One of Bruce Lee’s most famous movie battles is with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in his unfinished movie, Game of Death. Abdul-Jabbar, who famously toy for the Los Angeles Lakers for more than a decade, has a reputation as one of the best basketball players in the history of the NBA. He’s likewise had characters in many movies and TV proves, including Airplane !

Abdul-Jabbar’s acting career began when he appeared in Game of Death, which was the fourth and final movie Lee attained with Hong Kong studio, Golden Harvest. Shortly after writing, targeting, and starring in Way of the Dragon for the studio, Lee moved on to Game of Death, where he was to have the same level of oversight. The movie’s story was to focus on Lee’s character progress through a castle. On each level, he was to fight a martial artist of a different vogue. One of these engagements considered him cross itineraries with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s character, who engaged him in an intense fight that lasted for five minutes.

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Comments from the NBA superstar have disclosed how his cameo came to be[ via ESPN ]. After developing an interest in martial arts during his time in New York City, Abdul-Jabbar decided to seek out a brand-new coach once he moved to California to attend UCLA and play on the basketball crew. At the age of 20, he was timed in the direction of Lee, who had created his own kung fu style, known as Jeet Kune Do. Abdul-Jabbar searched out Lee, where it was became both his kung fu teacher and good friend. Abdul-Jabbar studied often with Lee, who taught him a multitude of skills that last-minute became beneficial to his NBA career.

A few years later, Lee personally invited Abdul-Jabbar- who was playing for the Milwaukee Bucks at the time- to Hong Kong to film a fight scene for Game of Death. The place called for five days of shooting. Not long after that, filming came back a halt so Lee could clear Enter the Dragon in Hollywood. And unfortunately, Lee’s sudden death in 1973 foreclosed the filming process from being completed. Times subsequently, stand-ins, a great deal of revising, and footage from other Bruce Lee movies allowed it to be released anyway.

Since Lee was only able to film a portion of Game of Death , no number of changes could have turned it into a martial arts masterpiece. That tell me anything, it’s still regarded as required examining for Bruce Lee supporters, and a lot of that is due to the movie’s Bruce Lee vs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fight. The notable elevation difference between Lee and the seven-foot-two basketball player facilitated create one of the most visually striking and unique act sequences of Lee’s career. No one will ever get to see Lee’s entire vision for Game of Death, but gatherings can at least marvel at the spectacle at watching the NBA star go toe-to-toe with the kung fu legend.

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