Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Has Leukemia! November 12
We have heard it time and again – cancer chooses no one, and it can happen to anyone. Just this year, the world lost two icons to the big C — Farrah Fawcett to colon cancer and Patrick Swayze to pancreatic cancer. The Philippines’ first female president, Corazon Aquino, also succumbed to colon cancer this year.
And now, another icon has decided to go public about the fact that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a name that has been synonymous all over the world to basketball in very much the same way that Michael Jordan is also associated with the sport, has shared through interviews that he found out that he had Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia December last year. He, however, has been known as a very private individual, which is probably why he opted to initially share his condition with only a small circle of people.
The decision to go public was reportedly fuelled by his desire to draw attention to the disease. Abdul-Jabbar reportedly told Lakers Coach Phil Jackson about the diagnosis five months after, and only shared his condition with other Lakers officials late last week, along with the notice that he will soon go public about it as well.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also granted phone interviews to the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Associated Press. The agreement was that the information that would come out of the interviews would be released on Tuesday morning.
Key Lakers players expressed shock over the news; for the most part, a majority of people only seemed to learn about it Tuesday. This included Kobe Bryant and Lakers Center Andrew Bynum, who is considered as the NBA great’s protégé.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been a special assistant coach for the Lakers since 2005, when he joined the team to work with Bynum.
Tags: celebrity cancer, celebrity leukemia, kareem abdul jabbar cancer, kareem abdul jabbar leukemia