NEW YORK -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar revealed that he had prostate cancer in a magazine article he wrote about health risks faced by Black people.
Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's career scoring leader, provided no other details about the illness in the piece he wrote for WebMD, which appeared Wednesday. A publicist for Abdul-Jabbar said this is the first time he has spoken about his prostate cancer.
Abdul-Jabbar, now 73, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in 2008.
In his article, titled "Black Lives Matter," Abdul-Jabbar wrote that Black people are at higher risk for heart problems and cancer, and he said he also had heart bypass surgery. He said he has been able to get better care than many Black people, in part because of his celebrity and in part because two of his sons work in health care.
