“Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court” by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld; Little, Brown (304 pages, $17.99)
The day after leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their only NBA championship, a young NBA star surprised sports fandom by announcing his conversion to Islam.
On that day in 1971, the former Lew Alcindor became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But his conversion and name change began years earlier, he reveals in “Becoming Kareem: Growing Up on and Off the Court,” a memoir for readers 10 and older, written with his frequent collaborator Raymond Obstfeld. He discusses racism, religion and controversial subjects straightforwardly.