Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's "Message of Hope"

Battling Rare Form of Leukemia, Basketball Legend Says He Intends to "Continue Living"

(CBS)  When you've spent your life as one of the best basketball players who ever lived - winning championships in high school, in college and in the pros, scoring more points than anyone else and immortalized in sports history and on film - you don't expect to come suddenly face-to-face with your mortality.

"I started having hot flashes and sweats," Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told CBS News correspondent Jeff Greenfield. "And I wasn't a candidate for menopause, you know? So, trying to figure out what that was all about."

In the middle of a busy life - best-selling author, special coach for the L.A. Lakers, parent - Abdul-Jabbar learned last December that he had a rare form of cancer.

"What I have is P.H. positive chronic myeloid leukemia, which is an aberration in your white blood cells," Abdul-Jabbar said.

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Abdul-Jabbar lost a grandfather to colon cancer and almost lost his father to the same illness. But for Abdul-Jabbar, the news was a lot less grim.

"Ten years ago, this was a very serious, life-threatening diagnosis," said Dr. Michael Schuster of New York Presbyterian Hospital. "The only treatment was a bone marrow transplant. Patients now take a pill a day and can eliminate every molecular trace of the disease."

That hopeful diagnosis is why Abdul-Jabbar is now using his high visibility to go public about his illness.

"Sending this message out there, it's a message of hope. That's what it's intended to be," Abdul-Jabbar said. "It's not intended to be just a grim announcement. I want people to understand that I intend to continue living and doing all the things that I love to do up until the end. And the end is by no means rushing up on me."

For additional information about chronic myeloid leukemia:
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
The Mayo Clinic
The National Cancer Institute