I think the NBA players have to be held accountable in a reasonable way, just like any other professionals.
Kareem Abdul-JabbarYour best athletes might give basketball a try just when they think, geez, this might be something that pays off for me in the end.
Kareem Abdul-JabbarMy high school had been a renovated old hospital, so when I first came to the UCLA campus in the spring of 1965, I was immediately impressed by the classic northern Italian architecture that was mixed with futuristic ultra-modern buildings. The classic architecture gave it the heft of old wisdom while the modernistic look inspired hope for the future.
Kareem Abdul-JabbarReporters used to ask me the same inane questions year-in and year-out, city-to-city, and it would drive me crazy.
Kareem Abdul-JabbarIn January of 1969, after a meeting to discuss the leadership of UCLA's new Afro-American Program, [Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins, Jr.] were murdered on campus by a rival black nationalist group, the United Slaves Organization. This shook up all the students, black and white, and made us all realize that what we were doing wasn't just an academic exercise, but had repercussions in the real world.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar