Making the Case - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 

With all due respect to Kareem, slicing the "Apple" was a Reggie Miller specialty.

harold mccoy he Mercer Sido it in a couple of seconds tho ... nah im just kidding the most unstoppable weapon is his skyhook and he doesn’t get enough credit

Wilt Chamberlain is better in every respect. This “analysis” is a joke for not acknowledging that from the beginning. Kareem isn’t even the best big man.

Lemon Squeezy if you wanna go by stats then yes but stats are not everything with accolades and stats Kareem is better

@@xk302a this ignores the improved quality of competition in the NBA between when they entered and left the league respectively.

wilt had more tho, none of his were counted

IamRangers that’s true, Wilt and Russell’s steals and blocks we’re not counted. That’s my point he played in two different eras and was still Top 3 in blocks. If you took his first four years and deleted his last fours for blocks I’m pretty sure he’d be the all time leader in blocks.

Wilt played most of his career before that was ever a stat, apparently a team employee kept track of those before it was official, just for team purposes, and he got over 25 in one game.

@@ramoncruz2453 well behind Wilt and Russell of course. Nate Thurmond may have been up there as well...

Points leader in league history (over 5000 above MJ). 6x MVP. 6x Nba champion. 19x all star. lost two total games in elementary and high school. Went 88-2 at UCLA in college. See how he absolutely dominates some of the other all time greats he faced during his career.

You got a source for that? I wanna see the full interview where he says that it sounds interesting!

tomashin2000 i believe it was the KAJ statue unveiling, where Magic made that speech. You can watch a documentary called “Minority of One”. It was about KAJ’s career. In that documentary there’s footage of the Lakers on the plane back from beating the 76ers in 1980, when CBS forced reporters to give the FMVP trophy to Magic. Magic and KAJ spoke about that FMVP trophy. Magic offered it to KAJ and he said no, that he didn’t want that to come between them.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8G8sI7WuLzg.html 4:40

@@ramoncruz2453 thanks!

Cool. And Kareem can thank Magic for helping him add some titles too. Like going from 1 to 6.

in this case, objective perspectives are subjective... what does the objective goat entail?

Really why cuz he towered over everybody and stud under the basket and shot mostly layups while Jordan got fouled all the way to the basket and still scored to me that's way more compelling but let's jus ignore how much more difficult that is

@@tarencejohnsonjr3089 If it's too easy then why haven't all big men reached his accomplishments? Boy you sounded like a 10 year old right there.

Points leader in league history (over 5000 above MJ). 6x MVP. 6x Nba champion. 19x all star. lost two total games in elementary and high school. Went 88-2 at UCLA in college. See how he absolutely dominates some of the other all time greats he faced during his career.

@@carlyata1 What you sound so stupid I have no time for foolishness I like who I like and I never said he was a weak 7 footer I gave him his due I said he was awesome little toddler, but to me it more awesome doing it at 6'6" period if you are not smart enough to know I can have my own opinion jus like you you can love Kareem but I DONT so miss me with that shit plus you never seen Kareem even play so what are you really talking about oh riding the ban wagon great for you

I agree. Kareem. Abdul-Jabbar's NBA career and early years would be fascinating. Also his life off of the court would be enlightening. His activism, philanthropy, his breadth of knowledge, and his passion for history and music. It would strictly be about him. The personal stuff would be his discretion because again it's all about him.

There's a documentary about Kareem called minority of one. You should check it out it's pretty good

You could easily fill 10 hours of a documentary about Kareem’s life on the court, and another 10 on his life off the court. HIs early rise to prominence on the basketball court caught Wilt’s attention. Wilt used to go see Lew Alcindor and gave clothes and shoes and mentored him. Something that I’ve never heard Kareem talk about. His activism, his friendship with Bruce Lee, even just spend time on the books he has written. They are some of the best most detailed books on Black History in America, that have ever been written. He’s immortalized the jazz. movement and all kinds of black culture. He was aloof. Can you imagine the things that he had to face in 1968 as a 7’2” black college student athlete, who opposed the Vietnam War? We still don’t treat peace activists, or civil rights activists very well. Examples: Colin Kapernick and Megan Rapinoe.

I think Kareem needs it because he's probably one of the living experts on the 70s in the NBA. Like I'd love that perspective 50 years later, and his books were really insightful so I think it would be an enlightening experience

I bet they'll make something pretty substantial when (if) he dies

Kareem was protesting. Today people are just looting small businesses and destroying lives.

@@talhakarsloglu4278 obv im not talking about the looters.

@Lycan People are getting tear gassed and beaten up by cops for protesting. That shit ain't easy lol

Everyone can learn something from Kareem. Champion at all levels, GOAT candidate, activist, and after his basketball career, historian, author, and philanthropist. And one of the best Celebrity Jeopardy players ever. Great player, great person.

What would he think about lebron bowing down to China?

Have you managed to pick one yet?

For me, after watching entire series, it convinced me that Bird is the goat

@@mihailobogutovic7 interesting!

Man, I LOVE Bird; he's my favorite. While also being more of a superfan fanatic of MJ than I'd like to admit at the same time. But it's Wilt Chamberlain. And it's a travesty not to acknowledge it. Chamberlain was nearly a different species of human being entirely. His height, his sprinting speed, his weightlifting strength, his leaping ability. He had every physical advantage, and I think that doesn't sit well with people. It feels unfair, and they want to exclude him. Because well yeah "obviously" he should dominate. You'd expect it, and he did it. If we're talking about individual greatness in the team sport of basketball, it's Chamberlain.

@@mihailobogutovic7 that’s gotta be racist!

And then your father said, "You haven't seen Bill Russell" 🙂

I think his cornea got scratched again later in his career leading to the iconic googles

@@TheTdbj That's correct. The 2nd time was in a 1974 preseason game. It was after this that he started wearing goggles full time.

@@anthonyanderson9303 great idea too. James Worthy & later Horace Grant picked up on it.

@@TheTdbj yup the iconic googles, cant forget em

@@anthonyanderson9303 man, those goggles are some of the most characteristic accessories any athlete has ever worn tbh 😎

Lmao

He is

I think he’s okay with his contract at this point😂

I want that video NOW

as a wizards fan, i hate you for commenting that 😂😂

FACTS!

-Kareem’s MVP competition was the weakest out of any all time great. He went up against Bob McAdoo and Dave Cowens. He won MVP one year when he missed the playoffs. That screams weak competition. -He didn’t beat one all time great big man in their prime in any playoff series in the years he won rings. -The only time the Showtime Lakers didn’t make the Finals, it was when they played all time great big men and they throughly outplayed Kareem. Moses Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon. - Kareem was supposedly the deserving FMVP in 1980 instead of Magic, yet the very next year they lost to Moses Malone in the playoffs and Moses Malone outscored and out rebounded Kareem. Moses was on a 40-42 team with no HOFers or All-Stars. This is the worst Finals team of all time. The Lakers had Kareem and Magic (and other good players) - The 2nd worse Finals team of all time, was the 42-40 Bullets, who Kareem won his first ring against. - Kareem got locked up defensively by Nate Thurmond in the playoffs. In 1973 he averaged 30ppg on 55% in the regular season and the Bucks were the 1st seed. Come the first round against the lowest seed in his conference, he loses to Nate Thurmond and gets locked up to 23ppg on 43%. -Kareem was defending FMVP in 1986, (one that he didn’t deserve over Magic), the Showtime Lakers were in their prime, yet in 1986 they lost in the WCF to a 2nd year Hakeem Olajuwon who outscored, outrebounded, outstole, and outblocked Kareem and he shot better. Hakeems second best player was Ralph Sampson who never made the playoffs without Hakeem. -Kareem in his prime, in the weakest era of all time, never even made the Finals. And he had help. He was on the most 50 win teams in the 70s out of any player, yet he still never once made the Finals without Magic or Oscar. -Swept by Bill Walton, lost to Jack Sikma back to back. -Kareem also doesn’t have any all time great playoff runs, any all time great Finals performances, or any all time great MVP seasons besides his first. He is by far the most overrated player in NBA history. He has done nothing GOAT worthy. His resume looks nice at face value sure, but when you add context to his career it’s still easy to see that he is just not worthy of being in the GOAT conversation at all. Don’t get me wrong, Kareem is still a top 10 player ever but he is far from even being the greatest center of all time let alone the greatest player of al time. People who think he is the GOAT center know next to nothing about his career and it’s sad because that’s the vast majority of NBA fans. Hope this helps!

No truer words have ever been said about Cap's dominance at all levels. I had the honor of watching him as a young boy (me at 7-8 years old) winning championships at UCLA and with The Bucks and The Big O, eventually getting to my Lakers and playing with Magic, prolonging his career. There will never be another player like Kareem Abdul Jabbar!

bill russel won 2 in college plus 11 in the pros

@@marylynrobinson3147 plus a gold medal

Points leader in league history (over 5000 above MJ). 6x MVP. 6x Nba champion. 19x all star. lost two total games in elementary and high school. Went 88-2 at UCLA in college

@@marylynrobinson3147 Don't forget russell also won championships in high school lol

Magic also won at every level. High school, college,NBA, and Olympics.

Because Lebron is an attention seeks clown...lol.

He doesn't really have better achievements though. He has less finals MVPs then MJ, not as many DPotY awards. He has a lower PPG average. If it wasn't for Magic coming along Kareem only ends with 1 title. Hell Kareem one an MVP whilst missing the playoffs thanks to players voting back then

@@johnsalem1795 Lebrons a diva and frankly sort of annoying with the whole media circus he brings to whatever team he signs with. just look at what happened last year with the Lakers

@@andresmendozaondatube He brings the medias attention to every team he joins because he is the best basketball player in the world. I fail to see how that is his fault.

@@johnsalem1795 true, but he is extremely active with his fans, Kareem... not so much

Interestingly that incident caused him to open up and be more fan- friendly as people all over the world commiserated with his loss. As a jazz fan, other collecters sent him irreplaceable recordings he had lost in the fire.

Scored a season-high 34 in a win against the Mavericks in Dallas, if memory serves me right.

That’s not what defined his professionalism. He wasn’t, you know, a firefighter lol. It’s more likely he didn’t think anyone would or could have helped him. Who was going to buy him a house? There were things that nobody there could do for him, so in his mind, he took care of his business for a few hours then got back to getting a new house. He probably didn’t think media was going to help him, at all, either, so why would he tell them?? Also how did LAKERS FANS send him gifts after the fire if nobody knew?? Lol Clearly ppl knew. “…Abdul-Jabbar's house burned down. Many of his belongings, including his beloved jazz LP collection of about 3,000 albums, were destroyed. Many Lakers fans sent and brought him albums, which he found uplifting.”

Yes, that fire destroyed his jazz music record collection which he loved. I remember a lot of fans sending him copies of the greats, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, etc...

I will always give him that. A true, classy professional. Wish more, in all eras would emulate him there. I'm sure many coaches do as well.

Wilt bruh, that's why I'm so reluctant to put kareem as the goat, because it's pretty much guaranteed that wilt was better than him by a margin.

Yeah, I think a prime wilt could beat a prime Kareem in a 1 v 1. Old wilt was able to block the sky hook a few times, so prime wilt would be able to deal with it better. And wilt was also far stronger than Kareem, so he’d be able to back him down to the basket. That being said, whoever wins between those two 1 v 1 wouldn’t decide who’s the greater player. Because in basketball, it’s a 5 v 5 game with passing, setting screens, getting double teamed, etc. All of those things aren’t present in a 1 v 1 match.

@@roundtable3501 Yep. A prime Kobe might have beaten prime Lebron in a 1v1 but Lebron is a better in game player.

@Heini Grudziadz I thought of it myself because Kobe had more handles/ways to shoot the ball than Lebron but Lebron is a more willing and skilled passer. So in a 1v1 I’m picking Kobe but in a team situation I’m picking Lebron.

​@@kvltiztoh yea def, but I value individuality as my metric for goat so Wilt's got my vote. Respect how you see it tho, its hard to not pick Lebron because he's the most complete player out of all the greats.

OOOOu i dont think Russell finna be on the list

Saihaan Syed he acknowledged that Russel is one of the 8 he’s focusing on

@@KingGregory27 oh really I missed that. I thogujt it would be bron Jordan and Shaq left

@@sigh.sy.s in his wilt chamberlain vid he mentions how he's going to be making the case for russel. He references about kobe & shaq a lot but I don't think he thinks either of them have a strong enough case as the other 8

@@KingGregory27 honestly, i cant see someone making this type of vid about Kobe or Shaq and not both, and since hes doing only 8 I think thats why

He was globally considered goat till the late 90s. The thing that makes him seem forgotten is the media's narrative pushes of the past 10 years. Actually - just the past 5 years.

real fans remember him

@@owenmenne827 I think suggesting it's forgotten is a little off target, but with that said I think it's really hard to split Kareem, Michael or Lebron (when his career is over).

@@blue-pi2kt MJ is head and shoulders ahead of the rest in terms of brand marketing...media bias...commercial appeal...PR..popularity.... There are many great players who should be in the conversation...but they lack the brand marketing Jordan has

My man ain't forgotten. You can remember him everytime you look at the NBA all time scorers

True, but thats not a fair comparison because when all said and done, theres no possible way LeBron could beat Kareem when you include college. Theres no way he could make up the greatest college career in history with a similar amount of years in the NBA

@@__ike8604 There really is no argument for LeBron against Kareem if you exclude recence bias and just look at career accomplishments. Just forget about college, Kareem EASILY beats Lebron if you are really honest to yourself and try to be fair and as objective as possible.

@Dhdhdh sksj Kareem wouldn't have laid on the court with cramps during an NBA Finals game.

@Lycan yeah it was by design him waiting to do MJ and LeBron last to build up the suspense

Skyhook;; greatest weapon in sports history

Right doing it at only 6'6" that's what separates Jordan

Tarence Johnson Jr ?

@@tarencejohnsonjr3089 so does that mean the shorter you are the more your championships count? by that logic steph curry is the best of all time since he won titles at just 6'3

smithtable15 sure ignore the 6 chips, 6fmvps, 5 mvps, dpoy, etc...

Drpepper1525 who is ignoring that?

Pink Floyd 🔥

yeah, its clear how much effort he puts into these videos, he should have more than 100k subs

Duncan is closer to Bill Russell than Kareem. God tier Defender. Excellent leader and awesome teammate. Kareem was not a culture creator like Tim.

@@thomaspitts5161 are your sure about that?

Wouldn't say better but I see an early version.

@@cm9241 definitely better, hence why he’s the more successful one and the all time leader in points

@@ThaTruth223 yeah there's more to a goat conversation than points scored

look like they just got dumped lol

Agreed.

I would say the opposite. MJ has a legitimate case against Kareem, but Kareem is the GOAT. PERIOD!!!

Who decided that 6-0 in the finals better than 6-4?

Lol

@@MP-dn4bs Many big games must be won to reach the finals.

The GOAT?😂 he barely did anything that year. The would’ve won without him.

@@veracity5977 no they would not

@@melvynsngltn27 then why did they win game 6 1980 without them? Why did they go 63-19 without him and then make the Finals the next year?

​@@veracity5977 they got hella lucky game 6 Kareem avg 33 points 14 rebounds kids this is why you stay off drugs

Russell was more of a winner than Kareem, no?

@@jeremyleveille1532 in the nba Kareem is the goat of basketball Kareem is a winner in nba In college In high school The best high school and college players ever

@@vishishtg3062 Russell did all of that, plus he also won an Olympic gold medal. And Russell was the best player on his team on pretty much every one of his 11 NBA championship teams whereas Kareem only won 6 NBA titles (while playing 7 more seasons) and one could argue that Kareem was only the best player on 1 of his 6 NBA championship teams, with Magic being arguably the best player on 5 of them.

@@jeremyleveille1532 first Kareem won 3 championships in high school Bill hasn't done that Kareem was the winner of 3 NCAA championship Which not just bill but nobody in the entire NCAA history has done that Kareem is the greates NCAA player ever

@@jeremyleveille1532 kareem won 2 finals MVP which means he was the best player in two of his championships Second 1980 finals On the 1980 finals magic was a young rookie and kareem was leading the charge In the first five game kareem averaged 25 and 15 and he was obv the best player In game five kareem was injured but he came back and propelled a Lakers win Lakers were up 3_2 In game 6 kareem didn't play and on that one game magic did his thing So the media gave the fmvp to the young magic But deep down he was always the best player He was the best in 3 championships and thesecond best on his 3 remainmg rings

people still don’t understand i saw a dude make a top 5 centers ever and kareem wasn’t in its its so direspectful to him he was amazing and does not get the props he deserves it’s sickening

@@sey2818 ok well that person is a moron if they don't have Kareem as a top 5 center ever. So wouldn't worry about them

Kareem cant be the GOAT, in his prime he struggled against other elite bigs. As a matter of fact, the Kareem/Magic lakers got swept in the finals because Kareem couldnt handle Moses Malone. Im sorry but you don’t hear stories about Jordan, LeBron or other top 10 caliber players getting torched by other guys at their position.

@@TheDesisgarf exactly. The Kareem/Magic Lakers also lost in 5 games in 86 to the Rockets when Hakeem outplayed Kareem badly and in 1977 the Lakers with Kareem got swept by the Blazers with Bill Walton. Walton's supporting cast was better that series but not THAT much better where the Lakers couldn't have won at least 1 game

Jeremy Leveille exactly, imagine if Clyde had humiliated Jordan like that on the 92 finals, that would instantly remove him from the GOAT conversation. So for me that automatically takes Kareem out of the conversation.

@@zee7487 try almost 20k

They changed the rule to nerf him and it made him better lol

IMO, they robbed Kareem when they gave the MVP to Magic in 1980. Clayton explained us why.

🎩Johnson;; showtime fastbreak;; running rebel

How the hell do you NOT give the MVP to a player who AVERAGED 33 POINTS/14 REBOUNDS with 4.6 BLOCKS PER GAME FOR 5 games?? Magic was great but his 80 series wasn’t better than KAJ.

When Wilt was 35 and playing shortly after knee surgery, he defensively dominated a 25 year old Kareem.

For me, Wilt, MJ and Kareem all have a strong GOAT argument

3rd for me

kareem has much better comedic timing. see "airplane" vs "space jam".

Same, no matter how deep I dig into them, there are still too many things that are incomparable across eras. So ultimately I think it's a tie.

-Kareem’s MVP competition was the weakest out of any all time great. He went up against Bob McAdoo and Dave Cowens. He won MVP one year when he missed the playoffs. That screams weak competition. -He didn’t beat one all time great big man in their prime in any playoff series in the years he won rings. -The only time the Showtime Lakers didn’t make the Finals, it was when they played all time great big men and they throughly outplayed Kareem. Moses Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon. - Kareem was supposedly the deserving FMVP in 1980 instead of Magic, yet the very next year they lost to Moses Malone in the playoffs and Moses Malone outscored and out rebounded Kareem. Moses was on a 40-42 team with no HOFers or All-Stars. This is the worst Finals team of all time. The Lakers had Kareem and Magic (and other good players) - The 2nd worse Finals team of all time, was the 42-40 Bullets, who Kareem won his first ring against. - Kareem got locked up defensively by Nate Thurmond in the playoffs. In 1973 he averaged 30ppg on 55% in the regular season and the Bucks were the 1st seed. Come the first round against the lowest seed in his conference, he loses to Nate Thurmond and gets locked up to 23ppg on 43%. -Kareem was defending FMVP in 1986, (one that he didn’t deserve over Magic), the Showtime Lakers were in their prime, yet in 1986 they lost in the WCF to a 2nd year Hakeem Olajuwon who outscored, outrebounded, outstole, and outblocked Kareem and he shot better. Hakeems second best player was Ralph Sampson who never made the playoffs without Hakeem. -Kareem in his prime, in the weakest era of all time, never even made the Finals. And he had help. He was on the most 50 win teams in the 70s out of any player, yet he still never once made the Finals without Magic or Oscar. -Swept by Bill Walton, lost to Jack Sikma back to back. -Kareem also doesn’t have any all time great playoff runs, any all time great Finals performances, or any all time great MVP seasons besides his first. He is by far the most overrated player in NBA history. He has done nothing GOAT worthy. His resume looks nice at face value sure, but when you add context to his career it’s still easy to see that he is just not worthy of being in the GOAT conversation at all. Don’t get me wrong, Kareem is still a top 10 player ever but he is far from even being the greatest center of all time let alone the greatest player of al time. People who think he is the GOAT center know next to nothing about his career and it’s sad because that’s the vast majority of NBA fans. Hope this helps!

finally lol

Yao ming, would chew up jabbar skyhook

@@lloydkline6946 i would hope so, dude is like 8'9

But who can do it now?

@@drpk6514 ME! But I don't play in NBA! I am only 172 centimeters!!

There can't really be a greatest of all time. Kareem was pretty competetive for many years, but before Magic/Larry, he didn't really play against greats. The Magic/Larry years were the MOST competitive ever and Kareem punched Larry because he said 38-6 which Larry owned the 38. Larry was like he was from a different planet.

@@williamlarimer334 I agree with your initial statement that there can’t really be a factually overarching accurate GOAT, however if you needed to assign one nba player in the history of the league to be considered the “greatest of all time”, it’s hard to make a logical argument against Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

I feel like people who like one of those guys usually like the other. Both are high on my list.

Same, people like flashy dunks but I just like watching a smooth turn around kiss off the glass or the fine touch of a hook shot lol