When Moses Malone Was Asked About Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Sting [C0T4TFBbDvy]

#nba #basketball #basketballplayer #americanbasketball #basketballhistory #mosesmalone

People get this rivalry wrong. Moses Malone did not hate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He respected him. He called him one canadian vs buffalo of the toughest centers he ever faced. Then he beat him anyway, on the biggest stage in basketball. In 1983, Moses Malone and the Philadelphia 76ers swept Kareem's Los Angeles Lakers in four straight games. Moses averaged more than twenty-five points a game. He grabbed eighteen rebounds a night. He walked away with the Finals MVP trophy. Philadelphia had come close before and fallen short. Julius Erving had led the nancy grace 76ers to the Finals multiple times across the previous decade, only to watch the trophy slip away again and again, including a painful loss to these very same Lakers just one year earlier. Fans in Philadelphia, patient for years, had grown tired of near misses and second-place finishes. They needed one more piece, a center who could finally match up with the size and skill waiting for them in Los Angeles. For years, fans had argued about who the best center in basketball really was. That series ended the argument. But this is not a story about disrespect. It is not a story about one man tearing another one down. Kareem was already a legend before Moses ever stepped on an NBA court. He had the skyhook, a shot so smooth and so high that defenders called it unstoppable. He had championships. He had size, skill, and years of experience. Moses knew all of that. He said so, plainly, whenever anyone asked him about Kareem. He never mocked him. He never bragged about beating him. He simply studied him, piece by piece, until he found the cracks. Where Kareem stood. When he liked to catch the ball. How far he needed to be from the rim to feel comfortable. Moses learned all of it. And in the biggest series of his life, that knowledge turned into a sweep.