Exclusive Interview: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a new novel, a new comic book, and wants to save the world. Matt Sardo spoke with the student of Bruce Lee about the current state of the superhero, and how Abdul-Jabbar would like to team up with Ant-Man.

“I don’t think we are losing our moral compass. You get weary; sometimes people give in to fatigue because problems don’t every go away completely. We get rid of one set of problems and here comes another set, but that’s life we have to accept that. That’s just part of what life offers us a continuing stream of problems, but we have the means to deal with it if we want to get things done,” said Abdul-Jabbar.

We ask all our interview guests, ‘If you were to star in a buddy cop film, who would be your partner and why?’ Abdul-Jabbar is the first guest to pick a fictional character.

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“I think a contrast, so I guess my partner would be Ant-Man. Somebody that can get real small because I’m real tall. We would deal with both ends of the spectrum,” said Abdul-Jabbar.

The six-time NBA Most Valuable Player had strong words for the NCAA and the NFL.

“I think it is very unfair to the college athletes. The NCAA, the people that are involved in that, they get to make all this money. They make billions of dollars, and the athletes don’t get anything except room, board, and tuition. I think that is a gross disparity, and something needs to be done about it. For a lot of businesses, the NFL really has the college football system as an unpaid minor league. All the people that go into the NFL come from basically college football. I think college athletes are really exploited, and something should be done about it to make their lives a little bit easier. I’m not saying they’re supposed to get rich or anything like that, but just making it possible to go through their college experience and not be poor and struggling all the time. I think that makes a lot of sense,” said Abdul-Jabbar.


Listen to the complete Kareem Abdul-Jabbar interview below.

Check out our review of Mycroft Holmes, and The Apocalypse Handbook #1.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s novel ‘Writings on the Wall’ is available now.

Matthew Sardo
Matthew Sardo
As the founder of Monkeys Fighting Robots, I'm currently training for my next job as an astronaut cowboy. Reformed hockey goon, comic book store owner, video store clerk, an extra in 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon,' 'Welcome Back Freshman,' and for one special day, I was a Ghostbuster.