The Kareem Of The Crop: Abdul-Jabbar Selected To The Hoop Hall Of Fame

His NBA opponents called him unstoppable. His college coach - himself a Hall of Famer - said he was the most valuable player ever in college basketball.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose signature skyhook made him the NBA’s scoring king, was one of five men and two women Monday elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Also to be installed May 15 are women’s stars Anne Donovan and Cheryl Miller, longtime Soviet coach Aleksandr Gomelsky, late referee Earl Strom and a Minneapolis Lakers combo of coach John Kundla and forward Vern Mikkelsen.

“I am very happy,” said Abdul-Jabbar from an Atlanta hotel moments after receiving the Monday morning call from Hall of Fame president Joe O’Brien.

Abdul-Jabbar participated in 19 AllStar games, garnered six world championships and scored 44,149 points over 1,797 games and blocked 3,189 shots.

From the time Abdul-Jabbar, then known as Lew Alcindor, stepped onto the Power Memorial High School court in New York City in 1961, through his three NCAA championships at UCLA, under coach John Wooden, and 20 years in the NBA with Milwaukee and Los Angeles, he dominated the game as few have.

“He is the greatest of all time,” said Donovan, a 6-foot-8 center, who led Old Dominion to the AIAW national championship in 1980 and helped boost the U.S. Women’s Olympic team to gold medals in 1984 and 1988.

“I was never one to look at male players and try to imitate them,” said Donovan now an assistant coach at Old Dominion. “But I always watched and studied Kareem.”

Miller, also a member of the 1984 Olympic team, didn’t believe it.

“When I got the call, at first I was trying to make sure it wasn’t Reggie playing around,” said the former star and now coach at USC, whose younger brother, Reggie, is an NBA All-Star for the Indiana Pacers.

“He has a warped sense of humor,” she said.