Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is content with the state of the National Basketball Association today. He spoke about the challenges faced by the league at an NBRPA event at NBA All-Star Weekend in Salt Lake City last weekend.
The NBA legend believes the game needs to remain authentic to continue drawing interest and talent from around the world.
“I don't think they have a whole lot of challenges, just to, keep it clean, you know,” Jabbar said. “The league has sold the game, and the players have really impressed athletes around the world. I think that's an awesome achievement, commission guys who do a great job selling the game around the world now cause it's indoors.”
Jabbar spent 20 seasons in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers. The legendary center finished his career as a record six-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a 19-time All-Star. He was a member of six NBA championship teams as a player and two more as an assistant coach, twice being voted NBA Finals MVP.
“It's something that doesn't take a long time to learn if you really wanna learn it,” Jabbar explained about the game of basketball. “I look at all of the players from Europe now that are playing in the NBA, and it's just because they have been teaching you guys the fundamentals. It goes from there.”
Jabbar was the NBA's scoring leader from 1984 until LeBron James broke his record this season. Kareem stresses that keeping the game authentic is one of the most important things for the game going forward.
“Keeping it authentic [is key],” he said. “Becoming a face of the league and [eliminating] a bad element, you know, becoming the face of the league, is good elements. Not a lot of bad things happen.”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been an incredible ambassador for the game of basketball throughout his career and into retirement, and it showed in his interview at NBA All-Star Weekend.
Watch the full Kareem Abdul-Jabbar interview here:
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