Kareem Abdul Jabbar Research Paper

674 Words2 Pages

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

NBA's all-time leader in points scored (38,387)
6-time NBA Champion
6-time NBA All Star Player

Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. was raised up in a Roman Catholic family. He changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when he converted to Islam. Abdul-Jabbar’s family was brought to America by colonist. Abdul-Jabbar wanted to follow his heritage, as many African slaves were Muslims back then. Abdul-Jabbar was known not only being the best player in the history of NBA, but also stay on the that top level for his 30 pro career years.
Abdul-Jabbar stated it is Islam that guides and supports him for 30 years. Islam makes his player career more like part of lifelong spiritual journey. He gradually learned to stay peaceful and made …show more content…

He won back-to-back champion in Houston and was the only player to have NBA MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP awards in the same season.
Hakeem Olajuwon was raised as Muslim, and he is a lifelong pious Muslim. Olajuwon spent a lot of time going back to Jordan, where he and his family pursue Islamic studies. Olajuwon strictly follow Ramadan, and that custom has not affect on him. He was even noted playing better during the month of Ramadan. An interesting thing in his life is that he only pays cash for commodity, because it is against Islamic law to pay interest.
Hakeem Olajuwon continues to help out the people. He opened the big man camp, where he teaches young frontcourt player to become better. He runs the camp for free. Olajuwon also served as the NBA ambassador of Africa. He devoted a lot of his post career time helping African people building up hospital and introducing basketball.

Quote:
"I studied the Qur'an every day. At home, at the mosque...I would read it in airplanes, before games and after them. I was soaking up the faith and learning new meanings each time I turned a page. I didn't dabble in the faith, I gave myself over to

Show More
Related

  • Kareem Abdul Jabbar Research Paper

    1412 Words  | 3 Pages

    The source that I used, “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” by Biography.com no authors are listed is a great source that gave me a lot of information that will help me with my reader response essay. I came across this website by entering my search question into Google. After looking through a dozen of articles “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” had the most detailed information of all the links. This article gave me a lot of information that will be correlating to my search question which is this: What major influences did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have in his basketball career? The “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Biography” article had three sections that broke

    Read More

  • The Philanthropy of Magic Johnson

    357 Words  | 1 Pages

    In a year were so many great athletes are no longer with us, Payne Stewart, Wilt Chamberlain, Joe DiMaggio, Walter Payton, the man we thought would have passed away first is still among us, Magic Johnson. Rick Reilly does a remarkable job on this praising article on Magic. Reilly talks about how fit magic is. "He can bench 325 pounds. Weighing 245, he's about 20 pounds heavier than he was in his prime, but now he's ripped." He is still playing basketball in different celebrity appearances, and plays quite well in them although he is way older than everyone there. What really impressed me the most about Magic is influence as a black businessman. Reilly showed me, as well as America, a different side of Magic that is not seen on Sports Center. "He owns five Starbucks and has plans to open 10 more, nearly all of them in black neighborhoods, including one in Crenshaw and one in Harlem." Magic is willing to put money into the ghettos when other white investors are not. He owns many different businesses, from a TV company to a bank. What is truly amazing is he hires all black people to build and work his businesses. "Magic feels like many black athletes forget where they came from, I try not to." When I read this I was really stunned. He made a fortune taking risks that many other people won't try. He is living his life to the fullest and using his HIV experience to educate great number of people.

    Read More

  • Steve Nash Research Paper

    636 Words  | 2 Pages

    Steve Nash is considered one of the greatest point guards in the first decade of NBA, and he already became a national hero in Canada based on his tremendous achievement as a professional basketball player. However, according to his interview, Nash was considered a player without sufficient talent to be even a good college player in the United States. No college was willing to offer him a scholarship initially, because he was a Caucasian player from Canada. Caucasian players were widely considered as athletic inferior to African players, and Canada was also considered a country that has few talented basketball players. This is a typical stereotype about Caucasian basketball players in NBA, and usually

    Read More

  • Malcolm X Influence On Religion

    504 Words  | 2 Pages

    This was due to the fact that Malcolm felt his hero and mentor, Elijah Muhammad, had betrayed him. Muhammad had violated his own teachings of marital affairs when he had fathered several children out of wedlock. After this fallout with Muhammad, Malcolm went on a journey to Africa where he did the Hajj, which was the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. After his pilgrimage to Mecca Malcolm X converted to traditional Islam and again changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

    Read More

  • grant hill

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everybody had high expectations about him, they were seeing in him a new leader, a new beginning for the Pistons. He didn’t prove anybody wrong. He started at the 1995 all-star game after becoming the first rookie ever to lead all players in fan voting. Along with Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks, were co-voted as the Rookie Players of the Year. In the next four seasons, he started in all all-star games and averaged 23.2 Points Per Game, 7.6 Rebounds Per Game and 6.7 Assist Per Game.

    Read More

  • A Brief Biography Of John Allen Muhammad

    1174 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the late 1980’s Muhammad changed his life around. He and his wife had separated, he converted to Islam, and he joined the U.S. Army (Biography, par 4). He later changed his name to Muhammad (Death, par 2). He was stationed in Washington State. There he married Mildred Green. They ended up having three children. Being in the army was good for Muhammad. He served in Germany and the Middle East and was skilled in marksman (Biography, par 4, 5).

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Kobe Bryant

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    The NBA is well known for the number of amazing professional athletes it has had over the years. Some of the most gifted and talented individuals come through the NBA and one of the better-known superstars is none other than Kobe Bryant. For years people have wondered what makes Bryant so successful. The main contributors that lead to Kobe Bryant’s success is his hard work and dedication, his mindset, his natural ability’s and talent, and the people that have helped him throughout his life. Kobe Bryant was very successful in the NBA because of the amount of hard work he has put in, the people in his life, his relentless determination and his god given natural abilities.

    Read More

  • My Life By Earvin Johnson: Character Analysis

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    This rich NBA great was not always the wealthy man everyone knows; through hard-work, he achieved status. Earvin Johnson grew up in a large and poor family. “With so many kids to take care of, my parents didn’t have enough money left over for luxuries” (Johnson 6). Johnsons’ parents believed in the value of hard-work, and stapled this into his mind at a young age. With this idea in mind, Johnson picked up a basketball. Basketball was always a great love of his, and he always wanted to make it to the next level. With the preaching of this value by his parents, he worked hard and became very good. After years of practicing and coming up through a troubled childhood, Magic was presented a great opportunity. Since he was so good at basketball, all the major colleges wanted him to play for them, “I finally narrowed down the field to two choices… the University of Michigan and Michigan State” (Johnson 51). It was a decision that would change his life, and after many hard days of going back and forth, he decided to attend Michigan State University.

    Read More

  • First African Americans In Basketball History Essay

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    Harry Lew was the first African-American basketball player to ever sign a contract in professional basketball history. He was a pioneer for black people who wanted to play

    Read More

  • Essay On Michael Jordan

    2209 Words  | 5 Pages

    The "G.O.A.T.", is coming used term in the sports world meaning, The Greatest of All Time. In the National Basketball Association, when you mention the term, the "G.O.A.T., everyone assumes of one name and one name only, Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was an innovator of the basketball work and influenced many different people and players that inputted & mimicked Jordan’s style of play and implicated it into their own game. In today's generation, there are several players that many average day people would consider these players on the road to becoming a Jordan type of player, potential or maybe even greater; players that may be able on road to sharing a Michael Jordan type of legacy includes Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and LeBron James.

    Read More

  • Malcolm X

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    Malcolm X Assignment Malcolm X was a very important figure in American history and had a huge impact on In April of 1964, Malcolm X made a pilgrimage to Mecca, which led to his second conversion. He met brothers of the faith who were from many nations and of many races, black, brown, white, and all the sons of Allah. The reality dawned on him that advocating racial cooperation and brotherhood would help resolve the racial problems in America and, hopefully, lead to a peaceful coexistence throughout the world. Malcolm X's transformed ideas and dreams reached full fruition and were ready for both national and international implementation. Again he changed his name, this time to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

    Read More

  • Michael Jordan Comparison

    688 Words  | 2 Pages

    Few professional basketball athletes’ names are recognizable to the avid, diehard basketball fans and the uninterested layman alike. One of the first, if not the first, athlete to pop up in anyone’s head is the legendary Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan, also known as His Airness, MJ, and Air Jordan, is widely considered the greatest basketball players of all time. Throughout his professional career, Jordan kept changing the game and redefined the entire sport of basketball. However, in 2002, an aspiring athlete by the name of LeBron Raymone James, also known as King James or simply LeBron, immediately rose to prominence and caught the attention of the entire NBA community. The young star quickly proved his tremendous skill, receiving the hype of being the next Michael Jordan. Looking closer, I found that the similarities between the two players are striking.

    Read More

  • Similarities and Differencces between Christianity and Islam

    739 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jaoudi, Maria. Christian and Islamic spirituality: sharing a journey. Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1993. Print.

    Read More

  • Michael Jordan Analysis

    1497 Words  | 3 Pages

    Michael Jordan, portrayed by Jim Naughton in the biography Taking To The Air: The Rise of Michael Jordan, is well regarded as not only the greatest basketball player of all time but also the face of a generation. During the mid to late 1980s NBA basketball was simply treading water. As a result of the lack of a marketable superstar, the NBA was losing popularity to the National Football League and Major League Baseball. Following Jordan’s emergence, the NBA’s attendance rose dramatically and it’s worldwide popularity skyrocketed. Michael Jordan returned basketball to its past popularity in the United States and revolutionized the way the world viewed the game of basketball. (Harriman) Michael Jordan’s life is succinctly depicted in Taking to The Air: The Rise of Michael Jordan. Jim Naughton focuses on Jordan’s influence on worldwide sports and culture as one of the most publicized and marketed athletes of all time. Naughton explains the circumstances in Jordan’s upbringing that gave him the ability to be a humungous star. This biography is examined by Kirkus Reviews. They describe Naughton’s biography: “Besides offering a solid chronological biography and record of Michael Jordan’s basketball career, here Naughton also gives an astute assessment of this superstar’s impact on society.” (“Taking to the Air”) The article in the Kirkus Review explains that this biography investigates Jordan’s impact on marketing while telling the story of his life. Like Kirkus Reviews, I too believe that Naughton’s work goes into great description about Jordan’s upbringing and later career while also examining his cultural impact. Throughout his life, Michael Jordan has topped the sports and entertainment worlds by becoming the greatest basketball pl...

    Read More

  • Islam: Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdallah

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the seventh century Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdallah spread his teachings around the Arabian Peninsula, who previously had very few feelings towards a religion or a higher power. He was born in Mecca, now the city that all Muslims must make a pilgrimage to during their lifetime. At the age of 40, he began to experience spiritual dreams and visions all pointing towards the belief that there is “only one, all-powerful God.” Because of his attempt to spread the belief system he reigned to be true, he was kicked out of his birth land and traveled to other places attempting to spread the word of Allah. After 23 years of receiving these messages from Allah he memorized and recited them which his followers wrote down and were later incorporated in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. In 622, Muhammad moved to Yathrib, there he converted the individual tribes to an integrated populace following his teachings. The impact made on these people caused Yathrib to be known as “the Prophet’s City.” Once Islam became prominent enough he was allowed back into Mecca and not only was he unbanned but he was welcomed with open arms.

    Read More

More about Kareem Abdul Jabbar Research Paper

Open Document