ICE Kills Again, Another GOVT Shutdown Brewing, & Horton Doesn't Hear a WHO

Some Snippets from his Substack Article:

"Long before I became Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar the basketball player, I was Lew Alcindor, a young Black man growing up in a country that insisted it was post‑racial while showing me, every day, that it wasn’t. By the time I got to UCLA, I had already seen enough to know that staying quiet would not protect me or anyone who looked like me. I had watched cities burn after Dr. King’s assassination. I had seen the bodies. I had heard the grief. I had lived the fear. Speaking up wasn’t a choice. It was the only honest response."

"I remember boycotting the 1968 Olympics and being told I was un‑American, ungrateful, disrespectful to my country. But I knew what I had seen. Dr. King had been killed that spring. The summer before, Newark burned for five days, Detroit for eight. People told me to stay quiet, to just play basketball. And I had to decide whether to accept the story being told about me or to trust my own eyes.

Back then, we didn’t have cameras in every pocket. We had each other’s testimony. We had the bodies. We had the burned buildings, the charred remains of rage and fear. The truth was written into the world around us.

That’s the thread connecting 1968 to Minneapolis today. When you demand accountability, the system tries to turn you into the problem. Institutions question your motives, your patriotism, even your right to speak. It’s a distraction, a smokescreen. (Or, in this case, a gas screen.) Because nothing says “law and order” like hurling pepper spray and noxious gas, and refusing to investigate your own questionable or downright illegal actions."

"My father used to tell me that we don’t get to choose whether hard things happen. We only get to choose how we respond. Right now, the people of Minneapolis are choosing to stand up, to bear witness, to refuse silence. I say we stand with them."

48 comments

  2. I wish i was young enough to see him play. He seems like a level headed and genuinely good guy

  3. Man, I love Kareem.

    Intelligent, eloquent, thoughtful, and has the personal life experiences to give weight to his opinions.

  5. Kareem is one of my GOATs not just for what he did on the court but how he carried and continues to carry himself off the court. He’s got his flaws but we always need flawed people to do good things. Especially when they have a platform.

  7. Let’s go, Kareem! My guy. Continuing to be a hero decades past his playing career. 

    I wish more superstars, especially active ones, would follow the example set by Kareem and Hali.

  11. He’s genuinely the GOAT of the sport. Immensely accomplished at all levels of play, and was constantly tanking attacks to his character and legacy both during his career and long after he retired because he’s a black man with the audacity to have principles.

    He knows when issues are bigger than basketball and takes the hits to stand with those things and still ended up as someone in GOAT conversations on the court, as well.

  13. I’ve disliked Kareem my whole life because my dad hated him. He said in college his school played UCLA and Kareem pushed over a cheerleader for no reason and I just accepted it.

    But honestly just about everything I’ve ever heard about the guy makes him sound like a stand up guy and I think maybe my dad was full of shit.

  16. America loves to pretend slavery and segregation was a long time ago while people that met Dr. King still walk this earth and he himself would have a chance to still be around if he wasn’t assassinated.

    Would be turning 97 this year, not unheard of.

  21. His substack has been good since day 1. The part about how he was told America was post racial is so prescient

  22. Kareem is a great human being, when he is no longer among us a huge piece of American history will go with him, but he will be remembered in books forever.

  24. I met Kareem once when he visited my college (we got to interview him about his social justice work). Was super intimidated going in because he’s a legend, he’s the largest human being I’ve ever seen, and he used to be known for being gruff with the media. Needless to say he was incredibly friendly and even laughed when I threw in an extra question about his role in Airplane!

  28. The entire NBA legal department physically restraining Adam Silver rn from making a public statement that would somehow make matters worse.

  29. 60s and 70s player will always be unmatched when it comes to this stuff. Some real mfs

    Fuck ICE

  31. Kareem is a better writer and journalist than he was basketball player — which sounds like an impossibility — given legendary basketball career he had.

  32. Crazy that 60+ years ago white Americans were also claiming to be in a “post-racial” society.

  33. Kareem, I am sorry for that one time you saw me get nearly kicked off of an airplane. You have always been a real one.

  35. Kareem not participating in the Olympics is a bigger accomplishment than winning the Olympics. 

  39. These are the moments I miss Bill Russell even more.

    Kareem and Bill were the real deal, on and off the court. Absolute titans in every way.

  40. “Protect him at all costs” is a lot less fun to say when you start having to say it unironically

  46. Kareem’s been around for a long time, so he knows bad shit when he sees it, and he never holds back.

  47. Words as effective as his skyhook.
    Miss his basketball too.
    Hope more people stand up to Trump tyranny.

  48. The NBA has been truly blessed by the quality of some of the former players. Between Kareem and Russell you couldn’t ask for better ambassadors of the sport

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