When you grow up a good kid who does good things as an adult, you find that the people who know you the best are the proudest of you. However, you also find that there are people you may have forgotten about, or who are not really on your radar any longer who are just so proud of you many years later. This is so true for actor Solomon Hughes, who has been tapped the play the amazing and iconic Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on a new HBO show. His high school is so proud of him that they have their own page dedicated to his new role on their own website. But, who is Solomon Hughes?
1. He’s a 1997 High School Graduate
Solomon Hughes graduated from high school in 1997 from Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, California. He was not just a student who did good things in class. He was an athlete who played basketball, and he made a lasting impression on those who were part of his team as well as those who got to go see him play in person.
2. He Played College Ball
Following his graduation from high school, Hughes played basketball for the University of California, Berkeley. He stayed there long enough to earn his Bachelor’s Degree as well as his Master’s Degree. He studied sociology during his first four years in college, and he earned his master’s degree in education.
3. He Played Pro Ball
He was good, but he wasn’t good enough to make it into the NBA. However, he did make it onto pro teams in Mexico. He played there for a while before he decided to take his talents elsewhere and do some other things with his profound knowledge of basketball.
4. He’s a Harlem Globetrotter
There are few people in the world as talented with a ball as these guys, and Hughes was one of them. He spent his time working with the Globetrotters and traveling the country entertaining those who would do anything to see these talented players perform.
5. He’s a Doctor
Well, not a medical doctor, but he does have his doctorate. Following all his other educational years, he decided to head to Georgia to enroll in courses at the University of Georgia (yes, he was a Bulldog), where he obtained his Ph.D. in Higher Education.
6. Winning Time is His First Acting Gig
Imagine being an actor but also making your first appearance as an actor on a hit show as the one and only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He’s doing that. He’s not someone who had a small guest role or made many guest appearances. He is literally doing this for the first time as the lead character in a show about a man who is one of the most famous athletes in the world. No big deal, right?
7. He is a Lecturer
Following the end of his lengthy and extensive education, this is a man who took a job giving lectures at a university. Not just any university, however. He did so at Stanford. He was the lecturer at the Stanford University School of Higher Education, which is exactly the type of education he himself obtained when he went to the University of Georgia for his Ph.D.
8. Life is Surreal
For Hughes, life is currently surreal. He is doing something that he never dreamed of doing. He is playing someone he spent his entire life admiring. As an athlete who played the same sport as the man he is playing now, he knew Kareem as an athlete, looked up to him, admired him, and watched him growing up. This is a surreal moment in the life of the new actor.
9. He is a Reader
Growing up, one of the very first books Hughes ever read was “Giant Steps,” which is the autobiography of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. To now get to play him, to be him, and to have to get to know him from start to finish, inside and out, is just a dream.
10. He is a Very Private Man
Hughes is not a man who likes to talk about his personal life that much. To be fair, however, he’s a new celebrity. No one really knew much about him before he took on this character and this role, but now the world knows his name and they want more. He’s a private man who has always kept his business to himself, and hopefully, he will learn to continue to do the same now that he is a famous actor.
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