LOS ANGELES — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was undergoing surgery for a broken hip Saturday after falling at a concert in Los Angeles.
The NBA Hall of Famer was attending a show Friday night when he was injured. Paramedics at the undisclosed venue responded and the 76-year-old was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
His business partner, Deborah Morales, declined to provide a further update Saturday and referred only to a statement posted on Abdul-Jabbar’s social media.
“Last night while attending a concert, Kareem had an accidental fall and broke his hip,” Morales said. “We are all deeply appreciative of all the support for Kareem, especially from the Los Angeles Fire Department who assisted Kareem on site and the amazing medical team and doctors at UCLA Hospital who are taking great care of Kareem now.”
The 7-foot-2 center was the NBA’s career-scoring leader until being passed by current Laker LeBron James in February. Abdul-Jabbar owned the mark for 39 years. He starred at UCLA, when he was known as Lew Alcindor and was a three-time national player of the year under Coach John Wooden.
Abdul-Jabbar disclosed in 2020 that he had prostate cancer. In 2009, he said he had been diagnosed the previous year with chronic myeloid leukemia, a blood cancer.
The six-time NBA most valuable player has added to his stellar basketball career as a writer, activist and humanitarian who has spoken on a number of social justice causes. He is the author of more than a dozen books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 by former President Obama.
CELTICS: Boston had lost four straight against the Magic heading into Friday’s game at the TD Garden. The Celtics came in on the second of back-to-back games and their top three centers out, but still dominated the 128-111 win over the Magic for the final three quarters.
After the victory, Jaylen Brown explained just how critical the win was for Boston as they improved to 13-0 at home.
“I think this is the biggest game of the year so far,” Brown said. “In my opinion, for us, I think one we had a bunch of guys out and were on a back-to-back versus a team that’s been (beating us) the last four or five times we played. I think this was the biggest game to me so far.”
Brown played through some right knee hypertension to post 18 points and raved about the effort he saw from his teammates.
“I think we came out, even though they came out swinging like the first shot they took was a three,” Brown said. “(Jalen) Suggs hit it on the left wing was tough, it was well defended but he made it, you know, and that can kind of be discouraging in that time, so it was like, ‘oh it’s gonna be a long night.’ But we took those punches and kept throwing punches back and that’s what we wanna, you know, instill in our guys. We fight, we make it hard for you, we play the game the right way.”
Coach Joe Mazzulla also credited the Celtics veteran leaders, including Brown, for fueling the win against a fast-rising East rival that had blown out Boston last month.
“I probably don’t have to do it too much, but the guys know,” Mazzulla said of whether he tried to add any extra motivation before the win. “I mean, this is a team that’s well-coached, that is tough, that has played us very well the last four or five times we played them, and they’re going to play us really well, and I expect Sunday’s game to be extremely harder than tonight’s game was, so I don’t think you have to tell them. But it just says a lot to the guys to come on back-to-back short-handed and bring the right mindset, and the right intensity. I think it says more about us than it does about anything else.”
• Kristaps Porzingis (calf) and Al Horford (rest) are both off the injury report, meaning they’ll be good to play in Sunday’s game against the Magic. Luke Kornet (left adductor strain) will miss his third straight game while Dalano Banton (non-COVID illness) is questionable after missing Friday’s game.
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