
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 16, 1995                   TAG: 9505160112
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HALL OF FAME INDUCTS GIANT OF BASKETBALL

His signature sky hook dominated basketball for a generation. Basketball, however, was not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's first love.

``When I was a kid, I wanted to play baseball,'' he said Monday upon being enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. ``Then I started growing. And thank God for basketball.

``My parents never wanted me to be a basketball player. They didn't care. They wanted me to go to college.''

He was inducted along with women's stars Cheryl Miller and Anne Donovan, longtime Soviet coach Aleksandr Gomelsky, the late referee Earl Strom and the Minneapolis Lakers duo of coach John Kundla and forward Vern Mikkelsen.

Abdul-Jabbar scored an NBA-record 44,149 points, and played more games (1,797) and blocked more shots (3,189) than any other player. He was an All-Star 19 times and the league's most valuable player six times.

by CNB