The AP reports: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rooted for the Celtics during his high school days in New York. Honest. He would later be involved in one of the most intense rivalries in sports, going against Boston three times in the NBA finals as a Lakers star in the 1980s. Now, that’s simply a part of his past. “I saw my first Celtics-Lakers rivalry game in 1969,” Abdul-Jabbar recalled Sunday, referring to a matchup in the NBA finals a few months after he completed his college career at UCLA. “I never had a hatred for them. When I was in high school, I was a Celtics fan. I got to meet (then-Boston stars) Bill Russell, (John) Havlicek, (Bob) Cousy, those guys, when I was in ninth grade.” … “After he retired (in 1987), Bill Walton and I didn’t speak for a couple years,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “We laugh about that now. Nowadays, when I get to Boston, I get stopped by people talking about how the game was played at such a high level (in the 1980s). They miss that.”
