Please, be quiet about this, tell it to no one. Hey, keep your head down as the secret will be revealed. NBAObsessed can remember when Abdul-Jabbar was Lew Alcindor, a skinny kid from the streets of New York City that was recruited to play for John Wooden. Ok, that would make my age about minus 14.

Here is a classic story that maybe you have heard before and it happened for real to NBAObsessed. Your intrepid author was reading Sports Illustrated in his youth, an annual issue on college basketball ranking all the teams.

David Stern is probably thanking Kareem Abdul Jabbar for making the league more popular

Back then there was no internet, no VCRs, DVRs, no Cell Phones, and Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter weren’t even dreamed up yet. We only had 5 things to get information from, Network channels on broadcast TV from a TV antennae, Newspapers, Radio, Playboy (in a brown paper wrapper), and Sports Illustrated.

Now with that background you can gather that we read Sports Illustrated from cover to cover and they always hired the best writers. The annual Basketball issue was always a great one. Your gallivanting author tore into it and literally devoured the first story. It talked about a team that was unbeatable with a tall center that was everyone’s pick for player of the year.

There was only one problem with their ranking of both team and player; the story was about the freshman team at UCLA with Lew Alcindor in the pivot and freshmen were ineligible to play varsity basketball in those days. The varsity at UCLA went on to win the National Title that year with Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich playing guards, but they were beaten in practice by their own freshmen team!

Lew became Kareem and the NBA was never the same again. Now Lew Alcindor is facing Leukemia and trying to still live the life he has created in the post NBA world.

The NBA’s all-time leading scorer and six-time league MVP was diagnosed last December with chronic myeloid leukemia, he told The Associated Press on Monday.

The 62-year-old Abdul-Jabbar said his doctor didn’t give any guarantees, but informed him: “You have a very good chance to live your life out and not have to make any drastic changes to your lifestyle.”

Abdul-Jabbar is taking an oral medication for the disease. He is a paid spokesman for the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which makes a drug that treats the illness.

source

Kareem has always found a way to succeed and be a champion and even with Cancer he has found a way!
Image: Zuma Press

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It is the Clippers.

It is the Clippers, still.

Yes, Baron Davis, one of my favorite players to watch has come to town, but it is still the Clippers.

Baron Davis shooting over Andrew Bynum of the Lakers

Image details: Golden State Warriors v Los Angeles Lakers served by picapp.com

Clippers fans have to be bumming. They lost Elton Brand to the 76ers, because the Clippers upset his manager, David Falk. They lost Corey Maggette to the Golden State Warriors, can’t remember why. Maybe money.

Anyway, even with the signing of Baron Davis the Clippers will suck. Baron cannot carry them on his back all by himself.

It sucks to be a Clippers fan when the Lakers are just across town. Just off the top of my head the Lakers in my lifetime have had Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant.

The Clippers in my lifetime have had…the Clippers have had…well, uhh..oh..Elgin Baylor! Not as a player, though, but it still counts doesn’t it? Elgin is vice-president of basketball operations and very good at his job.

NBA Elgin Baylor factoid – From the 1960-61 to the 1962-63 seasons, Baylor averaged 34.8, 38.3 and 34.0 points per game, respectively. His 38.3 point per game season average is the highest for any player other than Wilt Chamberlain. Baylor, a United States Army Reservist, was called to active duty during that season, and being stationed in Washington state, he could play for the Lakers only when on a weekend pass. However, despite playing only 48 games on the season, he still managed to score over 1,800 points.

The 71 points Baylor scored on November 15, 1960 was a record at the time. The 61 points he scored in game 5 of the NBA Finals in 1962 is still an NBA Finals record. An underrated rebounder, Baylor averaged 13.5 rebounds per game during his career, including a remarkable 19.8 rebounds per game during the 1960-61 season — a season average exceeded by only five other players in NBA history. Baylor was a 10-time All-NBA First Team selection and went to the NBA All-Star Game 11 times.source

Baron Davis

Baron is one of the great penetrating guards of today. Somehow he can muscle inside or move fluidly inside for easy baskets, but he will miss big Elton Brand.

“Before you ask, there was never an underground handshake with Baron Davis,” Brand said Wednesday, addressing speculation that he’d given Davis some kind of commitment to return to the Clippers.

Today, we’ll find out if Davis feels the same way.

Davis is a two-time NBA All-Star (2002 and 2004). He averaged 21.8 points (12th in the NBA), 7.6 assists (6th in the NBA), 4.7 rebounds and 2.33 steals (3rd in the NBA) while playing in all 82 games for the Golden State Warriors during the 2007-08 season. Davis was just one of four players in the league last season to average 20+ points and seven+ assists (Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Chris Paul) per game.

Entering his tenth NBA season, Davis brings career averages of 17.1 points, 7.2 assists, 4.1 rebounds, 1.95 steals and 35.5 minutes per game.

source

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There is a grass roots effort to get a Wilt Chamberlain stamp.

Gee, would that be the 100 cent stamp? After all, it is the 100 point game that they want to depict.

Anyway, the effort is on and you can join.

The cause was started by sports writer Donald Hunt of The Philadelphia Tribune, a 123-year-old newspaper that primarily targets the black community. Hunt, who recalled as a child watching in person Chamberlain play for the 76ers against Oscar Robertson and the Cincinnati Royals, believes “The Big Dipper” has the credentials to join Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Joe Louis and Jesse Owens among the sports legends with their own stamps.

“People should remember the great ones,” Hunt wrote for a Feb. 15 story. “They don’t come any bigger or better than Wilt Chamberlain.”

source

Until you have seen Wilt play it is just hard to imagine. Right now, if Kobe or LeBron get 50 points it is the major story of the day. Wilt averaged 50 points for a season; an entire season!

So, how do you help the cause?

The best way for Chamberlain, who died in 1999, to earn a sticky square is for supporters to write letters to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee. The committee reviews proposals four times a year and passes their recommendations on to the postmaster general. The earliest Chamberlain could appear on a stamp is 2010, said Roy Betts, a U.S. postal service spokesman.

Need some convincing? Check out this YouTube of Wilt “the Stilt” Chamberlain.

NBA Basketball comment Wilt tended to be larger than life in so many ways.

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