Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: evaluation

Transcript context

…They didn’t count blocked shots until 1987, but I wonder how many you would have. No, it was 1973. Yeah, ’73. My first four years in the NBA they didn’t count blocked shots as a statistic, but they missed all of Bill Russell’s. They missed four years of mine. They missed all of Bill Russell’s, and he dominated the league. They won 11 NBA championships in 13 years with Bill Russell as center. We don’t know how many shots he blocked, but he dominated the game. There’s a thing on YouTube. It’s called Block Art, Bill Russell. If you go to YouTube, Block Art, Bill Russell, you’ll see. He just terrorized the league. No one could shoot near the basket. He would block their shots near the basket and get all the defensive rebounds — he was a very superior rebounder — and pass it out for the Celtic fast break, which was the way they primarily attacked the rest of the league. Of his 13 years in the NBA, they only didn’t win the World Championship only twice — 11 World Championships and two losses. I think Bill Russell certainly is not acknowledged for what he did because of the way they kept statistics. So I don’t complain about those four years. Still, when I retired, I was the all-time leader in blocked shots. I think Dikembe and Olajuwon have passed me in statistics. If they added my first four years, probably they wouldn’t have done that. I don’t care about that. I had a wonderful career, and I don’t sit up at night and say, “God damn it, they didn’t — .” [laughter] I’m not worried about it. Next question.…

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