Empire UK

138

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

S MYSTERIES GO

it’s a veritable three-

piper: how did

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

go from basketball

legend to author of a

book about Sherlock

Holmes’ brother? “That’s been the

fun part of it: people going ‘What?!’”

chuckles the seven-foot-plus former

NBA star. “When I was a boy I watched

the Basil Rathbone movies every

Saturday. Then when I was 22 and

starting off in professional basketball

someone gave me a compilation of all

the stories. I grabbed it as I was going

out on a trip and I was hooked.”

Employing Holmes’ tricks on

the court — “I found you could make

deductions little things that helped

you anticipate someone’s next move”

— wasn’t enough. So a few years ago

Abdul-Jabbar retreated to his mind

palace to plot out his own tribute to

Arthur Conan Doyle. The result Mycroft

Holmes sends Sherlock’s big brother on

a globe-spanning adventure which takes

him to Trinidad on the trail of alleged

blood-sucking monsters. “I read a lot

of Victorian almanacs for research”

he says. “The rest was pure imagination.

Mr. Doyle didn’t go into depth about

Mycroft in the couple of stories he’s

featured in so that leaves a lot for all

us newcomers to ponder. My publisher

wants to talk about the sequel.”

This new career has slowed his run

of TV and fi lm cameos — he’s appeared

as himself in everything from The

Simpsons to New Girl — but there’s no

shortage of screen off ers. He became

KAREEM

ABDUL-

JABBAR

803%4NICK DE SEMLYEN

FROM THE NBA TO 221B

THE AIRPLANE! STAR’S

CAREER TRAJECTORY

IS ELEMENTARY...

friends with Stephen King after being

invited to the set of Pet Sematary in 1989;

Chevy Chase was such a big LA Lakers fan

that he asked him to appear in Fletch. But

the movie that’s had the biggest impact

is Airplane!. “I spent ten days sitting next

to Peter Graves — and by the way I was

a giant Mission: Impossible fan so I had

to keep pinching myself — and somehow

it’s still a big part of my life. Bob (Hayes

— Ted Striker) and I did a commercial for

the Wisconsin Tourist Board last year.

And that little kid I act against I ran into

his wife at LAX three years ago. I can’t

believe he’s in his forties now.”

Airplane! has also changed his

experience of going on an airplane. “I’ve

been invited into a lot of cockpits” he

laughs. “Once in Europe we were taxiing

out and the pilot came over and said

‘Sir will you come with me? I want to

be able to tell everybody that we fl ew

with Murdock.’”

MYCROFT HOLMES IS OUT NOW.

Above:Abdul-Jabbar

back in his NBA

heyday; Airplane!; The

Simpsons. Below:

Abdul-Jabbar now

as the writer of

Mycroft Holmes.

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