What a young Ronnie Lester learned from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Basketball laureate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar visited Iowa City on March 25 to talk about activism in America. He spoke of the need to teach critical thinking skills in order to separate facts from opinions and encouraged all of us to grow by making friends with people different from us.

Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa was packed to hear Abdul-Jabbar, who is considered by some to be the greatest basketball player of all time. He was a six-time NBA most valuable player and is the league's career scoring leader. His UCLA teams (he was known as Lew Alcindor in those days) won three straight national championships, 1967-69. The NCAA outlawed dunks from 1967-76, and many people interpreted the rule change as a response to his dominance.

These days, he writes books and serves as a cultural ambassador. He's a regular contributor to discussions about issues of race, religion and more.