Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Talks ‘Rooting’ For Will Smith, But Cites The Rock And Beyoncé To Explain The Impact Of The Slap Incident
One high profile star likens Will Smith to Dwayne Johnson and Beyoncé and hopes he's learned his lesson.
The saga of the infamous Oscars slap continues. Several months have passed since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock live on stage at the Academy Awards, and while everybody has an opinion on the event, the two people involved had remained mostly quiet. But now that Will Smith has spoken out, there are a lot of responses to what he said, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is being supportive of Smith, while making it clear how important he thinks it is to the Black community.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was one of the people who made it clear very early that in his opinion what Will Smith did was very wrong. In a newsletter piece on his Substack Abdul-Jabbar explains why Will Smith’s actions are so important, because they reflect on the Black community as a whole, in the same way that megastars Beyoncé and Dwayne Johnson do. While the former Los Angeles Lakers’ star admits it’s not fair to put so much on one man, it’s still very much the case. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explains…
Not everybody has responded to Will Smith’s recent apology video well. Some wonder if it’s not more about improving Smith’s own image, which has suffered in the aftermath of the slap, than it is about an actual apology. But while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar may have been critical of Smith previously, he says he’s going to take the actor at his word regarding this apology. He hopes Will Smith has learned the important lesson here. He continues…
Chris Rock has continued to remain silent, at least publicly, outside of the occasional line from his standup act, where Rock recently criticized people for playing the victim. In the end, Rock will have to be the one who determines if the apology is acceptable.
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CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis. Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.