Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a former professional basketball player who played 20 seasons in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. During his career as a center, Abdul-Jabbar was a six-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), a 19-time All Star, 15-time All-NBA selection, and a 11-time All Defensive Team member.

Abdul-Jabbar was voted twice as the NBA Finals MVP. In 1996, he was honored as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Many NBA coaches and players have also called him the greatest basketball player of all time.

ESPN named him the greatest center of all time in 2007, the greatest player in college basketball history in 2008, and the second best player in NBA history (behind Michael Jordan) in 2016. Abdul-Jabbar is also an actor, a coach, a best-selling author, and a martial artist having trained under Bruce Lee.

In 2012, Abdul-Jabbar was selected by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be a U.S. global cultural ambassador, and in 2016, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.