Los Angeles Lakers: The post-playing legacy of the Showtime Lakers

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s post-Los Angeles Lakers career:

The Los Angeles Lakers’ captain is recognized as one of the greatest of all-time. With records in MVPs, scoring and championships.

But his post-playing has been not equally successful in the world of basketball. His reputation of introversion while leading the team with deeds has probably caused him a lack of coaching opportunities for a job that requires a vocal presence.

Despite emerging more and more in the public eye and making his presence and voice heard in the community in the following years, it was too late for him to be taken into consideration. Also the old stereotype that big men do not make good coaches might have played a role.

Anyway, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar had his stints as an Assistant Coach for the Seattle SuperSonics and city rivals Los Angeles Clippers.

Years later he finally served his duty for the Lakers as a Special Assistant Coach in a kind of unofficial player development role, preparing centers Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. It paid off as the Lakers conquered two championships in 2009 and 2010, and the two big men reached their full potential under his tutelage. Bynum’s peak unfortunately, like his career, did not last long.

In an unexpected turn of events, he offered the same help to Dwight Howard when he joined the Lakers in 2013, but he apparently refused this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as recalled by Kareem himself.