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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Part 5)

Post-NBA careerSince 2005, Abdul-Jabbar has served as special assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. Abdul-Jabbar had been interested in coaching since his retirement, and given the influence he had on the league, he thought that the opportunity would present itself. However, during his playing years, Abdul-Jabbar had developed a reputation of being introverted and sullen. He did not speak to the press, leading to the impression that he disliked them. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls instances when Abdul-Jabbar brushed him off when Magic (as a ballboy) asked for his autograph, Abdul-Jabbar froze out reporters who gave him a too enthusiastic handshake or even hugged him, or refused to stop reading the newspaper while giving an interview. Many basketball observers, in addition to Abdul-Jabbar, believe that Kareem's reticence, whether through disdain for the press corps or simply because of introversion, contributed to the dearth of coaching opportunities offered to Kareem by the NBA. In his words, he said he had a mindset he could not overcome, and proceeded through his career oblivious to the effect his reticence may have had on his coaching prospects in the future. Kareem said: "I didn't understand that I also had affected people that way and that's what it was all about. I always saw it like they were trying to pry. I was way too suspicious and I paid a price for it." Since he began lobbying for a coaching position in 1995, he has managed to obtain only low-level assistant and scouting jobs in the NBA, and a head coaching position only in a minor professional league.
Abdul-Jabbar has worked as an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Seattle SuperSonics, helping mentor, among others, their young centers, Michael Olowokandi and Jerome James. Abdul-Jabbar was the head coach of the Oklahoma Storm United States Basketball League in 2002, leading the team to the league's championship that season, but he failed to land the head coaching position at Columbia University a year later. He then worked as a scout for the New York Knicks. Finally, on September 2, 2005, he returned to the Lakers as a special assistant to Phil Jackson to help the Lakers' centers, and in particular their young draftee Andrew Bynum. Abdul-Jabbar's influence has been credited with Bynum's emergence as a top level NBA center. Abdul-Jabbar has also served as a volunteer coach at Alchesay High School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona since 1998.

Acting careerPlaying in Los Angeles facilitated Abdul-Jabbar's trying his hand at acting. Abdul-Jabbar made his movie debut in Bruce Lee's posthumous 1978 film Game of Death, in which his character Hakim fought Billy Lo (played by Lee). His character was the last and most dangerous guardian that Bruce Lee's character had to face. In the extended footage of the final fight scenes of the film (which was shot in 1973), which last about half an hour, Abdul-Jabbar and Lee fight on the highest level of a pagoda in which Lee's character had to fight his way up. From Lee's viewpoint, the highest level on the pagoda is where Jeet Kune Do, represented by Abdul-Jabbar himself, is found. Through the entire fight, both men not only fight with an ease hard to obtain, but they both make it known neither of them fear death.
In 1980, he played co-pilot Roger Murdock in Airplane! Abdul-Jabbar has a memorable scene in which a little boy looks at him and remarks that he is in fact Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Staying in character, Abdul-Jabbar states that he is merely Roger Murdock, an airline co-pilot, but the boy continues to insist that he is "the greatest", but that, according to his father, he doesn't "work hard on defense" and "never really tries, except during the playoffs". This causes Abdul-Jabbar's character to blow a fuse, grab the boy and snarl he has heard "that crap since UCLA", he "busts his buns every night" and the boy should tell his old man to "drag [Bill] Walton and [Bob] Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes". When Murdock passes out later in the film, he is carried out wearing Abdul-Jabbar's goggles and yellow Lakers' shorts.
He has had numerous other TV and film appearances, often playing himself, including appearances in the movie Fletch, the sitcoms Full House, Living Single, Amen, Everybody Loves Raymond, Martin, Diff'rent Strokes (his height humorously contrasted with that of diminutive child star Gary Coleman), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Scrubs, and Emergency!. He also appeared in the telemovie version of Stephen King's The Stand, played himself in Slam Dunk Ernest, the aforementioned Full House and a brief non-speaking cameo appearance in BASEketball. Kareem was also the co-executive producer of the 1994 TV movie, The Vernon Johns Story. In 2008 Kareem appeared on the Colbert Report as a stage manager who was sent out on a mission to find Nazi Gold. There is also a reference to him in the Anime Cowboy Bebop, the protagonist chases the felon Abdul Hakim, a tall black man who is an expert in martial arts.