{"product_id":"graded-1971-topps-lew-alcindor-kareem-abdul-jabbar-100-basketball-card-psa-6-ex-mt","title":"Graded 1971 Topps Lew Alcindor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar #100 Basketball Card PSA 6 EX-MT","description":"\u003cp\u003e🏀 \u003cstrong\u003eGraded 1971 Topps Lew Alcindor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar #100 Basketball Card PSA 6 EX-MT — A Mid-Grade Specimen of One of the Most Historically Significant Names in Professional Basketball, Issued at the Exact Moment When Lew Alcindor Was Becoming Kareem Abdul-Jabbar\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏀 The 1971 Topps basketball card bearing the name \"Lew Alcindor\" is a document of a specific moment in one of the most significant individual biographical transitions in the history of American professional sports. Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. — who had been known as Lew Alcindor through his childhood in New York, his legendary high school career at Power Memorial Academy, his transcendent four years at UCLA under John Wooden, and his first two seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks — converted to Islam in 1971 and took the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. By the time most people encountered him for the rest of his career, the name on the 1971 Topps card was a reference to a person who had ceased to exist publicly, replaced by the person who would go on to accumulate the statistical record and personal history that the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar carries.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏀 The career that the 1971 card captures in its earliest professional expression is the career of the greatest scorer in NBA history. He finished his playing days with 38,387 regular season points — a total that stood as the all-time NBA record from 1984 until 2023, when LeBron James surpassed it, and that required twenty seasons of sustained elite production to accumulate. He won six NBA MVP Awards — in 1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977, and 1980 — a total that stands alone in the history of the award. He won six NBA championships: one with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1971 (in his second season) and five more with the Los Angeles Lakers during the Showtime era that made the franchise and the city of Los Angeles synonymous with NBA championship basketball. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏀 The skyhook — his signature offensive move, a one-handed hook shot released from directly above his head in a sweeping arc that the defense could not block because it was released from above the point where any defender could reach it — became the most reliable individual scoring weapon in the history of the sport. Defenders who knew it was coming, who had prepared specifically to stop it, who positioned themselves in every way the geometry of the play allowed, found that none of it mattered. The skyhook went in anyway. For twenty seasons, it went in anyway.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏀 \u003cstrong\u003e1971 Topps #100 — PSA 6 EX-MT\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e📋 This card was printed over fifty years ago, when the Topps basketball card sets were produced under the printing standards and material quality of the early 1970s — conditions that make any surviving high-grade example of a card from this era a result of exceptional storage and handling history. PSA 6 EX-MT represents the mid-grade tier of PSA's scale: a card with some rounding or surface wear visible on closer inspection but with the image, color, and structural integrity of a card that has aged with dignity rather than deterioration. A 1971 Topps Lew Alcindor PSA 6 provides the specific satisfaction of owning a card from the moment the greatest scorer in NBA history was beginning the career that would produce the most complete statistical achievement the sport has ever seen. Condition: NOS.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏀 Lew Alcindor. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Milwaukee Bucks. Los Angeles Lakers. 6x NBA MVP. 6x NBA Champion. Basketball Hall of Fame 1995. NBA All-Time Scoring Record Holder (1984-2023). 1971 Topps #100. PSA 6 EX-MT. Hall of Fame Sports Memorabilia. Condition: NOS.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hall of Fame Sports Memorabilia","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48039515324648,"sku":"1971-T-LA-100-PSA-6","price":499.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/graded-1971-topps-lew-alcindor-kareem-abdul-jabbar-100-basketball-card-psa-6-ex-mt-481.webp?v=1770202507","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/graded-1971-topps-lew-alcindor-kareem-abdul-jabbar-100-basketball-card-psa-6-ex-mt","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}