One of the most debated subjects on talk radio, usually during really slow times, is who is the all-time best Los Angeles Lakers player.
Bill Ingram, founder of Real Deal in the Rock, which begins Friday in gyms all over central Arkansas (with P.A.R.K. being the host site), is a lifelong Lakers fan. He’ll argue till the cows come home that Kobe Bryant is the greatest Laker, but admits Magic Johnson was a great player.
Johnson played all five positions for the Lakers, as a rookie.
Anyway, as with any debate, there is always a late entry who is mentioned and it is always said he has to be considered. Then, the debate usually returns to Bryant or Johnson with an occasionalmention of Jerry West.
Yet, the truth is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is still the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points split between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Lakers. Bryant would need to play about 250 more games and average 25 points a game to move ahead of Abdul-Jabbar.
Actually, Abdul-Jabbar, who played on three NCAA championship teams at UCLA in the late 1960s and has six NBA championship rings, wasjust ahead of his time.
When Johnson and Larry Bird came into the NBA in the 1979-1980 season, they took it to an all-new level of exposure and awareness; by that time, Abdul-Jabbar was not the dominant player he was in the 1970s. So, to anyone other than an NBA purist, Abdul-Jabbar is sort of a best-kept secret.
That makes him perfect as the keynote speaker at the Clinton Presidential Center on April 25.
Abdul-Jabbar is coming to town for one of Arkansas’ best-kept secrets, the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts.
Normally when you read or hear something about the academic giant in Hot Springs, it has to do with a subject like the one Cynthia Howell wroteabout in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday.
A junior at the school, Yeongwoo Hwang, scored a 36 on his ACT college entrance exam. That’s the highest the bar can go. Sort of like scoring 100 points in an NBA game, which has been done once and that was Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. He preceded Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s dominant center, at least from an offensive standpoint.
So having a student get a perfect score on the ACT and getting Abdul-Jabbar the same month is a slam dunk for ASMSA. Arkansas is one of 15 states to have advanced curriculum in a public, residential high school for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and arts.
It will be a great night andanyone wanting more information can contact Vicki Hinz at (501) 622-5110 or go to www.asmsa.org.
Abdul-Jabbar, a 7-2 center, was known for his “sky hook,” which he said was the only shot he could use that didn’t get smashed back in his face.
He was known as a private person who didn’t pursue headlines or the limelight, which is very similar to ASMSA, a true educational gem in the state.
Here are a few mind-boggling statistics about the school founded in 1991: 1,840 graduates have earned more than $149 million in scholarships - many of the graduates start college on the sophomore level and some at the junior level; of the 75 counties in Arkansas, 58 are represented, and one-third of the faculty has a doctorate degree.
ASMSA is open to all high school sophomores who meet the academic requirements. Tuition and room and board are free.
One of the reasons Abdul-Jabbar agreed to speak here is because he believes in the STEM program. He speaks often on the importance of an education and how there are only 450 NBA jobs and thousands upon thousands of engineering jobs in America.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a headliner and he’s coming to town.
Sports, Pages 17 on 04/09/2013