Birth nameFerdinand Lewis Alcindor Birth information16 April 1947, New York City, New York, USA BioLegendary US NBA basketball player with the Milwaukee Bucks (1969-1975) and the Los Angeles Lakers (1975-1989), the 7' 2" Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Lew Alcindor) has made numerous guest appearances on US TV shows including "Man from Atlantis" (1977), "21 Jump Street" (1987), "Tales from the Darkside" (1984) and "Scrubs" (2001).However, he's best known to film audiences for two very different film roles. Firstly, as a very tall adversary to Bruce Lee during a rather unique fight sequence in Lee's final film Game of Death (1978), and then Kareem played an airline pilot with a remarkable similarity to "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar" in the hilarious Airplane! (1980).