Kareem: It's Up and It's Good!

Always been a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fan, even before my friend Peter Knobler wrote with him his first autobiography, Giant Steps.  I did meet him later, at one of Peter's parties.  Post b-ball, he has gone on to write books and make films and engage in valuable speaking and activism (and let's not forget playing the pilot in Airplane!).  And now this: A great piece for Esquire today on this year's Best Picture nominees for Oscars.  And, amazingly, I agree with virtually everything he says--including his claim that nearly all of the nominees don't quite deserve it except for my own picks among them--Philomena and Nebraska (and maybe 12 Years a Slave).  Read and maybe disagree.  But he certainly endorses my previous critiques on over-praise for so many of these flicks. And he even closes with a reference to my man Graham Greene!