After an outstanding tenure with the Milwaukee Bucks, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was traded to Los Angeles, where he would go on to cement his NBA legacy
On June 16, 1975, the Los Angeles Lakers acquired the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar via trade from the Milwaukee Bucks. He would go on to help the team win five NBA titles and is an integral part of the Lakers’ history.
LA sent Junior Bridgeman, Dave Meyers, Elmore Smith, and Brian Winters to the Bucks in exchange for Jabbar and Walt Wesley. It was a bit of a homecoming for Kareem, who played his college ball for Coach John Wooden at UCLA and won three consecutive NCAA Championships during his career there.
In Los Angeles Kareem would team with fellow Hall of Famers Magic Johnson and James Worthy to form the nucleus of the Lakers’ ‘Showtime’ era of the 1980s, with a wide-open, fast-paced offense. During that span, LA won five titles (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988). Abdul-Jabbar won the NBA Finals MVP on two occasions.
Abdul-Jabbar retired in 1989 as one of the most decorated basketball players ever. When he exited the game, Kareem was the NBA’s career scoring leader (since broken by Lebron James), and he was a six-time League MVP as well as named to the All-NBA First Team on 10 occasions. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995.
The Sidearmer 