Talk:1970–71 NBA season

Before he was Jabbar

Lew Alcindor was a star at Power Memorial in much the same way George Mikan became a star at DePaul. Coordination drills and skill development to help improve a huge awkward kid.

For Alcindor, who grew up in black Brooklyn, basketball was the only game. It was a game a shy withdrawn kid could play alone when so many made fun of his unusual height. Introverted but studious and intelligent, basketball was a door to a young black kid who saw only so many windows to things he could not have.

Alcindor's amateur success has few rivals in the history of the game, an almost outdated notion today. Would Lew have been Kevin Garnett? All that money says ... probably yes. Who wouldn't? He could have went straight from Power Memorial.

But he was lucky enough to attend UCLA before the NBA. Alcindor got the education so many scholarship babys take for granted. He got John Wooden and his teammates. He probably still is the greatest single college player ever. He did not play in the 1968 Olympics, but made an important statement doing so. With Martin Luther King dead, who could blame him? In two NBA years he led an expansion team to the top in devastating manner, again as Mikan had done. Many expected a row of titles from Big Lew after that. He had state championships with the highest rated high-school team in America, UCLA, a gold medal turned down, and an NBA title in two short years --- all as Lew Alcindor. As Jabbar, he became a whole different guy.