"He didn't like the game, but he liked making millions of dollars" - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on why Andrew Bynum failed to meet his potential originally appeared on Basketball Network .
At one point, Andrew Bynum stood on the edge of basketball greatness with the Los Angeles Lakers .
A towering, seven-foot phenom with a soft touch, raw strength and the benefit of elite mentorship, he was drafted straight out of high school at just 17 years old — barely older than most college freshmen and entrusted with the keys to one of the NBA's most storied franchises.
But greatness, it turns out, is not guaranteed by size, skill or circumstance. It takes something deeper.
And for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , who spent seasons helping mold Bynum's early development, the difference came down to something as simple as love for the game or the lack of it.
Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's all-time leading scorer for decades and the backbone of the Lakers' 1980s dynasty, made a return to the organization in 2005 as a special assistant coach under Phil Jackson. His specific task was to mentor the youngest player ever drafted at that point, a kid who had skipped college entirely and landed on the Lakers' doorstep as both a project and a promise.
"His basketball skills were at the very beginning of development and I was able to bring him along and make him work every day," Abdul-Jabbar said of Bynum. "He didn't like the game, but he liked making millions of dollars each year."
When the Lakers selected Bynum with the 10th overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, they were gambling on potential. At 17 years and 244 days, he became the youngest player to ever appear in an NBA game, breaking a record previously held by Jermaine O'Neal.
At that time, most teams were moving away from high school players, given the league's rising concerns about maturity, readiness and long-term development. But the Lakers saw something in Bynum that justified the risk, especially with Abdul-Jabbar available to guide his path.
Originally, Bynum had planned to attend the University of Connecticut and play under Jim Calhoun, who had turned UConn into a powerhouse program. Instead, he took the leap into the league's deep end.
It wasn't a typical rookie season. Bynum logged just 7.3 minutes per game in his debut year, averaging 1.6 points and 1.7 rebounds, stats that hinted at how much he still had to learn. So Abdul-Jabbar stepped in. Their partnership, though quiet in the media, was pivotal.
The Lakers legend drilled Bynum on footwork, positioning and post fundamentals, areas where most high school stars were sorely underdeveloped.
And over time, progress emerged. By the 2007-08 season, Bynum averaged 13.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, anchoring the Lakers' frontcourt until injuries cut his season short. Two years later, he was a starting center on back-to-back NBA championship teams.
"He would listen to me and do what I told him for the four or five years that I coached him and we won two championships," Abdul-Jabbar said. "I had a good experience just getting him to do some fundamental things."
Despite the hardware and the flashes of dominance, Bynum's career never quite aligned with the weight of expectation. After his All-Star season in 2012, where he averaged a career-best 18.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game and ranked third in the league in double-doubles, things unraveled fast.
He was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in the blockbuster deal that brought Dwight Howard to L.A. He never played a single game for the Sixers. A combination of knee issues, conditioning concerns and motivation questions derailed his career, leading to brief, forgettable stints for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers before exiting the league at just 26 years old.
Bynum played just eight seasons in the NBA logging 418 games. He averaged 11.5 points and 7.7 rebounds which were solid but a fraction of what was anticipated for a player once likened to a franchise cornerstone. For Abdul-Jabbar, the issue was never just his body, but his heart.
There's a stark difference between liking the lifestyle of an NBA star and living the game itself.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 21, 2025, where it first appeared.
