Leukemia's new Hero Kareem Abdul Jabaar

It’s impossible to forget Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his stellar 20-year NBA career, which included six championships, five with the Los Angeles Lakers. The 7-foot-2 center, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, dazzled with his legendary skyhook during the Showtime Era in L.A., exuding confidence in his own understated way. Abdul-Jabbar was the antithesis of today’s chest-pounding showboats.

Six-time NBA MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appears on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to discuss his leukemia diagnosis. Getty Images

Now the intensely private Abdul-Jabbar is back in the spotlight after revealing that he’s been battling a rare form of leukemia since December. He describes his prognosis as good.

“The message, like the man who delivered it, was delivered with a quiet dignity,” Ramona Shelburne writes in the Los Angeles Daily News. “He was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia last December, meaning it has taken Abdul-Jabbar almost a year to feel comfortable sharing his situation with the world. A year to come to grips with the fear, a year to find the brave face he’d need to stare cancer in the face and involve others in his personal fight.”

MSNBC’s Mike Celizic is heartened by how fans are rooting for Abdul-Jabbar. “We care about this man who performed with such greatness for so many years and has lived with such dignity,” Celizic writes. “We don’t want anyone to get cancer, and we particularly don’t want our heroes to get it.”

“The same Abdul-Jabbar who was never close to the most popular of Lakers on his own team despite his unmatched success, not in the way Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper, Kurt Rambis and James Worthy connected with fans, will be embraced now as if he was one of them all along, NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper writes.

source: www.wsj.com  by Gary Ris