Thaindian News

Kareem Abdul Jabbar was not the man to coin the term, ’sky-hook’, but he was certainly the player to popularize this basketball shot which cannot be blocked. He later made this shot famous throughout his long career with the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who is presently a special assistant with the Lakers, trademarked “sky hook” more than a decade ago and interestingly, this fact became publicly known only just recently.

Turning back the pages of history of the game, one will come across the name Eddie Doucette, a former broadcaster with the Milwaukee Bucks. It was he who coined the term “sky hook” during the 1974 Finals between Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics. But now that the trademark rights of the term has gone to Abdul Jabber. Doucette, opines, “I wasn’t comfortable with that. It was a part of what I did. We got a lot of mileage out of it.” However, this statement by Doucette was made some time back. In the most recent interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he said that now he is not so much upset about the trademark incident as Abdul-Jabbar had given the real meaning to his word.

In the 20 years that Kareem Abdul Jabbar played ball, he dominated each and every game that he played in. The present day players and critics who have had the fortune to witness Kareem on court say that he was like a video game. He could shoot to score at his own free will and he never seemed to get tired. He was too modest and humble to be flashy and loud mouthed and these were his only flaws.