Kareem: Minority of One

For people outside of the USA, Kareem Abdul Jabbar was that tall basketball player who fought Bruce Lee in Game of Death or appeared as a pilot in Airplane, trying to pretend he was not the famous basketball player.

When BBC television started to show US Basketball in the late 1980s, Kareem was by then a venerable veteran whose best days were behind him and it was Magic Johnson who was the man in the Lakers team

This HBO documentary tries to delve into the man who was always rather prickly with the media. As Kareem mentions once after a bitter defeat in a school competition where he showed his emotions he later vowed to keep his game face on. That face stayed on for decades and even in this documentary we rarely get to hear what he really thinks.

Kareem regrets he did not spend time with his children from his first marriage and even now it looks he is distant from them. Yet apart the words of regret we get nothing more. The Muslim sect involved in his conversion kept him having contact from his parents for many years, we get again nothing as to why he was distant from them and whether he regretted this. He fell out with a mentor Wilt Chamberlain who was very uncomplimentary about Kareem in interviews but Kareem never really gives his side of the story.

Of course you get to know something about Kareem, his shyness about his size as a teenager, his early beginnings in college basketball where he soon made a name for himself, when he turned professional and of course the glory days in the 1980s with the LA Lakers who were the glamour team.

You get to see Karrem enjoying his interests such as jazz, a passion inspired by his father, many valuable records he had were destroyed in a house fire. His interests in martial arts which led to a close friendship with Bruce Lee.

There was also a dark side with Kareem who would sometimes lash out in the court against opponents. The film although shows his retirement tour where even rivals applauded his contribution to basketball, it kind of stops once he retired and tells us virtually nothing of what he has been up to since then. He obviously did not take up coaching, did he want to? His brush with cancer got a mere sentence.

It was an interesting documentary but I always get the feeling that Kareem is still hiding in the shadows.

"Kareem - Minority of One" (2015 release; 90 min.) is a documentary about the life and times of Karem Abdul Jabbar up to 1989. As the movie opens, we are "April 28, 1989", when Kareem steps onto the court at the LA Forum one last time. We then go back in time to his upbringing (as Lewis Alcindor) in New York. "I dunked for the first time in 8th grade". Comments someone else: "He was a misfit, literally, due to his height." He decides to attended New York HS power house Power Memorial, and soon finds himself the most coveted college recruit ever... At this point we are 10 min. into the film.

Couple of comments: this film is a presentation of HBO Sports. Sadly, and uncharacteristically, HBO decided that it needed to stick to sports only. Hence this is a straightforward and hence dreadfully boring life at the rich basketball career of of Kareem Abdul Jabbar at Power Memorial, then UCLA, then the Milwaukee Bucks, and then the LA Lakers. Yes, there are a few moments devoted to his decision to convert to Muslim and hence changing his name to Kareem Abdul Jabbar. So the documentary ends where it began 90 minutes earlier, at the LA Forum on April 28, 1989. There is literally this one-sentence reference: "He became a writer, commentator and activist later in life." Fade to black. Say what?!? You negate in its entirety the next 25-30 years of this guy's life and accomplishments? Holy cow. Yes, Adbul Jabbar took up many things after his basketball career, including well-respected social commentary but also things like being a writer on the 2019 revival of "Veronica Mars", among many many other things.

"Kareem - Minority of One" premiered on HBO in 2015, and I stumbled on it recently on HBO On Demand. Considering that Kareem Abdul Jabbar retired over 30 years ago, I couldn't help by be incredibly disappointed that this documentary completely overlooked his post-basketball career and accomplishments during these 3 decades. It's simply inexcusable.

Wow watching this documentary made me appreciate him more than ever before. I finally see and understand why he had that serious, quiet personality. The laid back type of player. He truly was the one of the greatest of time.

The movie does a tremendous job on his life IN basketball, but stops at 1989 as if he didn't do anything else. Needed another 45 mins for sure.