Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is considered by many fans and sportswriters to be the greatest basketball player of all time. The 7-foot-2 Hall of Fame center, famous for his undefensible skyhook, dominated the NBA for 20 years, first with the Milwaukee Bucks then with the Los Angeles Lakers. Before that he was the star of the UCLA Bruins teams that won three consecutive NCAA championships. Kareem was the NBA's MVP six times, a 19-time all-star and set the NBA all-time records in nine categories. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer with 38, 387 points, a record that may never be broken.

Since retiring as a player in 1989, Kareem has balanced his love of basketball with his love of history. In 2002 he led a USBL team, the Oklahoma Storm, to a championship. Since 2005, he has been the special assistant coach for the Lakers, working with Andrew Bynum.

Kareem also remains intellectually active, authoring four bestselling history books intended to popularize the contributions of African-Americans to American culture and history. His books include “Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement”; “Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes”; “A Season on the Reservation,” which chronicles his time teaching basketball and history on an Apache Indian reservation in White River, Ariz.; and the current New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller, “On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance.”

His audio adaptation, “On the Shoulders of Giants: My Audio & Musical Journey through the Harlem Renaissance,” is a four-volume compilation read by Bob Costas, Avery Brooks, Jesse L. Martin, and Stanley Crouch, and features private and fascinating conversations with dozens of icons, including Coach John Wooden, Julius Erving, Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson, Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones and Billy Crystal.

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