With an intensity that disguised his shyness and a dancing jump shot nicknamed the "sky hook," Kareem Abdul-Jabbar dominated the National Basketball Association during the 1970s and 1980s. The seven-foot-two-inch center won three national collegiate championships at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and six professional championships with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer and was named the league's most valuable player a record six times. Beyond his athletic accomplishments, Jabbar also introduced a new level of racial awareness to basketball by boycotting the 1968 Olympic team, converting to Islam, and changing his name.

The Celtics' Greg Kite guards the Lakers' Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor in Harlem, New York, on April 16, 1947. His parents were both over six feet tall and Abdul-Jabbar reached six feet before the sixth grade. He attended a...