaiming his greatness over Michael Jordan or LeBron James or any other greats.
And going statistically, the big man is not at all wrong where he stands. But there is another way to disregard the players from other generations, to eliminate them from the debate even without getting your own name involved in the conversation.
Kareem is the master of that art. In one such attempt to take away a famous nickname that Jordan gave to himself, “the Black Jesus,” Abdul-Jabbar once said it belonged to a New York Knicks legend with whom maybe he had the secret desire to play with.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar knew of only one Black Jesus and it wasn’t Michael Jordan
The 6x MVP was quite open about his desire to play for the Knicks after spending six years with the Bucks and bringing the first championship to the franchise. Although he landed in LA, Knicks was his preferred destination where a magical street ball player was one of the stars of the team.
1973 NBA champ and 4x All-Star, Earl Monroe, was at the prime of his career and playing as a guard for the New York Team. But he had impressed the 7ft 3’ phenom much before that, when they were playing an All-Star game at Rucker Park, even before UCLA. He was the only Black Jesus Kareem knew of.
“I didn’t know who he was. And he had his own cheering section. He came up and there were people around talking about ‘Jesus! Jesus!’ And I’m like, ‘Wait a minute!’” Kareem recalled,
And when the host asked whether Earl was the first Black Jesus. He said, “That I know of! The game starts, and I didn’t start the game. The game starts, and he is doing all this weird stuff with the ball. He hasn’t even crossed half court. And then he jumps up in the air and throws a pass with a topspin. It goes three-quarters of the court, hits the ground, and catches somebody in stride who catches it and lays it up. I was like ‘Oh, we are gonna have a game today!’”
It all turned out well for Jabbar after coming to LA both legacy-wise and the aspect of stardom of playing in a big city. However, had he moved to the Knicks instead, he would still be the face of a $5.8 franchise in NEW YORK that last won its championship with Monroe.
Kareem might stay in the top-3 for GOAT conversation forever alongside Jordan and LeBron, but he can never say he is the face of the Lakers franchise over Magic Johnson or Kobe Bryant.
