Kareem Abdul Jabbar Net Worth

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a former American professional basketball player who made his name during his time at Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. He boasts of a very successful career where he has won six NBA championships as a player and two championships as an assistant coach.

Early Life

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , whose original name is Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. was born on April 16, 1947, in New York City. Abdul-Jabbar was meant to be a basketball player the day he was born. He was unusually large and tall from a very young age with him reaching the standard basketball player height by the time he was only 13 years of age.

He studied at Power Memorial Academy where he helped his team to maintain an amazing streak of 71 games winning consecutively. During his time there, the academy would go on to win three straight New York City Catholic championships and helped to get Jabbar’s name out there as a young player with a lot of potential.

Career

He started off his career in the mainstream for Milwaukee Bucks but most people today know him for his contributions at the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers decided to acquire Jabbar in 1975 and it is probably one of the best acquisitions that they have ever made. Abdul-Jabbar was a very big asset for the Lakers helping them be among the elite teams during his 14 year reign there.

After Earvin “Magic” Johnson joined the team in 1979, this team would become a dominant dynasty which would rule the NBA championship for many years keeping their fans with a lot of memorable matches along the way. By 1980, Jabbar had already got his sixth MVP award.

Amazingly, despite his large physique, he was able to continue contributing to the squad well in his twilight playing years. Abdul-Jabbar especially thanks the yoga that he started doing in 1976 which drastically improved his flexibility.

1996 was the year when Abdul-Jabbar was given the honor of being named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. This is probably the biggest achievement of his career that has meant that he is part of an exclusive group of elite players that played the beautiful game. He is also a record six-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), a record 19-time NBA All-Star, a 15-time All-NBA selection, and an 11-time NBA All-Defensive Team member.

At the peak of his career, Jabbar was making a lot of money and was a kind of guy who didn’t particularly pay attention to his finances. He had hired a guy named Tom Collins, who looked after the finances of other top athletes as well. They had signed a contract which ensured that Collins had the right to use Abdul-Jabbar’s money.

He would later discover that this financial advisor had used a significant amount of Jabbar’s money to invest it into a big real-estate development deal. This project went downhill very fast and left Jabbar with a lot of debt, $9 million to be exact. This had sadly occurred at the time of the real estate collapse that started in 1984 and Abdul-Jabbar was left with a big headache.

It is because of this situation that he has today become financially literate and mentioned financial literacy as one of the key pieces of advice that he passes down to his followers.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar Net Worth in Detail

During the peak of his career, Abdul-Jabbar was one of the highest paid athletes in NBA. The majority of his net worth today was formed after he started playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. Records and Championships followed which had a big influence in his bank account.

He is also the co-author of a comic book called Mycroft Holmes and the Apocalypse Handbook published by Titan Comics. However, his net worth today could have been drastically better if it weren’t for an incident in the 1980’s that led Abdul-Jabbar to financial scrutiny.

Profile:

Full Name: Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Nick Name: Kareem

Date of Birth: April 16, 1947

Age: 71 years old

Born Place: New York, United States

Profession: Retired Basketball player

Spouse: Habiba Abdul Jabbar (1971-1978)

Height: 7 feet 2 inch or 2.18 m

Net Worth: $20 million