News has surfaced that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is dealing with a rare form of leukemia. The legendary centre and sometimes-actor "revealed during an interview Monday that he has Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that produces cancerous blood cells."

The former 20-year pro basketball player has been acting as a special assistant for the Los Angeles Lakers -- a team he famously starred for during 14 years of his playing career. He notes that his actuve, healthy lifestyle acted as a warning of the cancer.

He was known throughout his career as a player who took his health seriously; he was one of the first pro athletes to take up yoga.

"If it wasn't for my health-consciousness, I would have just passed on the effects [of the leukemia symptoms] as something I could ignore," Abdul-Jabbar said. "But I felt it didn't make sense to ignore it."

His family has a history of cancer, Abdul-Jabbar said. A grandfather and an uncle died of colon cancer. "So I have the gene for that," he said. "Cancer is a scary thing and you have to deal with it seriously."

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