?Readjusted My Spine?: NBA Legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Had a Horrifying Experience of Meeting Bruce Lee, Revealed Earlier This Year

Bruce Lee is known as the father of martial arts in Hollywood. He was born in America and brought up in Hong Kong. Lee is considered one of the first few people to take martial arts to movies and create a fanbase worldwide.

Bruce Lee has trained prominent figures in martial arts and kung fu, like- Taky Kimura and Ted Wong. One of his other students includes the NBA star, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Jabbar once shared an incident that shocked his core physically and mentally.

Bruce Lee’s astonishing demonstration

Jabbar played for UCLA and won the National Player of the Year award. After realizing his potential in basketball, Jabbar went on to explore his interest in martial arts. A friend of Kareem suggested he meet Lee since the two shared a love for acting and martial arts.

During their first meeting, Bruce Lee wanted to show Jabbar a demonstration of what he was going to learn. After Jabbar practiced a few times on the punching bag, Lee called his wife Linda in. Lee told Jabbar to hold the bag in position while Linda kicked it.

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Jabbar, the 7’2″ basketball giant, did so unhesitantly and expected her kick to be light. As soon as Linda kicked the bag, Jabbar felt its force throughout his body. He said, “The impact rocked me backward a few feet, readjusted my spine, and possibly rearranged the order of my teeth.”

The beginning of a bond

Lee demonstrated that size had less to do with force and martial arts. The couple stood smiling while Jabbar recovered from her brute force kick. Jabbar claimed he was inspired by Lee’s wife and wanted to study with Bruce Lee.

Bruce and Jabbar didn’t know that the demonstration by Linda would be the start of their amazing bond. Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul Jabbar trained together and starred together in the movie, Game of Death.

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So what do you think about the impact of size on martial arts? Tell us in the comments.