By Tom Farrey
ESPN The Magazine
Updated: September 7, 2006, 8:36 AM ET
He was born Sharmon Shah and that is how he entered UCLA, where he went on to become two-time team MVP and rush for more than 3,000 yards. By the time he was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in 1996, he was Karim Abdul-Jabbar, a convert to Islam. Later, with his profile rising after leading the NFL in total touchdowns, he was sued by the basketball legend and fellow Bruin alumnus Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the inconvenient similarity, and agreed to change his name again. His identity has evolved over time.
Kind of like his right knee.
When he was a boy, it was fine. But hip surgery at age 10 created a structural imbalance, and the pounding from football led to problems with the knee. At UCLA, he had knee surgery for the first time. With the Dolphins, he went under the knife again, with limited results. After five years in the NFL, all of the cartilage and half of the meniscus were missing, causing painful deformations in the joint. "It was pretty much bone on bone," he said.
That's when Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar, as the player ultimately became known, turned to human growth hormone. A Miami surgeon injected HGH directly into the compromised joint.