Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Our image of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, although a good one, is outdated. We still have him frozen in mid-skyhook, his No. 33 as memorable as the grace of his shooting motion. The current image should be of a still-shy man, now 60 years old, hunched over a computer keyboard, pulling words from a mind that has long played second fiddle to a 7-foot-2 body and a pro basketball career that will never be replicated. The leading scorer in the history of the National Basketball Assn.

As if a leukemia diagnosis wasn't enough, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had another internal battle on his hands. Whom should he tell? The intensely private Abdul-Jabbar found out last December that he had a rare form of leukemia, though he shared it with only the smallest of circles. He waited five months before telling Lakers Coach Phil Jackson that he had Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia, Jackson said Tuesday. The disease is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that produces cancerous blood cells.

The Lakers are talking to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar about hiring him to tutor their big men. A Laker official on Wednesday confirmed the team's interest. Abdul-Jabbar's agent, Harlan Werner, confirmed Abdul-Jabbar's interest. "There was a meeting," Werner said. "There has been dialogue with Phil [Jackson] and Mitch [Kupchak]. Aside from that, it's premature to say anything at this point. ... "I think if everything works out, it would be a dream come true for Kareem."

When he was drafted by the Lakers a couple of months ago, Andrew Bynum, 17 and fresh out of high school, announced that his future lay in the past. "I actually want to bring back the sky hook," he said. He'll have help. The Lakers have brought back Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who mastered that shot to a degree that enabled him to become the greatest scorer in NBA history. The Lakers announced Friday that they have added the 58-year-old Hall of Fame center and six-time MVP to their coaching staff.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was back among the Lakers on Tuesday, for the first time in more than a decade. On a day he and others thought might never come, the 58-year-old Hall of Fame center put 17-year-old draft pick Andrew Bynum through an informal workout at the team's El Segundo headquarters. A few hours later, a beaming Abdul-Jabbar met with reporters for the first time since he was hired last week as a special assistant to Coach Phil Jackson.

The Invisible Giant walks quickly through a crowded Staples Center tunnel Friday, no flashing bulbs, no entourage, no reason to stay. "The league seems to have turned its back on me," he says. The Invisible Giant looks around at the All-Stars headed for parties, the legends heading for TV gigs, the flunkies streaming around him as if he were a lamppost, and shrugs. "There just doesn't seem to be a place for me in basketball," he says.

The New York Knicks hired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a scout Wednesday, assigning him to the Clipper-Indiana Pacer game at Staples Center. It's not the coaching job that he so covets, but Abdul-Jabbar said he would be scouting NBA games primarily on the West Coast for the rest of the season. "It's the perfect situation for me, because I can learn a lot of different aspects of management," he said before taking a court-side seat to watch the Clippers and Pacers.

CBS announced Tuesday that it had hired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a college basketball commentator, although Abdul-Jabbar made it clear during a conference call with reporters that he is still interesting in coaching. Of the possibility of coaching at UCLA, his alma mater, he said, "I haven't spoken to anybody at UCLA, but if things change at the end of the season and there is a position open, I hope they would consider me." He called it "a dream job."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the leading scorer in NBA history, has reached a settlement with Karim Abdul-Jabbar of the Miami Dolphins in the former basketball player's lawsuit alleging trademark infringement by the football player. A joint statement issued Wednesday said the parties have agreed that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds the trademark rights to that name for commercial purposes. To differentiate between the two, the football player will be known as "Abdul" for the purposes of commercialism.

Former UCLA and Laker center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surrendered a small amount of marijuana to U.S. Customs officials at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Sunday and paid a $500 civil fine, a Customs Service spokesman said Friday. Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's career scoring leader, told customs officers that he has migraines and "doctors recommended him using this," said Pat Jones, a customs spokesman in Washington.