June 16, 1975: Kareem Invents Player Power In the NBA

June 16, 1975: Giving in to his demand to be traded to either New York, where he is from, or Los Angeles, where he went to college, the Milwaukee Bucks trade their best player, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Walt Wesley to the Los Angeles Lakers for Junior Bridgeman, Brian Winters, Dave Meyers and Elmore Smith.

It's not a total wipeout for the Bucks: Bridgeman and Winters kept them a perennial Playoff team for a few years, and they eventually got their uniform numbers retired.

But by forcing the trade, Kareem not only becomes the 1st NBA player to truly exercise "player power," but helps the Lakers begin to build the team that will dominate the league in the 1980s.

It doesn't happen overnight. The Lakers were in rebuilding mode, and didn't make the Playoffs in 1976. They got to the Western Conference Finals in 1977, but were swept by the Portland Trail Blazers. They were eliminated by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1978 and 1979. But in 1980, having drafted Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Michael Cooper and Norm Nixon, and also traded for Spencer Haywood and Jamaal Wilkes, they beat the Sonics in the Conference Finals, and then the Philadelphia 76ers in the Finals.

Having gotten what he wanted, Kareem rarely used his player power again. When the Lakers changed head coaches, assistant coaches or general managers, it wasn't because he asked. When a coach changed strategies, or a GM brought in a new player, Kareem may have had some input, but he didn't make demands. He was a quiet leader, "the strong, silent type."

Player power would lead to more players becoming coaches and general managers, and some players being able to go over the coach's head to the owner, and getting him to fire the coach and bring in one the player preferred. Eventually, it would lead to LeBron James being the Lakers' team captain, head coach and general manager, in operational fact if not officially, having more power than any player in any sport in history.

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June 16, 1975 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-7 at Shea Stadium, where they were groundsharing with the Mets while the original Yankee Stadium was renovated. Graig Nettles hit a home run. Nettles and Ron Blomberg each had 3 RBIs. Blomberg and Kerry Dineen each had 3 hits. Hank Aaron, playing out the string for the Brewers, went 1-for-4 with a walk. Robin Yount went 2-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell, Rennie Stennett and Al Oliver hit home runs. Bruce Kison was the winning pitcher. Bob Gibson, in his final season, pitched 5 innings of relief.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim Palmer outpitched Jim Bibby. Brooks Robinson and Lee May hit home runs for the O's. Tribe player-manager Frank Robinson did not put himself into the game against his former team.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 9-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Don Gullett outpitched Phil Niekro. Joe Morgan went 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 4 RBIs. Pete Rose went 2-for-5. Johnny Bench went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Each team scored a run in the 10th inning, but the Red Sox scored 4 in the top of the 12th. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4 with 2 walks.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Steve Carlton started for the Phils, but reliever Gene Garber blew the lead. Mike Schmidt appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-6 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Reggie Jackson and Gene Tenace hit back-to-back homers in the top of the 8th, to give the A's a 6-4 lead. But Steve Braun led off the bottom of the 9th with a home run. After giving that up, Rollie Fingers gave up 3 straight singles to Tom Kelly (the Twins' future World Series-winning manager), Danny Walton and Dan Ford to tie the game. Jim Todd intentionally walked Rod Carew to set up the double play, but Larry Hisle singled home the winning run.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The California Angels and the Kansas City Royals were rained out at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 12. The Royals swept, 10-2 and 7-2. Over the 2 games, George Brett went 6-for-9. with 3 RBIs.

* And the New York Mets, the Montreal Expos, the Chicago White Sox and the Texas Rangers were not scheduled.