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Abdul Jabbar pays for past mistakes.
Posted by: SPQR on Nov 20, 2009 - 11:28 AM
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With Kareem in the news lately with the sad story about his lukemia, it brings to mind his failure to break in as a coach in any real, substantial way. He has made no secrete of his desire to work his way up and be a head coach someday.
The wall seemingly thrown up in his path has a genesis back to his playing days. Apparently back then, Cap took being aloof to the Nth degree. To say he was cold and treated people with disregard I guess is putting it mildly.
I remember a few years ago, when Kareem could not beg, borrow or steal any kind of NBA coaching job, a reporter was asking NBA personages about the issue. The old coach Doug Moe was one of those interviewed. He pretty much was laughing and gloating about Kareems blackball and said in no uncertain terms that Kareem was a total a** when he played and treated people like sh*t. He said he was getting exactly what he deserved and that he would never get a substantial coaching job in the league because he had made too many enemies. I was taken aback by his glee at the situation and realised Kareem really must have been a ball breaker to engender that kind of response.
In Magics (and Birds) new book, Magic also touched on Kareem and his personality. He said Kareem could be just brutal with people and fans. He said that he could be so bad that he actually brought some people to tears.
Magic relayed a story where one day a father and his little boy asked Cap for an autograph and picture. Kareem just blew them off, cold as ice. Magic (it was his second year with the Lakers) then went up to them and offered to have his picture taken with the boy and sign the autograph.
Years later, long after he was retired. Magic was pitching a mulit million dollar investment idea to a big shot CEO of a corporation. That man turned out to be the father of the boy from years earlier. The man said he and his son never forgot how Kareem behaved nor how gracious Magic was in his stead. His son was now a big shot lawyer working for his dad and he still had that picture Magic took with him hanging on his wall. Needless to say, Magics idea was accepted by the father and he invested. As Magic left the office, he thought to himself, "Kareem, that could have been you."
He also related how a few years ago, Kareem came to Earvin, impressed by his business acumen and success and asked him for his secretes in business. Magic flat out told Kareem to forget it. Kareem said, "Why? I can learn to do what you do. Teach me."
Magic said, "Its not just what I do. Its who I am. In order to be successful in this, you have to make people feel special. You have to care about them. You have to treat them right and go that extra mile. You have to smile, shake the hands and put the effort into them as human beings. And that is just not who you are."
For Kareem, it is unfortunate that his past mistakes have come to haunt him in his latter years, in so many different ways. He may have ended up a great coach. His work with Drew was impressive. We will never know what type of coach he could have been. Nor will he ever have the business opportunities he would have had he just been a nicer man when things were going his way. Anyone who has seen him talk on different subjects or read his myriad books can tell he is very intelligent. It is too bad that in one aspect of his life he let the darker angels of his nature take over. Those angels are now swirling around him in a way he never thought they could.
Perhaps it is a lesson for many of us whenver we feel like we just don't care or feel the darker angels of our nature trying to make us do things that are not really right.
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Re: Abdul Jabbar pays for past mistakes.
by maraud on Nov 22, 2009 - 11:02 PM
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Why was this removed from the forum so fast?
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