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Crip Dyke's avatar

Completely off-topic, but I love Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

He was a great sportsballer, back when I was a kid in a family that loved sportsball. He was terribly funny in Airplane, and mentioned Bill Walton who was the star of my hometown Blazers. He used this counterintuitive but awesomely effective hook shot, making his game unique. He was also just a kind guy who wanted to be my dad after my parents got divorced, or maybe I dreamed that. But that's not the point. He was a good guy when I was growing up, that's my point.

Later I encountered him as a writer, and I love him as a writer as well. He's farm more observant than the commentators we pay to be on television, and he talks about his personal and family life in ways that aren't smarmy or exploitative. Instead, he talks about them in a genuine way when his experience with his family was, for him, an entry point into a new topic about which he wouldn't have learned or long considered save for his family members. He introduces them as teachers and partners in life. It's really quite beautiful how he does that.

Just now, he popped up in a YouTube ad for me. I expected him to be selling something, because that's what retired athletes do. Instead he told the story of how his bouts of repeated shortness of breath caught him off guard, and how he tried to just wait them out -- an unexpected turn of phrase, when I thought he might say tough them out. Eventually he went to his doctor and got diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

Now, maybe the foundation that's spreading AFib awareness is funded by some pharmaceutical company. Don't know, don't care. Raising awareness and increasing early diagnosis and preventative treatment makes others' lives healthier, and when people are healthier, they're more likely to be happy. He's not selling something, even if some people do end up making money when new patients seek treatment. He's pushing the idea of thinking about yourself and taking your health seriously. And he's not saying it in the ad, but he's being a public Black man talking about having a better relationship with your doctor when our research on health disparities tell us that improved relationships between doctors and Black patients are desperately needed.

He's an old, skinny guy. If he wasn't nine feet tall, he could be my step dad (who's also a mensch). He could have cashed out in a lot of ways. Instead he's writing from his heart because he thinks he can make the world better, and when he makes an ad, it's just public health awareness, not selling a product.

If only the guy could learn to swear, he'd be a lovely addition to the Wonkettariat.

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Crip Dyke's avatar

From Some More News:

>> "Bachelorette parties are probably the most destructive force in the universe."<<

I... I can't disagree.

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