A Full Plate : Abdul-Jabbar Keeps Busy as Film Producer, Businessman, Actor, Commentator and Parent

Displayed in a wooden frame on the wall behind a glass desk in his office high above Century City is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Laker warm-up jacket, purple with gold trim. Visitors notice two striking aspects of the garment: It’s very big and Kareem isn’t in it.

The former owner said there is no mistake.

“I don’t wish I was still playing,” said Abdul-Jabbar, 47. “I’m glad I have the opportunity to live at a normal pace, the pace that real people have to deal with.

“I played longer than any professional basketball player ever played, so I got everything I could out of the game. There

wasn’t anything left there.”

Abdul-Jabbar hasn’t worn Laker purple and gold for five years, not since his retirement in 1989, five years ago this month, when the era of the sky hook officially ended and a completely different one began.

It is called life after basketball, a daunting prospect for some players who fear they might foul out in their attempts to make a living in jobs that require something other than dribbling, shooting or blocking out under the boards.

But the sky hook had his name on it and so does Abdul-Jabbar’s new business. He is president of Kareem Productions, a 2-year-old Los Angeles entertainment company that produces movies about the black experience.

In January, a television movie about civil rights activist Vernon Johns was shown. It was an Abdul-Jabbar project in association with Laurel Entertainment, a subsidiary of Spelling Entertainment Group.

Abdul-Jabbar believes the movie, which starred James Earl Jones, might win an Emmy. Kareem Productions also has a development deal with Warner Brothers to produce a film about the old Negro baseball leagues.

Another project Abdul-Jabbar has in mind is a movie about a black tank battalion in World War II.

Abdul-Jabbar said there is potential for many such stories.

“There’s a lot of promise there and it’s something that people have only scratched the surface of,” he said. “I think I’ve come a good ways in understanding the marketplace and my function in it.”

When he played, there was never any problem understanding Abdul-Jabbar’s function in the marketplace. He spent 20 years in professional basketball, scoring more points than anyone else ever has.

When he was 39, he averaged 23.4 points a game and led the team. In seven of his last eight seasons, the Lakers reached the NBA finals and won four titles. Abdul-Jabbar played until he was 42, when the Lakers were swept by the Detroit Pistons in the 1989 championship series.

Abdul-Jabbar remembers that series for another reason.

“We were in Detroit and at the same time my daughter was graduating from high school,” he said. “I really didn’t want to be where I was, but I knew I didn’t have a choice.

“Now I enjoy being able to have my time to myself to make my own agenda. That makes it an extraordinary luxury.”

When you’ve played for 20 years, it would seem there might have been time to prepare for what you will do the rest of your life. But that idea works better in theory than practice, Abdul-Jabbar discovered.

“Geez, you don’t get enough time to prepare for it,” he said. “Well, not thinking about it rationally. It’s always just an imaginary place until you finally end up there and there’s really no preparation for that.”

Abdul-Jabbar thought he was laying the groundwork for a post-basketball career in 1985 when he signed a three-year deal with MCA to head his own record label.

As chief of Cranberry Records, Abdul-Jabbar planned to sign at least two new jazz acts a year and oversee the reissue of jazz and blues records in MCA’s catalogue.

But Cranberry turned out to be a sour experience.

“They really didn’t have any interest in my doing jazz,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “They just wanted to have my name on the marquee. That was it. It was just a waste of time.”

Irving Azoff, president of MCA Records when Abdul-Jabbar signed that deal, said he had no comment.

But if that part of Abdul-Jabbar’s work went unnoticed, a recent endeavor was seen by millions. His friend, Steven King, wrote a role for him in the recent television mini-series, “The Stand.”

Abdul-Jabbar said he would like to act more. He has has had movie roles in “Fletch,” “Airplane,” “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh,” “Troop Beverly Hills,” “Game of Death” and “The Mighty Ducks II.”

Whether he is on a sound stage or a basketball court, Abdul-Jabbar said there is no question which is more difficult.

“Actually, acting isn’t as tough as playing basketball,” he said. “There are 300 people playing basketball at the level I did. There are a lot more actors. But it is the same dynamics, you know, 8 million people for one slot and many of them very good.”

Abdul-Jabbar, who worked with Bruce Lee in “Game of Death,” used to baby-sit for Brandon Lee when the Lees lived in Beverly Hills.

“He was real squiggly,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who never knew Brandon Lee as an adult. Lee died last year in an accident on the set of his film, “The Crow.”

Abdul-Jabbar’s own children are past the squiggly stage, except possibly 2 1/2-year-old Adam. Habiba, 22, will graduate from UCLA in December. Kareem, 17, will attend Valparaiso on a partial basketball scholarship. Sultana, 15, is at Pacific Hills High and Amir, 13, is a soccer player at Brentwood.

Like any parent, Abdul-Jabbar has his hands full.

“I nag the boys about their homework and see that they get to the dentist,” he said. “It’s nice seeing my boys growing up.”

He still gets away to Hawaii as often as possible, reads as much John Le Carre as he can and has taken up squash, automatically setting another record as the sport’s tallest, baldest player.

At the office, Abdul-Jabbar extends himself as much as he did on the court. He endorses a weighted exercise rope, has a merchandising deal for T-shirts and socks and is the national spokesman for Athletes and Entertainers for Kids. His Kareem’s Kids program in the Los Angeles school district carries an anti-gang, stay-in-school message.

Last season, Abdul-Jabbar was a commentator on ESPN basketball telecasts and he would like to do more. He even hinted that he might do something in basketball besides talk about it.

He said he has had feelers about coaching from several major colleges.

“We’ve had feelers, but no talks,” he said. “The message I sent back? We’ll talk again.”

But the closest Abdul-Jabbar actually has been to basketball since he left was his cable commentary. Although it was a new line of work, Abdul-Jabbar kept running across reminders of his old job.

“It was interesting because I crossed paths with my own personal history,” he said. “Everywhere I went, it was somebody on the team’s father played against me. That was wild.”

What was so wild about it?

“You start to understand how many people’s lives you touched.”