Basketball HOFer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, along with Iconomy Multimedia & Entertainment, has unveiled Starguard Collectibles, a sports memorabilia provider and licensor. Former teammates Byron Scott, Michael Cooper and AC Green, and Basketball HOFer Bill Walton will join Abdul-Jabbar in his first release of memorabilia. SGC is an official licensee of the NBA (SGC). CNBC's Melissa Lee noted the new venture is a "partnership with Amazon to bring authentic sports memorabilia directly to the fan." Abdul-Jabbar said he wanted to get into the memorabilia business because "in doing a lot of the shows I always saw instances where there were a lot of counterfeit things being sold ... and there was a niche there that I saw for authentic items that fans that want to buy really good and interesting memorabilia, they want to sink their teeth into it." He added "we film people signing the items" to prove SGC's collectibles are authentic. Abdul-Jabbar said the "most important thing" is to ensure "people don't get ripped off." He said, "Amazon was trying to expand the types of things that they do and it was a great opportunity for myself and my business partners that we could work with a company with that type of reputation and impact in the market" ("Fast Money," CNBC, 3/18).
