10 Questions for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The NBA's all-time leading scorer, who won six championships, has lately been focusing on a different kind of team. In his fifth book, Brothers in Arms (co-written with Anthony Walton), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 57, chronicles the 761st Tank Battalion, an all-black unit that helped liberate dozens of towns in World War II. TIME's Sean Gregory talked last week with the Hall of Famer.

YOUR CO-AUTHOR SAYS HE ADMIRES YOU BECAUSE, AS A RETIRED STAR ATHLETE, YOU COULD BE lounging in Hawaii AND COUNTING YOUR INVESTMENTS. WHY WRITE HISTORY BOOKS INSTEAD?

Well, I've always enjoyed research. I first did it in...

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