Abdul-Jabbar to visit Capitol Hill on cancer research mission

On Tuesday, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will be the tallest man on Capitol Hill and on an unexpected mission: urging Congress to spend more money on cancer research.

Abdul-Jabbar, the 7-2 NBA Hall of Fame center, says he feels a special debt to the researchers.

In December 2008, he was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia — Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Fearing he'd been given a death sentence, Abdul-Jabbar has managed the disease and, with a good prognosis, emerged as a prominent cancer research advocate.

"Being diagnosed with leukemia really makes you appreciate the fact that we don't get a long time here on earth,'' Abdul-Jabbar, 67, told USA TODAY Sports on Monday. "So, anything that threatens that is a reminder that we have to do the best we can with a time that we have. …

"I have an opportunity to say something meaningful about cancer research and I'm going to take it and do the best I can with it because it's going to help a lot of people.''

Abdul-Jabbar is scheduled to appear with actor Pierce Brosnan and actress Marcia Cross at an event sponsored by Stand Up To Cancer and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, which are launching the "One Degree" campaign to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by $6 billion over two years. The groups want at least $1 billion of that to go for cancer research at the National Cancer Institute.

"Kareem brings widespread notoriety, universal respect and a powerful cancer story to the effort to increase federal funding for cancer research,'' said Steven Weiss of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. "With him in the role of cancer research advocate, lawmakers are taking notice."

Once determined to get a head coaching job in the NBA — which eluded him — Abdul-Jabbar sounds fulfilled with his life. He's filming a documentary on race, writing a regular column for Time magazine and recently had a children's book published.

"I'm not really focused on coaching anymore,'' he said. "I have so much in my life that is very meaningful. It didn't work out with the coaching thing. It's OK. These things are a lot more important to me.''