Dancing with the Stars is back for Season 26 with a special four-week DWTS season featuring 10 professional celebrity athletes including NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. At 7’2″ Jabbar is the tallest competitor in DWTS history — he’ll dance with partner Lindsay Arnold, who’s 20 inches shorter and 47 years younger than the 71-year-old 6-time NBA MVP. Abdul-Jabbar’s accomplishments go beyond the basketball court, too. He is an author, social critic, and civil rights leader who has represented the US all over the world. In 2016 Abdul-Jabbar was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. In presenting the award, Obama chose this little story to describe his impact on the game:
Here’s how great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was. 1967. He had spent a year dominating college basketball. The NCAA bans the dunk. They didn’t say it was about Kareem, but it was about Kareem. When a sport changes its rules to make it harder just for you, you are really good. — Barack Obama
DWTS judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli. will judge the athletes as dancers, and so will America: viewers at home will be able to vote during the show’s live broadcast in the EDT/CDT time zones. For his first performance, Abdul-Jabbar and Lindsay Arnold will do a Cha Cha to the Stevie Wonder song “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” Keep in mind, Lindsay won Season 25 with Hamilton Broadway star Jordan Fisher! Dancing with the Stars: Athletes airs Mondays at 8pm on ABC.
