These days, when people debate the greatest player in NBA history, the discussion is usually focused on two stars: Michael Jordan and Lebron James. However, if you were to have asked NBA fans in, say, 1990 or so, most probably would’ve given you one name: Kareem. And, in fact, some people – like Clyde Drexler, for example – still consider Abdul-Jabbar the GOAT (or at least GOAT-adjacent).
A 19-time All-Star, six-time champion and the league’s all-time scoring leader until Lebron surpassed him last season, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has one of the most impressive resumes in NBA history. This is why it would be very wise for young players to heed his advice. At the recent inaugural NBA Con, Abdul-Jabbar was joined on a panel discussion by Victor Wembanyama, the
highly-touted rookie and recent first overall pick in the draft. Wembanyama was
coming off his first Summer League game, in which he struggled.
“It takes a while. You have things to learn,” Abdul-Jabbar said.
“But he’s an intelligent young man. He’ll get it done.”
In 1969, Abdul-Jabbar was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks. He told Wembanyama that he was in a similar situation. Without any time to work his way into his role, he too was thrown into the fire of his first exhibition game. Abdul-Jabbar also talked about how rough the NBA was when he played. In fact, after one of the first games during his rookie season, he had to go home in a wheelchair after spraining his ankle. He told Wembanyama that he should be thankful that things aren’t so combative in the league these days.
“They had guys in the league named Bad News,” he said. “That
should give you an idea of what it was about. I’m happy for you that you’re
coming into a league that appreciates you and they’ll do all they can to make
sure you don’t get waylaid by someone out on the court just because they want a
job.”
Abdul-Jabbar stressed that patience is important for Wembanyama and
that the young player needs to figure out how to use his extensive talents to
help his team. “The difficulty is in learning how you can best contribute to a
winning effort,” he said. “That’s what you got to learn how to do
with your skill set. And you will find out what that is basically in preseason,
you’ll find out a lot about that.”
The NBA legend had one more piece of advice for the rookie: “Be
careful. Save your money. And 20 years from now, you’ll say, ‘Hey, I’m glad I
listened to Kareem.’”
While Wembanyama has yet to play any meaningful minutes, Abdul-Jabbar
thinks he has a very bright future. “He’s not gonna get all at once, but he’s
got a lot of potential. We’ll see what happens.”
