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NBA Draft: 30 greatest draft picks in league history

By Josh Cornelissen

Larry Bird, Boston Celtics, Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers. (Photo by Tom Herde/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Larry Bird, Boston Celtics, Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers. (Photo by Tom Herde/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) /
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Kareem Adbul-Jabbar, Milwaukee Bucks
(Original Caption) 1974- Close up of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks smiling in his uniform. Color slide. /

player. 89. . Center. UCLA Bruins, 1969 (No. 1). Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 12

Greatest NBA Draft picks in league history: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Milwaukee Bucks

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Lew Alcindor as he was known as a young man, never stopped winning basketball games, at any level, and never found anyone who could consistently stop him — or even slow him down.

His high school team had a 71-game winning streak. In three seasons at UCLA under legendary coach John Wooden, he won three titles, going 88-2 overall and won countless individual awards.

The accolades kept coming in the NBA, and Alcindor was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1969 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, an expansion team in just their second year as a franchise. He led them to one title — still the only title in team history — and a second trip to the NBA Finals.

Abdul-Jabbar changed his name the day after his NBA Finals victory, an outward expression of his Islamic faith. While playing just six seasons for Milwaukee, he was an unstoppable force, racking up three NBA MVP awards, five All-NBA selections and a whopping 114.7 win shares in those six years.

While trading him to the Los Angeles Lakers was a serious blow to their franchise, he did net talented players in return who helped the Bucks for years to come.