Rooting for Goliath: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Cultural Politics of Black Giants

• In Event: Sport, Dissent, and Representation during the 1970s

Abstract

“Nobody roots for Goliath,” mourned Wilt Chamberlain in the 1960s, when the mainstream press and public consigned him to the role of villain. Unlike the championship-winning, defense-oriented Bill Russell, Chamberlain was a magnificent scorer, but bore a reputation as selfish and egotistical. In the popular understanding of professional basketball, the two centers took on mythical roles with political implications. Despite their individual resistance to this problematic narrative, Russell was the integrationist champion, while Chamberlain signified a black ego gone awry, a focus for racist resentment.

Yet in the early 1970s, the same press and public cast Chamberlain in the role of hero. By then Russell had retired, but this transformation also reflected the cultural impact of the Black Power movement. Black Power forged African-American pride and infused American popular culture with black style. Compared to fire-breathing black militants, Chamberlain was no threat. He was the perfect figure for the emerging marriage of celebrity culture and the sports world, and he kept himself in the spotlight with such exploits as negotiating a boxing match against Muhammad Ali, making television cameos, and even starting a fashion craze by donning colorful sweatbands on his head and wrists.

Most important, there was a new black giant to play the villain. Basketball’s new dominant force, Lew Alcindor, had converted to Islam and changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His refusal to participate in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, his sullen public demeanor, and his flashes of anger at American racism made him a target for white traditionalists – the type of “Silent Majority” voters courted by Richard Nixon. Furthermore, many Americans knew little about Islam, and a bloody rivalry between the Nation of Islam and Abdul-Jabbar’s strong-willed mentor, Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, furthered popular associations of Islam with violence.

This paper will examine the cultural politics that underlay the construction of the rivalry between Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the overlap of their professional careers, from 1969 to 1973. It suggests the persistence of stereotypes about tall, compelling black superstars, even as those labels adapted to new personalities and the shifting landscape of the early 1970s, both in terms of Black Power and white backlash. It further considers the personal dimensions of the rivalry: a young Lew Alcindor had adored Chamberlain as a mentor, but their personal journeys drifted in different directions, fostering a sense of mutual resentment.

Finally, this paper considers the agency and impact of both men, in ways that challenged any simplistic iconography. To many African Americans, Chamberlain was the essence of cool, a force resistant to white expectations, impossible to reduce to either political symbol or racial stereotype. Abdul-Jabbar, thanks to his religious conversion, achieved personal peace and sharpened his racial pride, while also creating an important public counter-narrative about Islam as peaceful, patriotic, and universal. Each, in his own way, demonstrated himself as his own man.

Author

• Aram Goudsouzian, University of Memphis