Interbasket was lucky enough to score a short interview with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

The 7-2 center’s basketball career spanned 30 years where he left a mark at every level.  Kareem scored nearly 40,000 points in his NBA career (38,387 to be exact) and took several NBA records with him when he retired in 1989.

We had the opportunity to ask Kareem a few questions which he was more than happy to oblige.  Being an international basketball website, we felt it only made sense to ask the legend’s thoughts about the international game and its influences, negative and positive on the NBA.

Interbasket: Kareem, how do you feel about international players in the NBA and the globalization of basketball in general
Kareem Abdul Jabber: I think that the globalization of the game in the world has made it very popular worldwide. I never would have thought that NBA basketball would have been able to compete with soccer for the affection of the world’s youthful sports fans. The spread of basketball’s popularity has made it possible for today’s players to get paid enormous salaries that were unimaginable in my day.

Ibn: What do you think about how international players are blamed for bringing the flop to the game?
KAJ: It doesn’t bother me that we have to put up with the flopping of the European players because the internationalization has made it such a lucrative profession at this point and its been good for the game. The people in various countries in the world that have placed players in the league have learned to love basketball.

Ibn: Who are your top ten international players and why?
KAJ: These are (ten) international players I respect:

• Pau Gasol (Spain) “the first big man from Europe that played on the front line in a way that impressed me and many other Americans.”
• Detlef Schrempf (Germany) “the first really good (international player) to come along.”
• Tony Parker (France) “Tony plays the game as if he was 100% American, not half.”
• Manu Ginobili (Argentina) “one of the reasons why San Antonio has won world championships.”
• Steve Nash (Canada & South Africa) “Nash has shown total mastery of the game.”
• Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) “he has brought alot of talent to his position.”
• Linas Kleiza (Lithuania)  “a great 6th man off the bench”
• Marcin Gortat (Poland)  “another fine front line bench player that gives the Magic great minutes.”
• Luis Scola (Argentina)  “a great role player for the Houston Rockets.”
• Rudy Fernandez (Spain) “a great outside shooter.”

I think we all took a look at that list and are thinking the same thing.  Where’s Yao Ming? I mean they both are centers, and Yao is perhaps the most-skilled center since Kareem… so what gives?

Update: Kareem answers (via his Twitter) why Yao wasn’t included in the list above – “Because #Yao has been injured so much I didn’t want to deny another player a spot. But certainly Yao is one of the top centers in the NBA”

Sure he missed Drazen, Sabonis, and Kukoc, but Jabbar never shared the court with those two (as he did with Detlef).  And note that Kareem’s top-10 is mostly European/South Americans – I doubt he considers Hakeem Olajuwon and Tim Duncan as international players.

Feel free to discuss/comment on Kareem’s picks in our forum.

We’d like to thank Kareem for being so gracious as to answer our questions. We’d love to do it again, and maybe ask him why he left Yao Ming off his list.

Links and Resources:  Ibn Exclusive: Kareem names his 10 favorite int’l NBA players (Interbasket Forum), Ask Kareem Abdul Jabbar TWO questions (Interbasket),  Ask Kareem any TWO questions (Interbasket Forum), Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s Official Website (Kareem Abdul Jabbar.com)