ESPN NBA

Posted by Kelly Dwyer

And no, that's not a Yacht Rock reference.

The questioner in question is a hearty mate of mine, we were college roommates and have attempted to write televised sitcom pilots together, and he seemed a little worried before this Q + A’s publication regarding Kareem’s rather-reserved tone.  Was that safe enough, Drew?  How about this: Andrew Lawrence didn’t think this conversation with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was going to scan well, but it scans quite nicely.  Some excerpts:

SI.com: How different is his demeanor from other posts you've worked with, like Jerome James and Michael Olowokandi?

Kareem: I would say that in terms of him being humble, I think that's [Bynum's] biggest asset because he did not think that he knew everything, which is really a key. I've been in situations where they just didn't want to learn because they were getting paid very well, and if they learned or didn't learn it really didn't matter. It didn't affect their bottom line.

SI.com: As a child of the '80s and a sportswriter of the '00s, I'm having trouble divorcing your reputation as moody and reticent with the press from your on-screen affability. How much truth is there to those earlier impressions?

Kareem: It was definitely blown out of proportion, but at the time it was happening I didn't do the right things to change it -- so I've got to blame myself for that. But I was not the person that they tried to portray. But I didn't do the simple things I could've done to change it. It falls in my lap. I don't want to say that it was vendetta or anything, but I didn't put everything together in terms of how I was perceived and how it affected people. I didn't learn a lot about that until I was retired for some time.

SI.com: Where did that come from? Was that just part of the competitive aspect of your personality and single-minded in focus?

Kareem: Yeah, I was very single-minded in focus. I figured if I was doing my thing by preparing to the best of my ability to play professional basketball and to make sure that the fans got their money's worth, that Lakers fans would know I was doing my utmost to be the best player that I could be and provide as much leadership [as possible].

There's also a funny bit about a former pupil of Kareem's (from Abdul-Jabbar's time coaching at Alchesay High School in Whiteriver, Arizona) asking the Captain to write Lute Olsen a letter asking if the then-Arizona student could play on the Wildcat basketball team.  Actually, I think I just ruined the funny bit, with more words and decidedly poorer grammar.  Ah well, read the interview.