Best UCLA basketball players ever: Bruins all-time starting 5

CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 13: (L-R) Basketball players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton attend the Fulfillment Fund's Spring Fundraising Celebration Honoring UCLA at Sony Pictures Studios on April 13, 2019 in Culver City, California. (Photo by John Sciulli/Getty Images for Fulfillment Fund) /

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(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /

C – Lew Alcindor

During this global sports shut down in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, ESPN held an NCAA Tournament style fan-vote to choose the best college basketball player of all-time. Michael Jordan won but everyone knows that the best men’s college basketball player to ever play is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — then known as Lew Alcindor. He was part of a historic win streak before enrolling at UCLA when he won 71 straight games in high school.

Due to the freshmen rule, he didn’t make his official debut until his second year in Westwood. However, he helped the freshmen team defeat the number-one ranked Bruins varsity team in an exhibition game that opened Pauley Pavilion in 1965. In the lead up to his first varsity game, Sports Illustrated named him “The Next Superstar” and he responded promptly by scoring 56 points — a UCLA single-game record — in the season opener. He was so dominant in his first season the NCAA outlawed the dunk following the 1967 season.

He was simply too good to be stopped (as were the Bruins who won the national championship in each of Alcindor’s three seasons on varsity), which would continue into his time in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers. In response to the dunk becoming illegal, Jabbar developed his infamous “skyhook” shot. With Alcindor on the varsity team, the Bruins would win three consecutive NCAA titles.

Alcindor was also a three-time consensus All-American, three-time recipient of the NCAA Tournament Most Oustanding Player award, three-time player of the year (Associated Press in 1967 and 1969 and won the inaugural Naismith Award in 1969, Helms Foundation Player of the Year all three seasons and won the USBWA College Player of the Year in 1967 and 1968).

The school retired his No.33 jersey in 1990. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007. He also was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Barack Obama in 2016.

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