Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's last season was a farewell tour. He was forty-one when it began and forty-two when it ended, his twentieth year in the league, and arenas everywhere stood for him; the gifts included a yacht named Captain Skyhook. The Lakers reached the Finals and were swept by Detroit, and then he retired.
Fleer's 1988-89 set has 132 cards numbered by team, and #64 opens the Lakers: Kareem first, then Michael Cooper, A.C. Green, Magic Johnson, Byron Scott, Mychal Thompson and James Worthy.
The picture is the shot that defined him. He releases a skyhook over a Utah defender, in the Lakers' gold, number 33, inside a border that fades from dark to light, with LAKERS and CENTER along the bottom.
The skyhook, one last time, in his twentieth season.
He left with 38,387 points, the career record until LeBron James passed it in 2023, along with six championships and six Most Valuable Player awards. This is generally named his last major card.
Centering is inconsistent in this set, and many copies have almost no border on one side.
