Pat Riley: Kareem never had potential, ‘only greatness’

Pat Riley remembers just about every detail surrounding theevents of Dec. 29, 1961. It was a cold night in Schenectady, NewYork. A little snowy, the roads a little icy. And when the buscarrying the opposing team from New York City arrived, all ofRiley’s Linton High teammates peered out the window.

They saw a giant.

Long before Riley and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were winning NBAchampionships together as coach and player with the Showtime-eraLos Angeles Lakers in the 1980s, they were opponents. Riley andLinton beat Power Memorial and Lew Alcindor — Abdul-Jabbar’s namebefore converting to Islam — 74-68 that night.

Abdul-Jabbar, then a 6-foot-10 freshman, was held to eightpoints because he spent virtually the entire game in foul trouble.He has told Riley several times over the years that Linton wonbecause Riley’s father — a lifelong baseball man — had his umpiringfriends refereeing the game.

“Which we did,” Riley acknowledges.

Riley knew it then and came to appreciate it even more yearslater — there were only a few ways to stop the player who wouldeventually spend nearly four decades as the most prolific scorer inNBA history. Abdul-Jabbar is on the verge of being passed by theLakers’ LeBron James, the 38-year-old who was nearly nine monthsfrom being born when the unforgettable center made one of hissignature sky hooks on April 5, 1984 to overtake Wilt Chamberlainand become the league’s scoring leader.

“Kareem was a guy that never had any potential. He just hadgreatness,” said Riley, now the president of the Miami Heat and oneof the few who has worked with both Abdul-Jabbar and James. “Youcould see that. When you can bypass potential and you move right togreatness as a high school player, and then college and then thepros ... there are very few like him. There’s a handful. Twohandfuls, at the most.”

James is one of them, going from high school straight to theNBA, and now in his 20th season, he is now just 63 points away frompassing Abdul-Jabbar’s record. The Lakers play Saturday at NewOrleans.

The most realistic target for the record-breaker is Tuesday inLos Angeles against Oklahoma City or — perhaps symbolically — nextThursday in L.A. when the Lakers play host to the Milwaukee Bucks,the team that Abdul-Jabbar started his NBA career with.

This past October, Abdul-Jabbar — on his Substack page where hediscusses and offers opinion on a variety of topics, often nothingto do with sports — wrote that when James passed Kobe Bryant forNo. 3 on the all-time scoring list in 2020, he “knew it was just amatter of time before he passed me too.”

Abdul-Jabbar added that every time a record is broken, allpeople are elevated.

“When I broke Wilt Chamberlain’s scoring record in 1984 — theyear LeBron was born — it bothered Wilt, who’d had a bit of aone-sided rivalry with me since I’d started doing so well in theNBA,” he wrote. “I don’t feel that way toward LeBron. Not only willI celebrate his accomplishment, I will sing his praisesunequivocally.”

The relationship between Abdul-Jabbar and James seemscomplicated. Abdul-Jabbar was outside of the Cleveland locker roomduring the 2016 Eastern Conference finals as James was jogging by;the two embraced and shared a few kind words, prompting James todiscuss the respect he has for Abdul-Jabbar and others who pavedthe way in his postgame remarks.

Abdul-Jabbar also has lauded James “as a community leader andathlete.” But he criticized James for not doing more with hisplatform to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.And earlier this season, James said he has “no relationship” withAbdul-Jabbar.

There are ties that bind them, though. Both are champions. Bothhave worked to promote social justice and spoken out against racialinequality. Abdul-Jabbar played 20 years in the NBA; James is inYear 20. Abdul-Jabbar set the record while playing for the Lakers;James will do the same.

And If nothing else, James’ pursuit of the record may haveexposed a generation or two that never saw Abdul-Jabbar play to howgreat he was.

“We have to always acknowledge those who come before us, thosewho’ve paved the way,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “You think ofall those points Kareem scored and he had, what, one 3-pointer? Youthink about all of that, and these kids get to learn about adifferent era. It’s high, high-level education in the game ofbasketball, particularly NBA basketball.”

When Abdul-Jabbar broke the record, Riley said Magic Johnson —then the Lakers’ point guard — made sure he was the one who got theassist on the play. Johnson nearly put himself back into the gameagainst Utah in Las Vegas that night when Abdul-Jabbar was twopoints away.

Years later, when the Lakers from those championship teams ofthat era gathered in Hawaii last summer for a reunion, Abdul-Jabbarwas a day late because of personal matters. The Lakers in 2022celebrated his arrival the same way they did the record-setter in1984.

“He felt special because he was special, because he is special,”Riley said of the man who once stood shoulder-to-shoulder alongsidean embattled Muhammad Ali during the boxing champ’s legal troublesin the late 1960s, and counted Bill Russell — another basketballgiant and social-change champion — as a mentor. “He was treated asthe patriarch by all the players. It was a great week for him. Hewas engaged, came to everything we did, gave some spontaneoustalks. And he’s a shy guy, but he felt very comfortable in hisgroup.”

Riley coached Abdul-Jabbar in Los Angeles and later lured Jamesto Miami for a four-year run starting in 2010. He sees in Jamesmuch of what he saw in Alcindor when that bus pulled intoSchenectady in 1961.

“It’s all about LeBron right now, and it should be, with hisunique career and unique opportunity to do this,” Riley said.“Training, travel, personal chefs, personal trainers, all thatstuff has come into play since Kareem. I hope people realizeKareem’s story as well and how different it was. He went to collegefor four years; LeBron came out of high school. But they bothdominated from Day 1. They both turned potential into greatnessfrom Day 1.”