A Touch of Class

CA-35

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No I'm not talking about the early 70's movie with George Segal and Glenda Jackson.

An auction featuring four of Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA championship rings runs through Saturday.

The league's all-time leading scorer is auctioning rings he won with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1980, 1985, 1987 and 1988, plus other game-used and autographed memorabilia from his legendary career. Abdul-Jabbar, 71, wrote on his website earlier this month that "much of the proceeds" will benefit his Skyhook Foundation, a charity that helps kids learn about science, technology, engineering and math.

"When it comes to choosing between storing a championship ring or trophy in a room, or providing kids with an opportunity to change their lives, the choice is pretty simple. Sell it all," Abdul-Jabbar wrote. "Looking back on what I have done with my life, instead of gazing at the sparkle of jewels or gold plating celebrating something I did a long time ago, I'd rather look into the delighted face of a child holding their first caterpillar and think about what I might be doing for their future.

"That's a history that has no price."

2019-02-26T211706Z_1_LYNXNPEF1P1N6_RTROPTP_2_USA-ELECTION.JPG.cf.jpg
 

Westerly Wood

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i am guessing he is keeping his ring from the Minnesota championship...

cool
 

walrus

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He is definitely a class act! The NBA could use more like him...

walrus
 

silverfox103

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i am guessing he is keeping his ring from the Minnesota championship...

cool

He did not win a championship with Minnesota, it was Milwaukee. That team also had another Hall of Famer........The Big O, Oscar Robinson and a very good coach Larry Costello. That was when he was Lew Alcindor. After that season, he was either a free agent or forced a trade to the Lakers, and the rest is history.

Tom
 

Stuball48

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He did not win a championship with Minnesota, it was Milwaukee. That team also had another Hall of Famer........The Big O, Oscar Robinson and a very good coach Larry Costello. That was when he was Lew Alcindor. After that season, he was either a free agent or forced a trade to the Lakers, and the rest is history.

Tom
That is a heaping amount of class.
And his Hall of Famer teammate in Milwaukee "The Big O" visited his grandparents each summer in Charlotte, TN - more precisely - the Promise Land community in northern Dickson County and helped with farm work.
 

Westerly Wood

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He did not win a championship with Minnesota, it was Milwaukee. That team also had another Hall of Famer........The Big O, Oscar Robinson and a very good coach Larry Costello. That was when he was Lew Alcindor. After that season, he was either a free agent or forced a trade to the Lakers, and the rest is history.

Tom

thanks Tom! and under a different name. sky hook is legend.
 

FNG

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If I had 4 Laker rings from the 80s, I'd sell them too.

Go Celtics!
 

JohnW63

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I am not surprised. He seemed to be there for coach Wooden, toward the end, too. Make no mistake, he could be an angry man, when he was younger. I think he broke a player jaw, in an NBA game, way back when. But he seems to have matured very well.
 

Grassdog

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If I had 4 Laker rings from the 80s, I'd sell them too.

Go Celtics!


Okay let's get this straight - he is not selling all his Lakers rings from the 80's as Laker haters would like to believe. Kareem was a member of 5 Lakers teams in the 80's that won titles, so he's keeping one of those along with his Milwaukee Bucks ring.

And Kareem would have had 6 rings with the Lakers had it not been for BOTH Byron Scott and Magic Johnson being lost to injury in the '89 Finals. That Lakers team was 11-0 in the playoffs, but without their starting backcourt fell to the Pistons in a sweep.

Okay I got that off my chest.
 

davismanLV

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Not in that class or anywhere near, but I had boxes and trunks full of ribbons I had won. What do you do? My sister ended up with them after my mother passed. I asked her to contact the local 4-H or any organization that teaches kids about animals and their care. Apparently these days, they are so unfunded that kids win and don't even get a ribbon!! And now that i have FOUR huge trunks of Silver trophies and platters and pitchers, etc., I'm contacting the local organizations. They can re-ingrave them and give them as trophies to kids that otherwise wouldn't otherwise get anything for winning. The memories are mine. I'll photograph them, and then move them on. My house isn't a museum to what I once did, it's a place where i live my current life. Pass it along, right?

I don't need that stuff.... but some kid does.

I realize this is a whole different level (way lower) but it's important to some kid...... and that's what counts.

Good job, K A-J!! Be the person that you want to see in the world!! :encouragement:
 

Stuball48

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Not in that class or anywhere near, but I had boxes and trunks full of ribbons I had won. What do you do? My sister ended up with them after my mother passed. I asked her to contact the local 4-H or any organization that teaches kids about animals and their care. Apparently these days, they are so unfunded that kids win and don't even get a ribbon!! And now that i have FOUR huge trunks of Silver trophies and platters and pitchers, etc., I'm contacting the local organizations. They can re-ingrave them and give them as trophies to kids that otherwise wouldn't otherwise get anything for winning. The memories are mine. I'll photograph them, and then move them on. My house isn't a museum to what I once did, it's a place where i live my current life. Pass it along, right?

I don't need that stuff.... but some kid does.

I realize this is a whole different level (way lower) but it's important to some kid...... and that's what counts.

Good job, K A-J!! Be the person that you want to see in the world!! :encouragement:
Tom:
Not qualified to make a judgement call on "not in that class or anywhere near" but your efforts to win and earn your ribbons and trophies required you to make sacrifices, too.
Seems I remember, somewhere in the most popular book ever written, something about the Widow's Mite."
 

chazmo

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I think that really is a touch of class. I don't know anything about his skyhook foundation, but promoting education is AOK in my book. Nice job, Kareem.
 

richardp69

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Tom, I personally think that in all seriousness, your gesture is every bit as important as a Super Stars gesture. That's the whole "Pay It Forward" concept I think. Regardless of a persons outlook on life, it would be hard not to applaud an effort like that. Kudos and Good On You Tom. Theses are real life events, much nicer and more fulfilling to watch than most of the crap you see on TV or hear on the radio these days.
 

Rayk

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No I'm not talking about the early 70's movie with George Segal and Glenda Jackson.

An auction featuring four of Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA championship rings runs through Saturday.

The league's all-time leading scorer is auctioning rings he won with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1980, 1985, 1987 and 1988, plus other game-used and autographed memorabilia from his legendary career. Abdul-Jabbar, 71, wrote on his website earlier this month that "much of the proceeds" will benefit his Skyhook Foundation, a charity that helps kids learn about science, technology, engineering and math.

"When it comes to choosing between storing a championship ring or trophy in a room, or providing kids with an opportunity to change their lives, the choice is pretty simple. Sell it all," Abdul-Jabbar wrote. "Looking back on what I have done with my life, instead of gazing at the sparkle of jewels or gold plating celebrating something I did a long time ago, I'd rather look into the delighted face of a child holding their first caterpillar and think about what I might be doing for their future.

"That's a history that has no price."

2019-02-26T211706Z_1_LYNXNPEF1P1N6_RTROPTP_2_USA-ELECTION.JPG.cf.jpg

Awe that's cool .🤗
 

chazmo

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Tom, I personally think that in all seriousness, your gesture is every bit as important as a Super Stars gesture. That's the whole "Pay It Forward" concept I think. Regardless of a persons outlook on life, it would be hard not to applaud an effort like that. Kudos and Good On You Tom. Theses are real life events, much nicer and more fulfilling to watch than most of the crap you see on TV or hear on the radio these days.

ditto this, 100% Very nicely said, Richard!
 

silverfox103

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I remember Lew Alcindor from his high school days at Power Memorial in New York City. Of course, he was highly recruited and landed in UCLA. I can remember staying up real late, to watch the match up between UCLA with Lew and Univ. of Houston with the Big "E" Elvin Hayes and coach Guy Lewis. Don Cheney, who played with the Celtics and Lakers, may have been on the Houston team also. There was a tremendous amount of hype for this game, as college basketball was seldom on TV, at least out East. They also played in the playoffs, splitting the 2 games. The nearest thing I could compare the games to, is a Superbowl.
 
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