Before starring as the basketball icon on ‘Winning Time,’ Hughes was working at Stanford.
By the time Solomon Hughes was throw to play Kareem Abdul - Jabbar in HBO’sWinning Time : The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty , he had live many life . After graduating from the University of Berkeley , he had spent fourth dimension playing professional hoops in Mexico and even had a brief stint with the Harlem Globetrotters . He had induce his master ’s in didactics at Berkeley and then a PhD in gamy education insurance at the University of Georgia , which eventually lead to an administrative position at Stanford where he was also a lecturer in the Graduate School of Education and learn some undergraduate courses centered on sports , equity , and slipstream .
He had always had a slight acting bug , though . After he finished college , he met with an agentive role who was dismissive because of Hughes ' height . “ He was like , ‘ Oh , you ’re 6’10 ” . follow on . Are you kidding me ? peradventure we ’ll find you some basketball stuff , ’ ” Hughes think .
His part inWinning Timeis also centered around basketball , obviously , but Abdul - Jabbar has always been so much more than the sport , and that is on full showing in Episode 5 , which dig into the icon ’s backstory as he persist a crisis of his Muslim religion as he get by with stardom . “ It was very , very emotional because I ’m a Christian , but I palpate like my faith has go through its own kinds of rebirth where it was a little minute of a departure from how I was raise , ” Hughes say of filming . “ I ’m a fan of history , in particular Black story . My Father of the Church was born in the South and he lived there as a young tike , and my father and Kareem are the same years . I can only imagine what it was like to be a young ignominious military personnel in America in that era . ”
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO; Chineme Elobuike/Thrillist
farseeing beforeWinning Timecame along , Abdul - Jabbar was a part of Hughes ’ life . One of the first books Hughes read as a youngster wasGiant Steps , the autobiography of the man he is now portraying . Growing up in Southern California , Hughes lived in a Lakers household where his father , an academic , settle for Abdul - Jabbar . “ He taught sociology for 40 year and loved Kareem because of all of the ways Kareem contributes to the world beyond just mutant , ” Hughes says .
When Hughes auditioned for the serial , he was already planning another career swerve . He sleep together teaching but had want to move away from administrative piece of work , so was going to take a year to compose and then apply for faculty gigs . Instead , he landed on an HBO serial .
Naturally , there was physical homework . He drip from around 255 to 222 Irish pound , leave office a strength training regimen since that was n’t democratic for athletes in the ‘ 80s . At the same time , he spent hours try on to replicate Abdul - Jabbar ’s famous sky hook shot , both analyzing footage and practicing . “ No one will ever get the grace and elegance the way he captures it , because it ’s his shot , ” Hughes say . " I had fun doing my darndest to just honor it . "
Solomon Hughes, right, as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.|HBO
To delve into the military personnel behind the move , however , Hughes used his acquirement as a researcher from the world of academia , seek out master sources . “ I was also interested in the ecosystem that cultivated him , ” he says . “ So New York , Harlem , Los Angeles . I was interested in the ecosystems that cultivated his parent . His father , a law police officer and also a jazz musician , just like , wow . Really the genre of music , jazz , was very important to Kareem . ” He immerse himself in the music Kareem would have been listening to , geeking out over the ikon ’s friendship with Thelonious Monk . Physically , Hughes wanted to charm Abdul - Jabbar ’s stoicism ; the elbow room he is “ sparing ” with his eye tangency .
Though Abdul - Jabbar declined to speak with Hughes through a business manager , Hughes recognized the similarities in their experiences , some of which has to do with their height . “ I am tall and conversant with just always being regard , being fairly of an outlier , walk into a space , kind of sucking the zephyr of the room , like ' whoa , ' ” he says . “ People are just try out to take in your animalism . ”
In Episode 5 , Kareem is in his Bel - Air star sign read the paper when his livid girl ( Sarah Ramos ) tell him to set it down and look out the windowpane . He respond that he " ca n’t flex the macrocosm off just to have a pleasant morn , " however . He lives in this dichotomy : He ’s a celebrity with all the luxuries of that form of address , but is also a Black Muslim , conscious of his obligation as an militant . When necessitate about that present moment , Hughes was grateful to answer .
“ I have a Ph.D. , I ’m an actor , and I ’m a Black man , ” he say . “ And I am conscious about what I bust , and where I wear out it . If I journaled , I ’d have a program library of journal if I ’d journaled about every incident where it ’s like , distinctly somebody was uncomfortable with my presence . It ’s this realness that , no matter where you go there , there you still are . "
