Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then a UCLA freshman known as Lew Alcindor, had already developed a relationship with then-UCLA basketball coach John Wooden before the two went out to dinner. He was eager for any advice on how to succeed in the classroom and on the court at the college level. The accomplished Indiana educator intended to spend their time counseling the lanky 7-foot-2 New York City center on how to deal with the impending scrutiny from aggressive rivals and nosy media. Instead, it was the middle-aged Wooden who discovered that night that his 18-year-old dinner guest frequently faced racism and did so by doing so.
When they were about to leave the restaurant, a senior white woman exclaimed over Abdul-Jabbar’s height before calling him a racial epithet. Wooden’s face became red, but Abdul-Jabbar recalled that Wooden “was too much the Midwestern gentleman to verbally attack an old woman. “.
At the Bruins’ picture day in Los Angeles on October 2, UCLA coach John Wooden introduces new UCLA player Lew Alcindor. 14, 1966. (AP Photo) “Any white person in America experiences it exactly the same way. They are ignorant of what it’s like to experience racism, according to Abdul-Jabbar. Wooden soon asked, “How are they going to find that out?”. After that, he expressed his regret to Abdul-Jabbar and begged him not to assume that all white people are racist.
It really bothered him. According to Abdul-Jabbar, it significantly changed his worldview. “That must have been a humiliating experience for him, who felt like he had the reins of everything. “.
Lew Alcindor, a new UCLA player, is introduced by UCLA coach John Wooden at the Bruins’ picture day in Los Angeles on Oct. 14, 1966. It was just one of the numerous experiences Abdul-Jabbar wrote about in his book, Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-year Friendship On and Off the Court. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer discusses many topics in the book, one of more than a dozen he has written, including how he assisted Abdul-Jabbar in creating his skyhook, Wooden’s record-tying 10 NCAA titles with UCLA, and his renowned Pyramid of Success. The former center for UCLA and the Lakers also discusses challenging incidents that both strained and bolstered his friendship with Wooden. Abdul-Jabbar said, “Coach didn’t get it all right. But I brought that up so people wouldn’t assume he was a model citizen. Although he made errors, his response to them was excellent. “.
during this February. After celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1967 national championship team, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a former UCLA basketball player, helps former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden off the court in this April 24, 2007, file photo. (AP Photo/Gus Ruelas, File) Abdul-Jabbar claimed that, in the years following Wooden’s passing in 2010, he has come to appreciate the strength of their relationship even more. Basketball was at its core, but it also featured love of music, literature, and history as well as respect for each other’s varied upbringings. That story took Abdul-Jabbar seven years to write. Abdul-Jabbar said, “I had to reflect on what Coach Wooden meant to my life. “I then had to consider how much of it I wanted to disclose to the public because some of it is private. But it has a lot of significance. “.
