The current Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, featuring Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, has a bright future and is in first place in the Western Conference. Earlier in the decade, the Lakers, led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, won three consecutive NBA championships. However, no team was more dominant and exciting to watch than the Showtime-era Lakers of the 1980s, which won five NBA championships with superstars Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and James Worthy.
To help the community during these tough economic times, Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, has started the Hoop I.Q. fundraising program. His concept: sports organizations and teams across the country can go to HoopIQ.com and sign-up to sell Abdul-Jabbar’s book on the Harlem Renaissance, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” and its accompanying audio CD. For his part, Abdul-Jabbar hopes to spread awareness about this fascinating chapter of black history. The teams that participate will earn 40 percent of their total sales to use for purchasing new sports equipment and uniforms. In addition, teams that participate have access to weekly basketball training videos from Abdul-Jabbar along with current and former Lakers, as well as the chance to earn prizes, such as tickets to an NBA game, a basketball clinic with Abdul-Jabbar and autographed memorabilia.
“What I think sets my program apart is that you can actually learn something about what you want to do [in basketball],” Abdul-Jabbar said during an interview in his Long Beach office. “In any other program you get the chance to sell candy and you get the money, but in doing that you don’t get the chance to learn what you get to learn from me by associating with this project.”
Abdul-Jabbar is universally considered to be one of the greatest NBA players of all time. At UCLA, Abdul-Jabbar led the Bruins to three NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships. In the NBA, with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers, Abdul-Jabbar was named NBA Rookie of the Year, a six-time NBA Most Valuable Player, a six-time NBA Champion and a 19-time NBA All-Star. He is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
One of the unique reasons Abdul-Jabbar was able to achieve so much success on the basketball court was because of his skyhook shot. Since Abdul-Jabbar is 7-inches, 2-feet tall his skyhook was nearly impossible to defend.
“You can go to my Web site, and I show how to shoot the skyhook-the footwork and what it is all about,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “It is just about repetition. If a young player in sixth or seventh grade practices for five or six months, [he or she] can do it. It is not that hard.”
In addition to the Hoop I.Q. program, Abdul-Jabbar currently serves as an assistant coach for the Lakers. His main assignment is working with Andrew Bynum, the Lakers’ young center.
“I think it has really been a wonderful thing for me to be able to work with Andrew Bynum because he understood that he had things to learn and he was willing to listen,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “Getting players to listen is the hardest thing for any coach working in the game today. [The players] all think that they know everything now, that their skills are just perfect and that there nothing left for them to learn.”
The question at the forefront of the minds of Lakers fans is how well the team will play once Bynum returns from his knee injury. Bynum has not played since January; the Lakers have nevertheless enjoyed success.
“I do not think Andrew Bynum will have a hard time getting back with the Lakers once he is ready to play,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “They need his play at center. When they have him on the court they are a better team, and they know that so they will adjust to having him there.”
Abdul-Jabbar stressed the importance of young players mastering the fundamentals of basketball.
“I would tell aspiring NBA players that they have to learn the fundamentals of the game,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “Do all the things that you need to do to be fundamentally sound. There are certain physical attributes that you have to have to play in the NBA, but learning the game and knowing the game and the fundamental skills is a lot of the battle.”
More information about registering a team for the HoopIQ fundraising program can be obtained online at www.HoopIQ.com