Monday, March 05, 2007

Cab Calloway chooses music over the Harlem Globetrotters

This YouTube thing is addictive. Just found a very short clip of the great basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talking about music legend Cab Calloway. It seems that Calloway was actually a pro basketball player after playing bball in high school. In the 1920s, he was selected to play with the Harlem Globetrotters, but decided instead to tour with his band. He also played baseball against Dizzy Gillespie - the great jazz trumpeter.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won a national championship in college and then went on to win 6 NBA championships for two teams, and played professionally for 20 YEARS!!!
He also was one of the pilots in the film Airplane, and fought against Bruce Lee in Game of Death. He was born as Lew Alcindor, but changed his name because of his conversion to Islam. Advice from fellow students from Muslim countries led to his avoiding the US Black Muslim movement, the Nation of Islam, whose ranks had once included Malcolm X. In this interview, Abdul-Jabbar talks about what he calls the "totalitarian" version of Islam that underpinned the September the 11th attacks.
20-July-2007: I've just noticed that YouTube have removed this video due to an alleged violation of its terms of use. Not sure what that's about...

3 comments:

ian said...

I'll wager the copyright owner said "Take that down or we will throw you in jail"

Paul said...

You could indeed be on to something there, my man. I didn't think it was something too commercial though - an interview where Mr. Abdul-Jabbar discusses his personal thoughts on Islam etc.

In this crazy world of ours, where any mention of these issues can provoke strange responses, I'm kind of curious about whether somebody took offense and complained. He does mention September the 11th. But the interview was innocuous stuff.

Anonymous said...

Opulently I assent to but I think the brief should acquire more info then it has.