UCLA and Laker basketball great (and secret salsa dancer) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has cancer (video)

November 10, 2:05 PMLA Dancing ExaminersIan Ono and Jana Monji :

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CML patient and advocate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
From Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Facebook page.

Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 62, announced yesterday that he has a rare form of leukemia. He was originally diagnosed in December and while he originally thought it was a "death sentence," the prognosis is good.

Abdul-Jabbar is coming forth to encourage others to take a positive approach to their health care and to understand more about caner. The Laker legend has Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

Ian and I both received graduate degrees from UCLA. We weren't there when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a Bruin, playing for John Wooden from 1966 to 1969 and winning the Helms Foundation Player of the Year award three times. But every time you entered into the John Wooden Center you were reminded of Wooden and Abdul-Jabbar. Sometimes, you might see him around Westwood. He's hard to miss.

The quote he put on his Web site for 14 October 2009 was from Wooden: Talent is God given; be humble. Fame is man given; be thankful. Conceit is self given; be careful.

Abdul-Jabbar writes on his Facebook page that there's a history of cancer in his family. Colon cancer killed his grandfather, uncle and almost his father as well. Abdul-Jabba will work with Novartis Oncology as a spokesperson working to inspire fellow patients.

So what does this have to do about dancing? See the videos.

For more information go to Abdul-Jabbar's official Web site or his Facebook page.