Photograph of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar playing high school basketball

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A black and white photograph of a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known then as Lew Alcindor, playing basketball with his high school team. Abdul-Jabbar is pictured running down the center of the court wearing a lighter colored basketball jersey with [POWER / 33] on the front. He is wearing short dark basketball shorts with light stripes down the sides and across the bottoms of each leg with knee guards, tall socks, and sneakers. His arms are bent at the elbow with his hands in front of him. He is noticeably taller than the several players that surround him on the court. There is a basketball hoop and backboard in the background, hanging down from the ceiling in front of a brick wall. The print has a white border around the image, with thicker margins at each side. On the verso is a faded red stamp reading [SPORT] with a mostly illegible handwritten notation below.

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