Political Draft: 25 Athletes Who Need To Run For Office

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar attended UCLA and played for the Bruins. He earned a B.A. in history from the University of California, Los Angeles and is currently a historian, author and activist. During 20 years in the NBA, he played center for the Milwaukee Bucks and the legendary Los Angeles Lakers.

After retiring, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar returned to his first love, history. His bibliography includes six scholarly tomes about African-American and Native-American history. A couple of his titles are A Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apaches and What Color Is My World? The Lost History of African American Inventors.

In addition, Abdul-Jabbar has a series for young adults called Streetball Crew. Not even Abdul-Jabbar is immune from the Sherlock craze, so he recently wrote Mycroft Holmes with Anna Waterhouse.

In 2015, Abdul-Jabbar wrote Nothing Less Than an Assassination for Time magazine. In it, he addressed the police killing of Walter Scott, one of America’s many unarmed, black victims of institutionalized racism. Abdul-Jabbar stated that “we need to be as relentless as the racism we’re fighting.”

He often speaks out against religious extremism and racism. Abdul-Jabbar also has experience on the political and international stage. In 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed him as cultural ambassador of the United States. Barack Obama named him to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition in 2016.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is beloved by literally generations of Americans and people all over the world. He is a shoe-in for any elected office in America.