Imagine a player who outplayed Shaq at LSU,who trained obsessively due to tourettes on his way to becoming the 90’s version of Steph, and who dropped 50 points on the Utah Jazz at the peak of their run being traded and ostracized over his religious beliefs just months later
That was Chris Jackson, better known as Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.
Jackson grew up in poverty in Mississippi where his basketball talent was first discovered at lunchtime on the school playground. Raised by a single mother alongside his two brothers, the family struggled to put food on the table and pay for schooling.
To make matters worse, Jackson unknowingly suffered from Tourette syndrome, a disorder that gave him the urge to complete menial tasks multiple times, such as repeatedly flipping a light switch off and on before leaving a room. Jackson attributes his talent to the disorder though, saying that he wouldn’t allow himself to leave any gym until he swished ten 3s in a row. Anything less and he would have to start over. This wasn’t a simple drill for him, more of a mental block that would persist until he hit his goal, and this was just one of many.
Jackson eventually went on to become a star at LSU. In just his third game as a freshman, he scored 48 points against Louisiana Tech. He would go on to top that with games of 53 and 55 points coming later in the year. In his sophomore year, the heavily hyped Shaquille O’Neal came on as a freshman with many expecting him to be the best player on the team. Jackson still outplayed him for the season, putting up 28 points a game and being named the SEC player of the year.
As expected, he entered the NBA with some incredible buzz around him. In an era where the prevailing mindset was that a big man was needed to bring a team success, the 6’1, 160 lbs Jackson was drafted third overall by the Denver Nuggets.
Despite lofty expectations, Jackson never reached the heights he did at LSU. He put up 14 points a game his rookie year, with a career high of 19 in his third year, but many felt that he was a bit of a disappointment. Not exactly a bust, but not the generational talent he seemed like in college.
This isn’t to say that he didn’t have a successful career. For a player who was never a top scorer, he had some impressive highlights. He was the league’s best free throw shooter during his prime, he won a most improved player award, and was invited to participate in the 1991 Slam Dunk Contest despite that fact that he had never dunked in an NBA game to that point.
The performance here might not be all that impressive but come on he's 6'1
Perhaps his best moment was in 1995 when he dropped 51 on Stockton and Malone’s Jazz, putting on an epic shooting display a la Steph Curry. This type of shooting was like something out of a time machine, something we see now and think nothing of, but no one else was taking these kind of shots in that era.
None of this happened as Chris Jackson though. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf was the name behind this success.
Prior to the 1991 season, Jackson converted to Islam and changed his name to represent the shift in his life. Soon after, he was named a starter for the Nuggets and bumped up his scoring average to 19 a game. After a rocky first couple of years he had finally found his place in the NBA. Abdul-Rauf attributed this success to his religion, stating that it helped him to relax and realize that he really belonged where he was.
His new found religion wasn’t all perfect for him though. In 1996, in an incident very reminiscent of current events, Abdul-Rauf was suspended one game by the NBA for refusing to stand for The Star-Spangled Banner. This quiet protest actually went unnoticed for several games until a local reporter picked up on it and questioned Abdul-Rauf. He replied by saying that he believed the American flag was a symbol of oppression and that the United States had a long history of tyranny. The NBA was swift with their punishment but both sides reached a compromise where Abdul-Rauf agreed to stand for the flag while silently reciting Islamic prayer.
This compromise wasn’t the end of the issue though. Just months later, Abdul-Rauf was abruptly traded to Sacramento in what was a very unorthodox move. He was having the best year of his career when he was traded, which lead him to believe it was all due to his religious protest. It was no secret that much of the league disproved of the incident, but no one expected a talented player like him to be shipped away because of it.
Abdul-Rauf currently plays in Ice Cube's Big 3 league
Abdul-Rauf’s NBA career fell apart after the trade. He spent two disappointing years in Sacramento before signing to play in a Turkish league. A year after that he returned for a short stint with the Vancouver Grizzlies before abruptly retiring from basketball, stating that he had simply lost interest in playing after he believed he had been “blackballed” by the NBA.
A lot of parallels to Abdul-Rauf’s story can be found in Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who’s silent protest lead to his unemployment after a storm of backlash. The sports world has been enamored with his story for years now, yet Abdul-Rauf’s story has been lost to time. He was even forced to move out of his home state of Mississippi when an apparent hate crime left his house burned to ashes, but his name’s never mentioned in discussions about athletes that have been chastised over their beliefs.
Like Kaepernick, Abdul-Rauf’s whole life changed when his silent protest was amplified by the media. When people started to criticize his move, that no one initially even noticed, the media ran away with it leaving Abdul-Rauf with significantly less opportunity in the league.
If Abdul-Rauf really was blackballed like he said, then he had millions of dollars in future contracts taken from him, all because he spoke out. As time goes on, only the greatest of players are remembered by the masses. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf may not have been the one of the greatest but he doesn’t deserve to be forgotten about.