National Basketball Association (NBA) club Los Angeles “Lakers” legend Karim Abduljabar has suffered from prostate cancer in the past, a former center player reveals in an article on the WebMD website about the health of the black population.
NBA top scorer Abduljabar did not provide any other information about the disease in his article on Wednesday. The news agency AP reports that the Abduljabar publicist mentioned that this is the first time an ex-basketball player has talked about prostate cancer.
Abduljabar, 73, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in 2008.
In his article entitled “The lives of dark-skinned people are important”, Abduljabar writes that dark-skinned people are at higher risk of heart disease and cancer, and mentioned that he has had heart surgery.
He writes that he has been able to receive better care than many black people, partly because of his fame and because his two sons work in the health care profession.
Abduljabar is a six-time NBA champion as a player and a two-time NBA as the assistant coach, as well as a six-time NBA’s most valuable player. He has played 19 times in the NBA All-Star Games, ten times in the first selection of the best players of the NBA season.
With 38,387 points, he is the most productive basketball player of the league, but the 33rd number played by the legendary athlete is not used by two teams – “Lakers” and Milwaukee “Bucks”.
