Larger Than Life: Portraits of Kareem at 22
An intimate look at a college basketball legend.
From 1967 to 1969, future NBA Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — then known as Lew Alcindor — was the most dominant player on the most dominant team in college basketball. In those three years, the 7-foot-2 center from New York City led UCLA to a combined 88-2 record (that's not a typo) and three straight national titles — and was named the tourney's Most Outstanding Player three times in a row. In his final game in a Bruins uniform, the Naismith Award winner scored 37 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in a 92-72 rout of Purdue. After the win, when the roaring in Louisville’s Freedom Hall faded and there was no more net left to cut from the rim, photographer Neil Leifer got a chance to tag along with the lanky superstar for an intimate post-game photo shoot.
