More from Earl Strom's book

[Mark Padgett]

I just finished reading "Calling The Shots" for the billionth time and thought I would share an anecdote.

There was an incident at a Mosque in Washington DC that put some focus on Kareem's religion. He received a death threat. While this in itself obviously is not funny, Strom and Jerry West (who was then the Laker coach) had this exchange before a Laker game.

Strom: "You don't mind if whenever I have to hand Kareem the ball, I just kind of toss it to him from the sidelines, do you?"

West: "You'll notice we haven't invited him into the huddles."