Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis 'Lew' Alcindor on April 16, 1947) is an American retired basketball player, widely considered one of the greatest players of all time. During his 20-year professional career in the NBA, from 1969 to 1989, he scored the highest points total of any player in league history (38,387), in addition to winning a record six Most Valuable Player Awards and six NBA championships. He was known for his "skyhook" shot, which was famously difficult to block because it put his 7'2" body between the basket and the ball.

Abdul-Jabbar's success began well before his professional career; in college at UCLA, he played on three championship teams, and his high school team won 71 consecutive games. Abdul-Jabbar (Alcindor at the time) grew up in the neighborhood of Inwood at the northern end of Manhattan, New York City, the son of Cora Lillian, a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Sr., a police officer and jazz musician. College took him to Los Angeles, and he returned there for 14 seasons in the NBA after six seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks.

In 1971, several years after converting to Islam, he changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Arabic: كريم عبد الجبار Karīm ‘Abd al-Jabbār). Since retiring from basketball, he has been known as a coach and author, and sometimes an actor. Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr on April 16, 1947, and grew up in the Inwood section of Manhattan, in New York City, the son of Cora Lillian, a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Sr, a transit police officer and jazz musician.

He was their only child. At birth, he weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (5.73 kg), and was twenty-two and a half inches (57.2 cm) long. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended St.

Jude School in Inwood. From an early age he began his record-breaking basketball accomplishments. In high school, he led Power Memorial Academy to three straight New York City Catholic championships, a 71-game winning streak, and a 79–2 overall record.

He scored 2067 points in his high school career.

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