Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wants better healthcare for Black Americans. The Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers legend wrote an essay for WebMD that talks about his battles with prostate cancer, leukemia and heart bypass surgery. He said that most Black men wouldn’t survive what he’s been through because of the Black community not having the same options.
“I’ve been fortunate because my celebrity has brought me enough financial security to receive excellent medical attention. No one wants an NBA legend dying on their watch. Imagine the Yelp reviews,” Abdul-Jabbar said jokingly. “But while I’m grateful for my advantages, I’m acutely aware that many others in the Black community do not have the same options and that it is my responsibility to join with those fighting to change that. Because Black lives are at risk. Serious risk.”
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Abdul-Jabbar also touched on the Black Lives Matter movement and said that people who say “All Lives Matter” don’t understand what Black Lives Matter really means. “The backlash in which white people proclaimed All Lives Matter clearly had no understanding of the issue,” he stated. “Blacks weren’t saying that Black lives mattered more, they were emphasizing that the way the system works now, Black Lives Matter … Less.”
The Basketball Hall of Famer went on to say as bad as police brutality is in the country, healthcare for Black Americans has to improve. He wrote the “more insidious and damaging threat to the health, lives, and economic well-being of Black Americans is a health care system that ignores the fact that, though they are most in need of medical services, they actually receive the lowest level.” Abdul-Jabbar is a health ambassador for UCLA, which is also his alma mater. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Abdul-Jabbar donated 900 pairs of safety goggles to UCLA Health.
In 2009, Abdul-Jabbar announced he had leukemia. Two years later, the 73-year old told the Associated Press: “You’re never really cancer-free and I should have known that. My cancer right now is at an absolute minimum “Medical science has made great strides over the last 20 years. People in my position are able to live their lives to the fullest. I’m very grateful for that. I’m lucky that they caught it in enough time, and I’ve responded well to the medication.”
