Championship rings … UCLA letterman’s jackets … MVP trophies … Framed jerseys …
This is basketball history.
Bronzed baby shoes … Original photograph of the first meeting with fellow UCLA student Arthur Ashe, Lew Alcindor in practice gear bending down to shake hands … Letters and pictures with Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
This is personal.
A set of conga drums from the Cavaliers … An oversized wooden rocking chair from the Hornets … A wet suit from the Clippers … A personalized Edmonton Oilers jersey … Cowboy boots, Winchester rifle, rattlesnake belt and cowboy hat from the Jazz.
This is wild.
This is almost unimaginable, is what it is. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is auctioning about 400 items, the majority of what he won, collected, or wore on the court. There are also gifts he collected on his 1988-89 NBA farewell tour, including a slightly used silver flute presented by the Pacers 28 years ago, and a piece of the famed Boston Garden parquet floor.
Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and one of the towering figures in the history of basketball — emblematic of talent and dedication from high school to college to the pros — does not want to be a curator anymore. He is 68 years old and is simply looking to streamline. He insists he’s not selling because of any financial need.
“In order to take care of a legacy like that, you have to store it,” he said. “I have enough stuff to have a museum. I’m not in the museum business and I think I should be able to let go at this point. It’s not a painful parting. I sure would have hated to try to keep it and see it all deteriorate and fall apart.”
A walk through the warehouse near Los Angeles that stores hundreds of Abdul-Jabbar’s items is like stepping into a memorabilia treasure chest. Clothes are on hangers and hanging on racks. Framed jerseys hang on the walls, and others sit on the floor leaning against a wall. Championship rings are displayed in a special case. Dozens of items from the historical (the ball used to break the career scoring mark) to the behind-the-scenes (an old Lakers playbook) are sitting on open shelves.
When Abdul-Jabbar leads the tour of his life and career, he stops in front of the piece of parquet floor from Boston Garden, part of the haul from the farewell tour. Kareem, a Laker, accepted a gift from the Celtics. It was OK, Abdul-Jabbar explained, because it was presented by Red Auerbach and Kareem had forever appreciated how Auerbach took time to talk to him as a 14-year-old ninth grader at Power Memorial Academy, his high school not far from Madison Square Garden. Abdul-Jabbar would later stand at the forefront of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry, but always knew he learned winning basketball from watching the Celtics’ Bill Russell when Boston powered through New York. He admired Russell’s commitment to teamwork — rebounding and passing with no sign of wanting to stand alone in the spotlight. That eventually became one of Kareem’s legacies as well.
Walking gently through the warehouse, Abdul-Jabbar spots the Tiffany & Co. sterling-silver, apple-shaped bowl on one of the shelves. That has had special sentimental value, ever since it was presented on Nov. 22, 1988 as part of his final game at Madison Square Garden, a few lifetimes after he first played there in a CYO all-star game as an eighth grader, before he would return with Power Memorial, then UCLA, and then his Bucks and Lakers.
He sees the ball used to break Wilt Chamberlain’s career scoring mark on April 5, 1984. Now under a clear plastic-like cover, it is mounted on a plaque that includes the original box score from that night in Las Vegas against the Jazz and a picture of Abdul-Jabbar shaking hands with Wilt before the Lakers played the Kansas City Kings the next night at the Forum.
The offbeat is scattered through the display case, mostly presented during the farewell tour. The flute and brass alto sax from the Pacers, a nod to Abdul-Jabbar’s love of music, especially jazz. A key from the city of Chicago. A sculpture of an elephant from the Mavericks with “Dignity-Strength-Durability” engraved on an attached piece of petrified wood, a gift that always held special meaning because Kareem’s mother liked sculpted elephants. Custom Ping golf clubs and bag from the Suns, irons and three woods.
“I don’t expect to keep anything,” Kareem said.
Nothing at all?
“I doubt it,” he said. “The things that I want to keep won’t even be offered. I think that for the most part I’ll be able to live with the loss of these things. I think my past is with me. You don’t have to hold on to it like it was an object. It’s something that grows out of your life. I think that approach that I have of viewing it that way really makes it a lot easier for me to deal with this.”
Abdul-Jabbar likes the idea of some items remaining together, maybe all the rings in one place or many of the UCLA artifacts staying a set and so on, but also realizes the buyers and destinations will be impossible to control. He is hopeful someone from New York is interested in bringing the Power Memorial memorabilia back home, that the Lakers and Bucks would like to own a few pieces, that UCLA is intrigued by the idea of getting some of its history back. But he also knows that is impossible to control.
At the very least, individual collectors and fans will come running when the online auction begins, scheduled for late-February with an exact date and website to be announced on Kareem’s personal site, kareemabduljabbar.com/auction.
The first rollout will be approximately 25 items from the farewell tour, followed by more pieces going on the block at dates to be announced. Kareem says a portion of the proceeds are ticketed for the Skyhook Foundation, his charity that benefits kids in the Los Angeles area.
“I’ve gone through this and a lot of it you go back and forth,” he said. “Certain things you think, ‘Oh, geez, I don’t want that,’ and then you have a memory and say, ‘I might want to keep that.’ You’ve got to go back and forth. There’s always some anxiety in that, but I’ve been through it. I kind of have an understanding of what really is important and what isn’t. I think I’ll be OK.”
OK with parting with the items, that is, and, besides, he can still keep the memories. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is 68 years old and doesn’t want to be in the museum business.
This is the time.
Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter.
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