Basketball Legend Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar, 79, Is In a Wheelchair From A Fall, Still Using His Voice to Confront Racial Gaps in Cancer Care

 

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It’s been a long recovery for the six‑time MVP, who underwent hip surgery after a fall in late 2023, according to a CNN report. In spring 2025, fans were stunned to see him arrive at a Los Angeles Dodgers game in a wheelchair, though he has since been seen upright and moving with just a walking cane.

Abdul‑Jabbar has spent decades speaking out against racial injustice, using his platform to push for equality and inspire change. His leadership helped shape the NBA Social Justice Champion Award, which now bears his name.

“We made people start thinking.”@kaj33 reminisced on his 1967 Cleveland Summit experience with Muhammad Ali and Carl Stokes during today’s Hall of Legends panel at #NBACrossover.#CavsBHC | #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/1VPvuST1YU

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 18, 2022

He has often credited Muhammad Ali for inspiring his activism, recalling their early conversations about the realities facing Black Americans.

“I knew what he was saying publicly about the conditions of Black America was right on the money, so I was going to do all I could do to help him,” he said in 2022.

His activism stretches back to 1968, when he famously boycotted the Summer Olympics. Nearly 50 years later, in 2016, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his lifelong commitment to social justice.

In recent years, fans have also noticed the Hall of Famer moving with more care. Abdul‑Jabbar has faced multiple health challenges, including atrial fibrillation, leukemia, and prostate cancer.

Abdul-Jabbar uses his enormous platform to help promote cancer awareness.

While promoting his involvement with “Coaches versus Cancer” in conjunction with the American Cancer Society, the former basketball player encouraged others to “be aware of the people in your community that have the disease and try to be supportive and support cancer research.”

He was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in 2009, a slow‑growing cancer of the white blood cells that can become aggressive if untreated.

WATCH: How is CML Diagnosed Without Obvious Symptoms?

“At the beginning of the disease, the majority of patients are asymptomatic, and so they may not even be aware of any change in their health. But if CML is left untreated, white blood cells will become unharnessed and uncontrolled,” Dr. Frances Arena, medical director at NYU Langone Arena Oncology and Integration, tells SurvivorNet.

After two years of treatment, he shared that his prognosis had dramatically improved, saying his cancer was no longer life‑threatening.

“You’re never really cancer-free, and I should have known that,” he said. “My cancer right now is at an absolute minimum… It’s not life-threatening at this point in my life,” Abdul said as reported by “The New York Times.”

RELATED: Black Americans More Likely to Trust Black Doctors, But Undoing Generations of Mistrust in Healthcare Will Take More

In 2020, he revealed a second diagnosis: prostate cancer.

Abdul‑Jabbar used the moment to spotlight the health disparities Black Americans face, especially in cancer detection and treatment.

“Being Black means I’m more likely to suffer from diabetes, heart problems, obesity, cancer, and a shorter life in general,” Abdul-Jabbar said in an essay written for WebMd, noting that he has faced prostate cancer, leukemia, and heart bypass surgery.

Through it all, Abdul‑Jabbar remains a towering figure both literally and culturally as he continues to advocate, educate, and inspire while navigating his own health journey.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) reports that Black men face the highest prostate cancer death rates of any group, two to four times higher than other men.

Additional research published in the medical journal “Cancer” states, “Black men are disproportionally affected by prostate cancer; they have the highest prostate cancer incidence in the United States (183.4 new cases per 100,000).”

The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) released recommended screening guidelines in 2024 for Black men in the United States and says, “Among Black men who elect screening, baseline PSA testing should occur between ages 40-45. Depending on the PSA value and health status, annual screening should be strongly considered.”

WATCH: NFL Player Devon Still on the Sacrifices His Family Made After His Daughter, 4, Was Diagnosed With Cancer — And the Disparities in Access to Care

The “New England Journal of Medicine” highlights that Black men are at a higher risk of getting prostate cancer. Researchers, consisting of primary care, urology, medical and radiation oncology, translational science, and patient advocates, reviewed 287 studies using systematic review protocols to develop prostate cancer screening guidelines specific to Black men.

They determined, for Black men (higher-risk):

• Prostate cancer tends to develop 3–9 years earlier in Black men.
• Early discussions about PSA screening should begin in the early 40s.
• Baseline PSA testing between the ages of 40 and 45 is recommended.
• Continued screening until age 70, adjusted for PSA levels and health status, could reduce mortality by roughly 30% without a major overdiagnosis risk.

The ACS notes that unconscious bias, treatment inequities, and limited access to high-quality care drive much of this divide. Even when stage at diagnosis and socioeconomic status are the same, Black patients have lower survival rates across nearly every cancer type. The biggest factor is unequal access to preventive care, receiving a timely diagnosis, and receiving effective treatment.

Addressing these disparities requires collective responsibility. The cancer community must work together to dismantle the systemic barriers that keep minority communities from receiving quality care, participating in preventive screenings, and enrolling in clinical trials.

Prostate Health Among Black Men

Since Black men tend to be diagnosed with prostate cancer at younger ages compared to other racial groups, the new guidelines state Black men should consider screening at 40 years old since this demographic group is regarded as a “high-risk population.”

WATCH: How to Address Racial Disparities in Cancer Care

“Few guidelines have outlined specific recommendations for prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based prostate cancer screening among Black men,” researchers for PCF said in its report published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

“Discussions with health care providers about baseline PSA testing should begin by the time Black men are in their early 40s, and modeling data suggest prostate cancer develops 3-9 years earlier in Black men compared to their peers. Lowering the age for baseline PSA testing from 50-55 years to 40-45, followed by regular screening intervals until the age of 70, would reduce prostate cancer mortality in Black men,” the PCF said in its report.

RELATED: Black Men May Be More Susceptible To Advanced Cancer Due to Biomarkers in the DNA, Study Says

SurvivorNet holds an annual Close the Gap conference to educate, spread awareness, and ultimately work to eliminate racial disparities in cancer care. Our efforts aim to ensure everyone has access to education about cancer, screening recommendations, treatment options, clinical trials, and more.

Prostate Cancer Screening and Warning Signs

When you do get screened for prostate cancer, your doctor will run a few tests.

One of the tests is the protein-specific antigen (PSA) test, a simple blood test that screens for prostate cancer. It looks for more significant amounts of protein-specific antigen in the blood. An elevated PSA test does not always mean you have prostate cancer. It could also reflect that your prostate is enlarged, which is common, or it could signal an infection or inflammation.

Your doctor may also conduct a digital rectal exam (DRE) to check your prostate for lumps.

Depending on the results of these tests, imaging scans and a biopsy may be ordered.

WATCH: How Gleason Grade Determines Treatment

Prostate cancer does not always behave the same in every man it impacts. The cancer can be considered “low-risk” and can be slow-growing, and treatment might not be necessary. In other men, the cancer may grow faster or more aggressively, requiring more immediate treatment. Because of this, there is some debate about screening.

The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends that men at average risk between the ages of 55 and 69 years talk with their doctor about the pros and cons of prostate cancer screening.

The American Cancer Society recommends that men at age 50 who are at average risk should begin screening. Men who are at high risk of prostate cancer should begin screening at age 40. Men with a close relative diagnosed with prostate cancer should consider annual screenings in their 30s.

SurvivorNet experts suggested that men consider factors like their family history, genes, and age when deciding whether and when to screen.

Symptoms of prostate cancer may include:

• Urinating more often
• Waking up in the middle of the night to pee
• Blood in your urine
• Trouble getting an erection
• Pain or burning when you urinate
• Pain in your back, hips, thighs, or other bones
• Unexplained weight loss
• Fatigue

If You’re Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer, What to Expect for Treatment?

After testing and establishing your risk, your doctor will discuss possible treatment options. These may range from active surveillance to more aggressive options, including surgery and radiation therapy.

WATCH: Coping emotionally after a prostate cancer diagnosis

Surgery is an option for men with any risk group of prostate cancer that hasn’t spread outside of the prostate gland. The type of surgery most often used is called a radical prostatectomy.

During the procedure, the surgeon removes the entire prostate, along with some tissue around it, including the seminal vesicles that release fluid into the semen. Your doctor can perform this through a traditional open procedure with one large or several small incisions, called laparoscopic surgery.

WATCH: Sexual Function Recovery After Prostate Cancer Surgery

Surgery side effects may include erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence. Fortunately, the side effects are usually temporary, and there are ways to help you manage them.

“Erectile function is so sensitive when we’re dealing with prostate cancer because the nerves that are critical for this function wrap around the prostate; they’re just so intimately connected to the prostate that they can be damaged from a surgical removal of the prostate or through radiation treatment,” Dr. Isla Garraway, a staff urologist in the Veterans Administration (VA) Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, told SurvivorNet.

Doctors often recommend sexual counseling after prostate cancer treatment to help improve sexual function. This approach actively addresses the psychological, emotional, and relationship impacts on sexual health.

Radiation therapy is often done when prostate cancer is caught early and confined to the prostate gland.

Better Understanding Abdul-Jabbar’s Leukemia Diagnosis and How Patients Cope Diagnosed With It

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), also known as chronic myelogenous leukemia, is a type of cancer of the white blood cells. As the disease progresses, CML cells crowd out healthy cells and eventually build up and spill over into the blood. Although CML usually grows slowly, it can also turn into a faster-growing acute leukemia, which is more challenging to treat.

WATCH: Diagnosing CML Without Obvious Symptoms

“What happens with CML is there is a cross of your chromosomes, so there is a cross between chromosome 9 and chromosome 22,” Dr. Eric Winer, clinical director of adult leukemia at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, tells SurvivorNet.

Crossing chromosomes creates a gene called BCR-ABL, which eventually causes the overproduction of cells seen in CML.

Patients diagnosed early tend to have better outcomes.

“It’s important for patients diagnosed with CML to understand that their prognosis is quite favorable,” Dr. Jay Yang, hematologist, medical oncologist, and leader of the Hematology-Oncology Multidisciplinary Team at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, tells SurvivorNet. “With modern treatments, most patients will go on to live healthy and productive lives with a normal life expectancy.”

Typical Leukemia Symptoms

Symptoms of CML are often vague, as many other ailments can cause them. However, common symptoms include:

• Weakness
• Fatigue
• Night sweats
• Weight loss
• Fever
• Bone pain
• An enlarged spleen (which may be felt as a mass under the left side of the ribcage)
• Pain or a sense of fullness in the stomach
• Feeling full after a small amount of food

WATCH: The Different Phases of CML Explained

Treating Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

The treatment path that you and your doctor take may depend on several factors, including your age, overall health, and whether the cancer has spread or metastasized to other parts of the body. However, common treatment options to fight leukemia include:

• Chemotherapy
• Targeted therapy
• Radiation therapy
• Bone marrow or stem cell transplant. Engineering immune cells to fight leukemia with CAR-T cell therapy, in which the body’s germ-fighting T cells are reengineered to fight the cancer and infused back into the body. CAR-T might be an option for children and young adults.

WATCH: Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Therapy

Dr. Eric Winer, Clinical Director for Adult Leukemia at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, explains to SurvivorNet how TKI treatment works in a way many video gamers can relate to.

“To oversimplify, imagine the video game Pac-Man. These energy packets [Adenosine triphosphates (ATPs). These are energy stores within cells that go into the mouth of the Pac-Man [BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase], causing it to change its conformation and shape. This forces the CML cells to multiply. All of the TKIs block the entrance of the energy packet into the mouth of the Pac-Man, [so it] cannot change its confirmation,” Dr. Winer explains.

There are several TKIs on the market. Those approved as the first line of defense against CML include:

• Imatinib (brand name: Gleevec)
• Dasatinib (brand name: Sprycel)
• Nilotinib (brand name: Tasigna)
• Bosutinib (brand name: Bosulif)
• Ponatinib (brand name: Iclusig)

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.