Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court

by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Parents, siblings, friends, peers, teachers, governments, employers, political parties, media, and religions are all stuffing heavy bricks of their opinions into our mental backpack. Then they shove us out the door to stagger along the path under all that weight of expectation and pressure, without ever asking us if the path is what we truly want.

But as important as education is to white middle-class and upper-class families, it’s even more important to immigrant families, poor families, minority families. It’s the only practical hope for them to get out of the cycle of poverty that many live in. Education is a life raft on a stormy, dark ocean.

Through basketball, I found my superpower. My power wasn’t in being a great player, but in loving something enough to work hard at being better.

I had met new coaches, like Al Calloway, Dr. Clarke, and Dr. King, who had held up a mirror so I could see myself clearly for the first time. Now I knew what my history was, who my people were, and where my future pointed.