Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the Best College Basketball Player of All Time

by Kareem Fan
(Portland, Oregon)

The best all time College Basketball Player is, with no doubt, Lew Alcindor, also known under the name of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Lew Alcindor changed his name after converting to Islam in 1971, after winning the NBA Championship with the Milwaukee Bucks.

In high school, he led his team (Power Memorial Academy) to win 71 consecutive games and scored 2067 points in his high school career. After graduating from the Power Memorial Academy, he enrolled at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). He was already heavily sought after by colleges and universities all over the country, thanks to his incredibly promising debut in high school.

From 1966 to 1969, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played for the UCLA Bruins, with Coach John Wooden. With the UCLA, he helped the team win 88 games (and only 2 losses) in three years. He was named player of the year in 1967 and 1969. Abdul-Jabbar led the Bruins to three straight NCAA Basketball Championships from 1967 – 1969. With a college career as impressive as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s, it’s hard to not pick him as the best College Basketball Player in NCAA history. He is also considered responsible the ban of the “dunk” in college basketball in 1967, as he made the dunk famous.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar retains a number of individual basketball records at UCLA. This is really impressive considering the fact that at the time, freshmen were not eligible to play, therefore Abdul-Jabbar only had 3 years to establish those records instead of 4 years. His individual records includes highest career scoring average, most season points, most single game points and many more.

After graduating from UCLA, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was drafted by the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks in 1969 and won the NBA Rookie of the Year title. In 1975, he was acquired by the Los Angeles Lakers. During his first season with the Lakers he established a record of 1,111 defensive rebounds, which still remains the NBA record today.

Considering an astonishing college basketball career, leading to a successful NBA basketball career, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was definitely the best all time College Basketball Player.