A Conversation With Kareem, by Michael Diamond
KAREEM ABDUL JABBAR: Hello?
MICHAEL DIAMOND: Hey! How you doin'?
KAJ: Fine, thanks.
MD: Alright. Now you studied with Bruce, right?
KAJ: Yeah, I studied with him for four years.
MD: Were you into martial arts previous to that?
KAJ: Yeah.
MD: So how did you end up hooking up with uh...
KAJ: I was referred to him by one of the editors of Black Belt magazine.
MD: Uh-huh. So you were already pretty established then?
KAJ: Not really. I hadn't even taken my first exam. But I had, you know, worked all summer in New York, and I wanted to continue before basketball started in the fall. So, somebody referred me to Bruce, and that's how we got hooked up.
MD: Right. Now I know also that he had other, more celebrity oriented students like James Coburn and Steve McQueen. Was there a social group revolving around that, or...
KAJ: No, there wasn't.
MD: Uh-huh. You guys were just students?... But uh. Cool! What do you think of, uh, the movie The Dragon, I mean, I don't know if you've see...
KAJ: I haven't seen it.
MD: Oh you haven't seen it. OK...
KAJ: Linda seemed to feel good about it. So, you know, as long as she feels good about it, it's about her family.
MD: Now how did you get involved in the film, Game Of Death? You'd already been studying with him?
KAJ: Yeah I'd been studying with him for three years, and he finally got the opportunity to make films over in Hong Kong. So he wanted some of the people that he had worked with who could handle the acting and the martial arts.
MD: I know that on the Enter The Dragon set it got kinda hectic and some of the fight scenes broke out into real fights. Did that ever happen during Game of Death?
KAJ: No. Bruce and I were friends. I didn't have anything to prove. You know, some people, though, they had something to prove- that they could get the best of Bruce in a vulnerable moment, or do stupid things like that.
MD: Right. Now I know you have a very serious interest in jazz and music. Was Bruce interested as well? Did you guys go check out shows?
KAJ: No, no. He was more interested in philosophy than he was in music.
MD: Yeah now that's interesting because I did see the movie and one of the things that it didn't bring to light was the philosophy. Was that something you guys shared?
KAJ: We talked about it, and he was at the point where he focused on that. Music was a lot more important to me. My dad is a musician, and jazz music has always been very important in my household. So it was just a totally different background.
MD: Yeah cos that was like the early '70s. What was out then? Ahmad Jamal, Pharoah Sanders?
KAJ: Well, a lot of people. Miles Davis was alive, John Coltrane.
MD: Yeah Miles had that great band then, Mclaughlin and all them.
KAJ: Well at that point it was Tony Williams, Herbie, Wayne, Ron Carter.
MD: Yep. That was the group right there. Whew! So was there any like real great story or anectdote you can recall about Bruce?
KAJ: You know, just good moments with him. He didn't have a lot of friends that were friends. He had a lot of people that uh...were professionally interested in him. And he had a lot of people that idolized him. But real friends became harder for him to acquire as he started gaining notoriety.
MD: What is it that we should remember about Bruce and what he brought to the world?
KAJ: Well, he was a teacher, first of all. He taught philosophy and tried to spread knowledge and wisdom. That's why he took on the martial arts establishment the way he did. Because a lot of what they were talking about was hypocrisy and really just something that gave them the ability to scam people who wanted to learn martial arts. He tried to make the martial arts more pragmatic. It was definitely a move toward the 21st century.
MD: Along with the movie about his life and his finally receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, there's also the 20th anniversary of his death and the recent death of his son Brandon...
KAJ: A lot of his enemies, their way of taking advantage of his death was to start making, start whispering about why he died and how he died. But I think it's just their attempt to finally win an argument with him.
MD: Right. To get the last word.
KAJ: Yeah.
MD: I hear that. Alright, are there any last thoughts?
KAJ: Your readers should know that Jeet Kune Do is an American art. It evolved here and took on a lot of American ideals and philosophy- you know, like let the best thing work. That's a very American thing. That's American pragmatism and can-do, the whole thing of adaptability and innovation. I think those are very American values that Bruce incorporated into the philosophy of his art, and that's one of the things that made his art succcssful. And I think that's the legacy that he gave us here in America. We should be proud of it, cherish it, and cause it to continue to grow.
MD: Great. Well, thanks a lot for your time
KAJ: Well, good luck with your magazine.