Michael Olowokandi Had No Use for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Advice

In an editorial piece for ESPN, Kareem takes the immortal Kandi Man to task for refusing to listen to him (and others) back in the day, and blames that sort of attitude for Olowokandi’s disappoiting career: “Many teams are spending too much money on marginal talent. Most of the owners would tell you they have no problem paying the star-caliber players at the present rates, but they object to the salaries of players on the roster who don’t contribute enough. So we can probably expect to see the owners push for some form of a hard salary cap that will make it possible for the various franchises to lose some of the deadwood collecting big money as they ride the bench. This problem, too, is not really the players’ fault. The league has taken in a huge influx of unproven talent by drafting and signing very young players. In the old days, college was a great place for players to mature and learn the game. Now, with an entry age of 19, we see too many pampered, imma...