SHERLOCK HOLMES
NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on what the Holmes brothers have taught him about basketball and life
Istarted reading Sherlock Holmes stories on road trips as an NBA rookie in 1969. I was instantly fascinated by Holmes’ remarkable ability to see a world teeming with subtle but revealing clues where others saw only the mundane. “That toothpick is not just a slimy toothpick! The teeth marks tell us the chewer had dental work done in the Yucatan region of Mexico!” It was as if everyone else saw the world in black and white while Holmes saw it in vibrant Technicolor. I, too, wanted to see all the colors.
In The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, Holmes says, “My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.” As a young man, I took this glorious pronouncement as a personal challenge. Clearly Holmes was able to triumph over the world’s villainy because he knew so much more than anyone else. Even then, my world was familiar with villainy. Being black in the 1960s and 1970s was especially perilous, as I discovered again and again. People didn’t just have license to be racist; many acted as if it was an obligation. Because prejudice is built on misinformation and faulty thinking, I naturally appreciated Holmes’ insistence on logic and facts as the wisest means to form opinions. If we all thought like Holmes, I reasoned, the world would be free of prejudice.
Knowing what other people didn’t know meant you had more control over your life. This revelation immediately influenced my approach to basketball, where I practiced Holmes’ powers of observation on my opponents. Because we played the same teams multiple times, I began observing each player’s moves, habits, strengths and weaknesses, cataloging them in my mental filing cabinet. Of course, many other players and coaches did this, but I wanted my “files” to be even more detailed. So, remembering how Holmes used his ragtag street boys, the Baker Street Irregulars, to gather valuable intelligence, I started paying close attention to the casual chatter among the ball boys and other staffers. It’s hard to stealthily lurk when you’re 7 feet 2 inches, but I did my best. And it paid off. Once I overheard a couple of ball boys joking about how the Detroit Pistons’ Bob Lanier and his coach liked to smoke in the locker room at halftime. That’s when I decided to run Lanier up and down the court as fast as I could to tire out his crusty lungs.
Holmes’ influence on my learning was profound. I had always been a dedicated student in school, but soon after discovering Holmes I expanded my intellectual horizons to include history, literature, politics and religion. History especially offers important clues about our future. American philosopher George Santayana
wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This seemed so eloquently Holmesian—teaching us to observe the past in order to not make the same mistakes.
Now I have the privilege and joy of continuing the Holmes tradition by writing about Sherlock’s older brother in Mycroft Holmes ,a novel I co-wrote with Anna Waterhouse. Why Mycroft and not Sherlock? As much as I admire Sherlock’s knife-edged mind, his humanity leaves a little to be desired. In the BBC TV show
Sherlock, he describes himself quite accurately: “I’m not a psychopath; I’m a high-functioning sociopath.” Sherlock does seem unable to feel empathy. I’ve come to realize that he doesn’t solve mysteries to serve justice, but for the selfish satisfaction of winning. ( Just like TV’s Dr. Gregory House, who was based on Sherlock.)
Mycroft, on the other hand, works in the highest levels of the British government, using his equally remarkable skills to help save people and maintain social stability. He has Sherlock’s intellect, but with a sense of social responsibility. I realized more could be done with this older, smarter character. From that first rookie road trip to this novel, my love affair with all things Holmes has now come full circle.