With the NBA season just underway and the Lakers out of the gate in fantastic form, you would expect the news to be all good coming from Lala land. But a dark cloud has fallen over the organization as it has just been released that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has cancer, a rare form of leukemia to be exact.

The all-time leading scorer kept it a secret from most people, only informing a few people when he was diagnosed last December.

The rare form of cancer is called chronic myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that produces cancerous cells.

Abdul-Jabbar’s disease appears to be manageable, and although his doctor didn't give him any guarantees, he apparently informed him "You have a very good chance to live your life out and not have to make any drastic changes to your lifestyle."
Kareem is taking pills for the disease and has since become a spokesman for the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which makes a drug that treats the illness.