Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar feature iconic battle scenes in Game of Death. This is the story behind the cameo appearance of an NBA superstar in a 1978 movie.
One of Bruce Lee's most famous film fights was with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the unfinished game of Death. Abdul-Jabbar, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers for more than a decade, is known as one of the best basketball players in NBA history. He has also played roles in various movies and TV shows, including Airplanes!
Abdul-Jabbar's acting career began when he participated in Game of Death, Lee's fourth and final film with Hong Kong film studio Golden Harvest. Shortly after recording, directing and starring in Dragon Road for the studio, Lee moved to Game of Death, where he would be subject to the same supervision. The story of the film focuses on Lee's character advancing through the tower. At each level, he will fight against martial artists of different styles. In one of the battles, he crossed the road with the character of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with whom he engaged in a fierce five-minute battle.
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Comments from NBA superstars reveal how his cameo came to be (via ESPN). After he became interested in martial arts in New York, Abdul-Jabbar decided to move to California to join UCLA and join the basketball team before starting a new coach. At the age of 20, he was taken in the direction of Lee, who created his own kung fu style, known as Jet KuneDo. Abdul-Jabbar searched for Lee, who later became his kung fu teacher and good friend. Abdul-Jabbar was often trained by Lee, who taught him many techniques that later benefited his NBA career.
A few years later, Mr. Lee personally invited Abdul-Jabbar, who was playing for the Milwaukee Bucks at the time, to Hong Kong to shoot the game of death. Five days of shooting were requested at the scene. Shortly thereafter, filming stopped, so Lee could shoot Dragon Fight in Hollywood. Unfortunately, Lee's sudden death in 1973 made the filming process impossible. Years later, the stand-ins, a lot of editing, and footage from other Bruce Lee films allowed the film to be released anyway.
Since Lee could only shoot part of Game of Death, there were no changes to turn it into a martial arts masterpiece. That being said, it's still considered a must-see show for Bruce Lee fans, thanks in large part to the film's Bruce Lee vs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The apparent height difference between Lee and the seven-foot-two basketball player helped him create one of the most dramatic sequences of visual action in Lee Kuan Yew's career. No one can see Lee's entire vision of Game of Death, but viewers can at least marvel at the spectacle of watching NBA stars and kung fu legends from head to toe.