YouTube Gold: High School Kareem

Most people who saw him play remember Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as an older, balding or bald player who was pretty well built but not all that mobile. He retained his gorgeous sky hook, but the rest of his game was mostly gone.

As a high school player though, then known as Lew Alcindor, he was a lithe and mobile player who could dominate in every way.

As you’ll see in this video, young Kareem was something else. Big men were big men in his day and not expected to have a perimeter game.

And he didn’t. Check out the brilliant opening tip, the multiple blocks and dunks.

A few short years after this, he was at UCLA. In his freshman year, the freshman team dominated the national champion varsity squad and in the next three years, his Bruin squads set a brilliant standard that has yet to be equaled.