Pleased To Meet You, Mr. Abdul-Jabbar!

The highest scoring player in the NBA?  That would be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

I had the pleasure of seeing this great athlete yesterday at a very grand function at the Max M. Fisher Theatre Building in Detroit, courtesy of WSU’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute.

Firstly, the man is tall.  Very tall.  He had to remain seated in order to have pictures taken!  But beyond his height and legendary record as one of the NBA’s greatest players, he is also a very articulate speaker, passionate about civil rights and social justice.  Incidentally, he’s 7″2′. 

The program was a most interesting one that brought to attention a number of social causes that are currently underway at WSU, with faculty and students partnering with the community in several school and social projects.

An article that appeared in this morning’s South End, WSU’s campus newspapers may be found here.

My “official” photograph w/ Mr. KAJ is here.  The white-haired gentleman on the left is Allan Gilmour, WSU’s President.

I took pictures, of course, and a slideshow of the same is right here:

You’ll notice my VIP ticket which meant that I had access to the reception prior to the program, and to the luncheon following it.  🙂  BTW, minor thing:  they misspelled my name on my name-tag:  it should’ve been Isaac, not Issac.  🙂 

One of the highlights of the program preceding Mr. Abdul-Jabbar’s speech was a musical number called Renaissance State of Mind performed by the Detroit Academy of Arts & Sciences choir.  If you’re at all familiar with the hugely popular Empire State of Mind song by Alicia Keyes and Jay-Z, you’ll recognize this right away.  Click on the audio-clip below to listen for yourself.  Oh, and it takes about 20 seconds before the song starts up, so don’t give up!

Mr. Abdul-Jabbar was also promoting his new book On The Shoulders Of Giants, which is apparently also coming out as a movie next month.  The official website for the book may be found here.   I received an autographed copy of the book, BTW.  Incidentally, they made this quite simple:  the VIP tickets entitled you to pick up an already-autographed copy of the book. I’m looking forward to reading it!

 

Incidentally, Mr. KAJ’s official website is here.

The title of the book is a reference to a quote attributed to Sir Isaac Newton (January 4, 1643 – March 31, 1727) an En glish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, inventor and natural philosopher. He is often regarded as the most influential scientist in history and is most famous for discovering the Laws of Gravity.  The quote goes:  If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.

This entire event was, of course, in tribute to the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the great Civil Rights activist who was assasinated in 1968.  His most famous I Have A Dream speech may be found here.