He is the American basket player of an African descent who is widely considered as one of the greatest NBA players of all times. He was born on April 16th, 1947, in New York. Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor was the only child in a Christian family. He grew up in Harlem, New York and joined its school. He was the tallest, the most introvert but the best player until his graduation from UCLA( University of California, Los Angeles) where he joined its team.





During his 20 years in the National Basketball Association(NBA) from 1969 to 1989, he scored 38,387 points – the highest total of any player in league history – in addition to winning a record six Most Valuable Player Awards. He was known for his "Skyhook" shot, which was difficult to block because it put his 7 ft-2 in body between the basket and the ball. Abdul-Jabbar's success began well before his professional career; in college, he played on three championship teams, and his high school team won 72 consecutive games. He has subsequently been named by ESPN as the greatest college basketball player of all times. He retired when he was forty two of age and was nominated assistant coach of Los Angels Club, becoming a key figure in the American professional league.
How he converted to Islam:
By the time the 1972 basketball season started, Ferdinand had converted to Islam and changed his name into Kareem Abdul Jabbar. The beginning was with promoter of Islam Hammas Abdul Khaliq who had an active role in promoting for Islam in Washington, and it is he who named him Abdul Kareem, and then Ferdinand changed his name into Kareem Abdul Jabbar. wisdom is that, to Ferdinand, it is not the question of changing a non Muslim name into a Muslim one. The point is that Kareem originally comes down from African Americans who were slaves in the old ages. The name Ferdinand was one by which the slaves were once called. So when he embraced Islam and thought to change his name into one reminiscent of pride and glory and nobility, which why he chose the name Kareem. Then he chose the surname to be Abdul Jabbar, one that means to be slave only to Allah Al Jabbar( the Irresistible), unlike the old name which is reminiscent of humiliation and history of slavery which the Europeans exercised against the black Africans. It is a transformation from slavery to freedom.

Kareem was not only the most prominent basketball star, but he, as well, gave due interest to his physical fitness. He exercised Kondo while coached by Bros Lee the once unmatched Kondo professional, which led him to stardom in his known film( Game of Death).

Even in the world of authorship, Kareem succeeded in authoring his book" Brothers in Army", which deals with the participation of the African Americans in the Second World War. Though the best selling book at the time, it was not his only book. Rather , he published other books foremost among which are Giant Steps with Peter Knobler and Kareem; they were written in 1987 and 1990 respectively.

Kareem now:
He is a father of three sons and two daughters. He is an unmatchable basketball coach, and the last team he coached was Alchesay High School. Although he is now out of the limelight either in the world of sports, movie or authorship, he will continue to be highly commended and all basketball fans and coach will continue to remember his mythic jumps, artistic works in television and cinema, as well as his life which is full of wealth, fame and, above all that, the clean moral record which will continue to crown his life career .

source
http://english.islamstory.com/western_eyes.php?id=53