Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Diagnosed With Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
KAREEM Abdul-Jabbar has cancer.
The NBA legend — one of basketball’s all-time greatest players — has been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, he announced Tuesday.
“Having lost one of my closest friends to a different, highly aggressive form of leukemia, I knew how serious my diagnosis was,” said Abdul-Jabbar, 62. “My own life expectancy became a question mark.”
Kareem says he received the diagnosis in December last year.
“When the doctor told me I had cancer, I was scared,” he said. “My grandfather and my uncle both died from colorectal cancer, my dad almost died from it and I have the gene for it. It’s in my family, so I thought this was something else along those lines, but it’s not.”
While the 7-foot-2 NBA star will not disclose his prognosis, he confirms he is managing his disease, which “doesn’t impact my life too significantly.”
The National Cancer Institute describes CML as a “slowly progressing disease in which too many white blood cells are made in the bone marrow.”
“I think it’s possible for someone in my position to help save lives,” Abdul-Jabbar told CNN.
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