Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the all-time leading scorer in the NBA, did not attend UCLA to play basketball, although he led the team to three straight NCAA championships.
“The reason I went to college was to study history, and that’s why I’m here tonight,” Abdul-Jabbar said during Tuesday’s “Conversations with Tyler” forum. As evidence, on the table next to him were copies of his books, including those about African American inventors, the Harlem Renaissance, the World War II 761st tank battalion and the year he lived on an Apache reservation.
Since retiring from basketball in 1989, Abdul-Jabbar, 68, has pursued a wide range of interests in world history and public policy, giving George Mason University economics professor Tyler Cowen ample material for a public interview that lasted more than 70 minutes before taking questions from some of the 241 audience members.
The event, part of the series hosted by the Mercatus Center at George Mason, was held in the ballroom of the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, Va., relocated due to snow from Mason’s Arlington Campus. See the conversation.
Cowen started the conversation by noting that racial segregation in America seems to be worsening, despite apparent strides, including having an African American president.
“It’s worse” than before, Abdul-Jabbar agreed, explaining, “It’s as a result of efforts to enforce the Civil Rights Act.”
Cowen read a list of Abdul-Jabbar’s public policy beliefs and concluded, perhaps jokingly, that the Harlem native is “a leading conservative intellectual.” Abdul-Jabbar smiled, but did not disagree. But in answer to a question about social entitlements, he responded, “Handouts are not the solution to social problems, but I’m anxious to hear conservatives’ solutions. They seem to have the answers, but what are they?”
Regarding Islam, Abdul-Jabbar blamed “the distribution of wealth” in the Islamic world as preventing it from progressing. “Corruption is endemic in the Islamic world. … Those in power just want to keep the money and not help others.”
Jazz music is not dead, he declared when Cowen asked him if the genre was extinct. A music fan from childhood, Abdul-Jabbar pointed out jazz is more popular globally now than ever. He told a story about dancing with Thelonious Monk and his drummer at a New York cabaret, clearly a fond memory.
He also talked about the future of historically black colleges and universities.
“I don’t know if they’ll survive over the long term … segregated schooling doesn’t really work,” he said.
Other topics included his movie career, learning martial arts from Bruce Lee, paying college athletes (inevitable, he concluded) and his fascination with Sherlock Holmes, which led him to write his latest book, “Mycroft Holmes,” a mystery featuring Sherlock’s older brother.
As for basketball, Cowen asked why no one else has ever perfected Abdul-Jabbar’s famed “skyhook” shot from close range.
“Everybody is enamored with the three-point shot,” he said. “Nobody is teaching how to score in the paint with their back to the basket.”
The next “Conversations with Tyler” event will be with statistician Nate Silver at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, at Mason’s Founders Hall in Arlington. Register here.