The news that basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's all-time leading scorer, has a rare but treatable form of leukemia hit fellow UCLA alum Bill Walton hard.
"When the story came over the wire in the middle of the night, I could not sleep at all," said Walton, who followed in Abdul-Jabbar's footsteps as a center for the storied UCLA basketball program. "He was my first phone call this morning. Kareem is a hero to us all."
The good news is that Abdul-Jabbar's prognosis is promising. Diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in December, Abdul-Jabbar, 62, said doctors have told him he can manage and live with this condition. Normally private, he said he had no qualms about taking his health issue public.
"Early detection and treatment really are the keys for anyone who has to deal with this condition," he said. "I wanted to educate people about how modern medicine works. ... If I can help save some lives, I'm very happy to do that."
Abdul-Jabbar won three NCAA titles in a row with the Bruins (1967-69) and six NBA crowns in 20 seasons -- one with the Milwaukee Bucks, five with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was a six-time MVP, made the All-Star team 19 times and was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.
With a sky-hook shot nearly impossible to defense, Abdul-Jabbar was a scoring force. He averaged 24.6 points and ended with 38,387 points, almost 11,000 more than any active player. He is No. 3 on the rebounding and blocked shots lists.
Abdul-Jabbar, a Lakers special assistant coach, was overwhelmed by the support shown. "He's the proudest of men, the most talented of men and the kindest of men," Walton said. "It's our duty, obligation and respect to do whatever we can to help him through this difficult time. ... He'll do what he's always done. He has always given people hope."
Abdul-Jabbar was in the thoughts of those at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. "This challenge would just appear to be another chapter in (his life) and his impact on our society," Hall of Fame President John Doleva said.
Abdul-Jabbar played high school basketball at New York City's Power Memorial, when he was Lew Alcindor. Andrew Pisani, alumni president of the now-defunct school, said, "When I found out, our feeling is a matter of deep concern."
Lakers guard Derek Fisher applauded the disclosure: "His spotlight affords him an opportunity to touch a lot of families and people ... hit with cancer, leukemia in particular."
Former Bucks teammate Jon McGlocklin said: "It just shows how incendiary cancer is. Here is a man who took care of his body and played into his 40s, did everything right. It's an awakening for everybody."
Chronic myeloid leukemia affects about 5,050 Americans a year, the American Cancer Society says, and the prognosis is usually good because of one of the few real breakthroughs in cancer -- Gleevec, a pill approved in 2001 that has transformed this from a death sentence into a manageable disease. Before Gleevec less than 40% of patients survived. Today about 95% do, said Andrea Greif, spokeswoman for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
"We've taken a disease that 10 years ago had a life expectancy of no more than five years and turned it into a manageable condition," said Brian Druker, Gleevec's inventor.
Abdul-Jabbar would not say what he was taking, but it allows him to maintain his regular lifestyle. "I have to take the time to see my specialist. I have to go on a regular basis to have my blood analyzed, and I have to take my medication."
Abdul-Jabbar plans to do updates on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kaj33 and on Facebook at http://bit.ly/1nmPTn.
Contributing: Chris Colston, Liz Szabo
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