Bruce Lee's Teacher Almost Took Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Game Of Death Role

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The martial artist responsible for Bruce Lee learning kung fu almost played Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’sGame of Death character. Filmed in 1972, Game of Death would have been Lee’s fifth kung fu movie, but the actor died before it could be completed. However, the studio’s decision to finish and release the film years later allowed audiences to see what Lee was able to put together before filming halted.

Directed and written by the martial arts legend himself, Golden Harvest's Game of Death saw Lee’s character advance through a tower that consisted of five levels, with each one guarded by a formidable fighter. For these roles, Lee tried to cast a diverse group of martial artists who all had something to offer in the fight scenes. Abdul-Jabbar, who was already a star in the NBA at this point, was tapped to play Mantis, Lee’s final opponent in Game of Death. The long and intense battle that raged between Lee and the seven-foot-two basketball player is widely considered to be one of the actor’s best. The huge difference in size between the two certainly made it unique from all of Lee’s previous kung fu showdowns.

Related: How One Fight Completely Changed Bruce Lee’s Kung Fu Style

There was a time when Lee had someone else in mind for the tower’s last champion. Before settling on Abdul-Jabbar, Lee offered the part to Wong Shun Leung, the Wing Chun grandmaster credited with teaching Bruce Lee kung fu during his youth in the 1950s. During a 1986 interview with Combat magazine, Wong said that if he had taken the role, he would have beaten Lee only to be killed by him in the end [viaMy Way of Wing Chun]. He had made a joke to Lee about not wanting to be killed off in his first movie. Adding on to that, Wong explained in the interview