Ep. 686 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has taken the bitter & grumpy approach to being an elder
The Breakdown with Shaun King
The North Star
4.8 • 12.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2022
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
But for me, it's sad to see. Instead of being a mentor, advisor, coach, or confidante, Kareem has decided to use his platform to blast young Black athletes - often with over-the-top critiques.
Yesterday he went viral for saying that every corporation and sponsor that works with Kyrie Irving should drop him and that people should call and write those sponsors and demand they drop Kyrie?
It's too much, frankly. Because for all the criticisms he might have of Kyrie - he overlooked that he is literally one of the single most generous athletes in all of sports and has consistently spent millions of dollars to support people impacted by police violence and racial injustice.
And when you dig a little, you learn that he doesn't even know any of these guys and hasn't made an attempt to get to know them.
I just hope that when I'm an elder - I take the advisor and mentor approach instead of the grumpy old man path.
Transcript
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| 0:30.4 | I love respect and admire Karim Abdul Jabbar and he has been a sports hero and a legend |
| 0:41.8 | for beyond when I was even born. |
| 0:45.0 | And I respect him for things he did on and off the court. |
| 0:50.3 | And somehow he has now found himself in a corner where every few weeks he says something |
| 0:58.6 | really bitter and harsh about a professional athlete. |
| 1:03.9 | And it's typically black athletes and he's at harsh criticisms for LeBron James. |
| 1:10.2 | Now he's hopped over to Kyrie Irving. |
... |
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