The Odyssey of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf

I first read about him in a sports magazine, right after he converted and changed his name from Chris Jackson to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.  He'd had a bad game and his coach (Doug Moe?) said something like:  "I wish he'd play more like Chris Jackson, and less like Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf."

Later on I heard he had Tourette's.

I went down to Boston Garden one night, and he was out there for the Nuggets, playing very well against the post-Bird Celtics.  He's listed as 6-1, but he's not really that tall.  In that game I remember him as lean and wiry, completely under control.  Very quick, he constantly pressured the Celtics defense, getting into the paint and dishing, or stepping back and hitting his quick-release jumper.  With 26 points and 11 assists in The Garden he was beginning to make his mark.  He was the Most Improved player in the NBA that year, and you didn't hear much from his coaches after that.

A few years later he refused to stand for the National Anthem, and the hate mail started.  As this superb profile by Robert Sanchez reports, he kept the letters.

Dear Mr. Abdul-Rauf,
Go back to Africa.

He made sure he took them when he fled Denver, and then for every move he and his family have made since.

Mahmoud,
Fuck you.

The insults and the profanities, he keeps them stuffed in a white trash bag, inside a closet. Reminders of his life's seminal moment—those 90 seconds on the floor of Denver's old McNichols Arena.

You need to go to another country that does not have the freedom that we do.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is not sure why he has kept them. But even now, 11 years after the postmarks, many have yet to be opened. "Go on," he encourages me in a defiant voice. "Keep reading."

But be sure to read the end of the article, too.

He quit the NBA in '01. Since then:

• 2003-04 Ural Great Perm (Russia)
• 2004-05 Sedima Roseto (Italy)
• 2006-07 Aris Thessaloniki (Greece)
• 2008-09 Al-Ittihad (Saudi Arabia)

He's in Japan now, doing interviews, getting ready for his second season.  At 41, he's older than 9 of the 14 coaches in the league.  And playing like Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.