Tag Archives: kareem abdul jabbar

Dreezy Meets A True NBA Icon + Champion

Chicago rapper Dreezy rubs elbows with more than just hip-hop elite. The rap star hits up Instagram Story with some pretty priceless footage of herself with an NBA mogul. The video starts off with Dreezy hanging out with friends at an NBA-themed event. It’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on but it seems like […]

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Kareem Abdul Jabbar on Kobe: “He learned from his mistakes and devoted himself to being a better person”

In a commentary published in the Hollywood Reporter, NBA Hall of Famer, six-time NBA Champion, and former L.A. Laker remarked on the controversial back and forth between some Hip-Hop artists (most notably Snoop Dogg) and Gayle King (her supporters) regarding remarks made in an interview about Kobe Bryant’s legacy. Without truly critiquing King, as that was not his concern, Jabbar took to pen to confront what is the by-product of such fruitless (yet mired in pain) discourse.

The basketball legend said, “While it’s clear that 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg were reacting from a place of deep grief, their personal emotion doesn’t justify such a public and misguided attack.”

So it was good that Snoop course-corrected himself with an apology.

But there issue remains. Should people stir clear of the 2003 sexual assault claim? Should that accusation diminish in the public what the Black Mamba meant to people? Jabbar does not believe it does. In fact, he actually believes it made him stronger and course-corrected the man.

“Fame is unforgiving. Most people who make mistakes in their lives have a degree of privacy within which they can heal and redeem themselves. With the famous, nothing is forgotten and rarely is anything forgiven. Kobe did indeed go through an accusation which he said was consensual but still was adultery. That was 17 years ago when he was only 24. The case was dismissed and Kobe redeemed himself many times over with his exemplary life since. To me, Kobe was even more exceptional because he learned from his mistakes and devoted himself to being a better person. Few have that kind of strength, courage or commitment. We can love and respect Kobe without canonizing him as perfect. Death often immortalizes the ideal rather than the real. But it was the real Kobe, flaws and all, that we should love.”

He also offered what he believes Kobe would have wanted.

“Kobe would not have appreciated the attacks against Gayle King because he knew they perpetuated a climate of disrespect that would be physically, mentally and socially harmful toward all women, including his wife and daughters.”

The post Kareem Abdul Jabbar on Kobe: “He learned from his mistakes and devoted himself to being a better person” appeared first on The Source.

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Gayle King Accepts Snoop’s Apology, “I Understand the Raw Emotions Caused by This Tragic Loss”

Netflix Premiere Tyler Perry's "A Fall From Grace"

Source: Bennett Raglin / Getty

After being dragged online for more than a week, Gayle King says she accepts Snoop Dogg’s apology for calling her out of her name in response to her line of questions to WNBA star Lisa Leslie in regards to NBA icon Kobe Bryants 2003 sexual assault case.

While others shared his anger, Snoop Dogg was criticized for the ugliness of his threat and eventually posted an apology on Instagram, saying “when you’re wrong, you gotta fix it.”

“Two wrongs don’t make no right. When you’re wrong, you gotta fix it,” said Snoop Dogg in an Instagram video where he apologized for his commentary. “So with that being said, Gayle King, I publicly tore you down by coming at you in a derogatory manner based off of emotions, me being angry at questions that you asked…I overreacted”

Gayle King publicly accepted Snoop’s apology, noting that she is not condemning him for the rant due to understanding his raw emotion due to losing his friend.

“I accept the apology and understand the raw emotions caused by this tragic loss,” King said in a statement to The Associated Press, adding that it was never her intention to add to the pain.  “As a journalist, it is sometimes challenging to balance doing my job with the emotions and feelings during difficult times. I don’t always get it perfect but I’m constantly striving to do it with compassion and integrity.”

As previously reported, the Long Beach, Calif. rapper and entertainer took to social media to call Gayle King a “funky dog-haired b*tch” due to her line of questioning regarding Kobe Bryant from a recent interview.

“What do you gain from that? I swear to God, we the worst, we the f*cking worst. We expect more from you, Gayle, don’t you hang out with Oprah?” Snoop said. “Why you all attacking us, we your people. You ain’t coming after f*cking Harvey Weinstein asking him dumb-ass questions. I get sick of you all.”

Although many were split when it came to defending King, another former Lakers legend penned a column calling out Snoop for the attack. On Thursday (Feb. 13) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, wrote a column in the Hollywood Reporter decrying the abusive language and threats directed toward King as a bad message to send to young black men.

“Kobe would not have appreciated the attacks against Gayle King because he knew they perpetuated a climate of disrespect that would be physically, mentally and socially harmful toward all women, including his wife and daughters,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “When a man calls a woman a bitch because she does something he doesn’t like, he is nourishing the already rampant misogyny in society. But when a black man does it, he is perpetuating negative stereotypes about how black men perceive and treat women.”

Check out Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s full column here.

Source: HipHopWired.com

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Docu-series On The Los Angeles Lakers “Showtime” Era In Development

Minnesota Timberwolves v Los Angeles Lakers

Source: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty

The Los Angeles Lakers dominated the NBA in the 1980s on the back of the supremely talented Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, spearheading an intense rivalry with the Boston Celtics. A five-part documentary series featuring the “Showtime” era of the Lake Show with Pat Riley at the coaching helm is currently in development.

Deadline reports:

The Los Angeles Media Fund and the Lakers are teaming up with Haven Entertainment to produce a five-episode docu-series focusing on the ’80s Showtime era of the storied basketball team. That was the period when Pat Riley coached the run and gun style distinguished by Magic Johnson’s passing and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring and shot blocking, with Jamaal Wilkes, James Worthy, Byron Scott, and Michael Cooper backing them up. Courtside, celebs like Jack Nicholson turned The Forum into the town’s hottest ticket and the team won five NBA titles and waged an unbelievable rivalry with Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics. The series will be directed by Kristopher Belman (More Than A Game) and financed by Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman’s Los Angeles Media Fund.

Before the Michael Jordan and LeBron James era, the Lakers and Celtics were the premier teams at the time ahead of the Detroit Pistons breaking out into a back-to-back championship run.  This occurred, of course, before the Chicago Bulls’ dominance in the NBA throughout the early 1990s.

The series has yet to announce an air date.

Photo: Getty

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50th Anniversary: How Tommie Smith and John Carlos Used The Olympics to Show Black Power

Many millennials believe that the fight for civil rights, social justice and political power for people of color, started around The Black Lives Matter movement. This train of thought leads to the belief that athletes like Colin Kaepernick (and all those who have taken a knee with him) are the only ones to have used sports as a platform to peacefully protest against systemic violence against Black people. This (and they) would be wrong.

There has been a long history of sports figures using their celebrity to unapologetically smash white supremacy.

Paul Roberson did it with football. Arthur Ashe did this through tennis. Muhammad Ali did it in boxing, losing almost everything. 50 years ago today, Olympic champions Tommie Smith and John Carlos also used their moment in the sun to show Black solidarity and advocacy for their organization The Olympic Project for Human Rights on the biggest sports stage in the world.

Both Smith and Carlos, united by a decision to have their voice echoed in the ecstatic atmosphere of toxic white & western masculinity as portrayed in words of “The Star-Spangled Banner” that was being played as they received their awards, stood on the gold and bronze podiums with their single black-gloved fist in the air.

When asked why they decided to perform this Smith is said to have said, “We had to be seen because we couldn’t be heard.”

What was the jump off?

The Olympic Project for Human Rights (the organization that they belonged to) was an American organization that spoke out against racism in general, and specifically racial segregation in the United States and abroad (such as South Africa). Originally the group planned to do a total boycott against the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City unless four conditions were met. The group wanted two African nations that were under minority white rule (South African and Rhodesia) to be disinvited from the games. The group also wanted more African-American assistant coaches to be hired and for the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s president, Avery Brundage to step down. Lastly, they wanted Muhammad Ali’s world heavyweight boxing title to be restored.

But there were very serious domestic reasons why Black athletes would be outraged and ready to protest the Olympics, which was a symbol of world pride and excellence- particularly when so much was not right in it.

Malcolm X  was assassinated in 1965. In the summer of 1967, the Newark (5 days) and Detroit riots (8 days) ignited. April 4, 1968, The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.  The Autobiography of Malcolm X was released shortly after. The residue of Jim Crow was slow to dissolve. The promise of civil rights was met with broken handshakes and legislation. There were many reasons why the boycott was proposed.

One would be superstar held fast to the vow to boycott, a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He wrote in his book, Coach Wooden and Me, “My development as a basketball player paralleled my evolution as a social activist. The more confident and successful I was on the court, the more confident I felt about expressing my political convictions. That personal progression reached its most controversial climax in 1968 when I refused to join the Olympic basketball team. This started a firestorm of criticism, racial epithets, and death threats that people still ask me about today.”

Smith and Carlos did not support the boycott, though they supported the demands behind it. Had they not, used the opportunity to throw their fist in the air, perhaps generations after would have never known about the injustice happening on this international level.  Not only did they do that, but they took their shoes off to shine a light on the extreme levels of poverty throughout the world for Black and Brown people. Smith tied a black scarf around his neck as a token of Black pride. Carlos rocked beads around his neck to symbolize the strange fruit of Black bodies swinging from lynching trees. They even got the silver medalist to wear an OPHR button while he was getting his award. While many criticized them for breaking the boycott and participating in the game, they suffered tremendously for their actions… on levels comparable to Ali (the brother they actually was protesting about).

Abdul-Jabbar continues, “They (Smith & Carlos) returned home to angry criticism and death threats. At a time when Black leaders were routinely slaughtered, death threats were taken seriously.” It is hard to imagine now, but these men suffered just as great as the modern day, Kaepernick. They were called “treasonable Black rats,” “Black-skinned Stormtroopers” and said that they had not only disgraced the American flag and anthem, but also the institution of the Olympics.

Many thought they have misused the opportunity because it was a personal cause and not a national cause. Smith once said of this, “It wasn’t don’t for a malignant reason. It was only done to bring attention to the atrocities of which were experiencing in a country that was supposed to represent us.”

When further thinking about the sacrifice that they made, your thoughts are met with John Carlos’ own words from the book, The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed The World. Carlos echoes this sentiment when he said, “How can you ask someone to live in the world and not have something to say about injustice.”

Both are still alive and still doing the work.

 

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