Glynn Turman: Partying with Kareem in 1965 and Why LeBron is "Built Like a Centaur"

Glynn Turman has stories that will blow your mind — like attending Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's UCLA acceptance party in 1965 when it was so packed they ended up celebrating in the hallway of a Harlem project.

At 79, this legendary actor just got his Hollywood Walk of Fame star and describes LeBron James like poetry, calling him "built like a centaur but graceful as a gazelle." Glynn shares incredible stories from his New York roots, his 66-year entertainment career from Broadway's "A Raisin in the Sun" to Disney's current hit "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," and his evolving friendship with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Key topics covered: • Kareem's 1965 UCLA acceptance party in Harlem • Growing up playing street games in Greenwich Village • 66-year entertainment career highlights • Current friendship with Kareem over shared interests in Black history and jazz • Lakers fandom and favorite players across eras • Current starring role in Disney's "Percy Jackson"

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hi, I'm Glenn Terman, and you're listening to Courtside with Mark. Here's how far I go back, Mark. I go back to when Lou Alcinder had just been accepted at UCLA, and we threw a party in the projects on 135th Street. Tell me about this, though. And we all went to the party, all us kids, went, and it was so crowded we never did get into the apartment where the party was. So we were partying in the hall.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Hey everybody, Mark Israel. Welcome to Courtside, where we're continuing to broadcast from LA, where we came out for All-Star Weekend. And Byron Scott and some others were nice enough to invite us to uh co-host and sponsor an event that he was doing to raise money for research into sickle cell anemia. And Byron was good enough to introduce me to a whole bunch of great guys who were there for the event, including a really cool dude by the name of Glenn Terman. Glenn has been working, has been a working actor now for eight decades. Actually started in the acclaimed Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun and has done literally hundreds and probably thousands of things since then. Has his own star on the on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Really cool dude, interesting guy. Talk to him a little bit about life, movies, and basketball. Check it out. So it's my pleasure to be sitting with Glenn Terman. So nice to meet you, man. How are you? You too, Mark. I'm good, man. Good to see you, man. So it's good to see you out here at This Bowling End. Are you here because you like bowling? Or what brings you here?

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Well, both. You know, I like bowling, and especially when it's bowling for a great cause. You know, and Kiki and Byron are dear, dear friends, and they've put this together, and I'm always there for them if I'm able.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

That's awesome, man. And and uh, you know, I think I told you so I do an NBA themed podcast. Are you a hoops fan or a fan from back in the day?

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Yeah, especially back in the day. Yeah, where hoops. It's hard hard for me to keep up with the youngsters now, but you know, there's a few old guys that are still in the game that I still so where who's your team growing up?

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Where'd you grow up? Well, I grew up in New York, okay. New York City, so I'm a I'm a native New Yorker. Where are you from, brother? I grew up. Well, I was born in Brooklyn. I grew up in Long Island. What about you? I'm Manhattan. I grew up all over Manhattan, uptown. You're the real deal. Yeah. Lowy side. You and world be free, man.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

You're like, speaking about here's but here's how far I go back, Bark. I go back to when you're speaking about basketball, when a man named Lou Alcinder. Yeah, I've heard of the guy, yeah. Power Memorial had a party because he had just been drafted, just been accepted at UCLA, and we threw a party in the projects on 135th Street. Tell me about this, then. And we all went to the party, all us kids went, and it was so crowded, we never did get into the apartment where the party was. So we were partying in the halls, and of course, you know who he became. That's amazing. So that's like that's um don't put that together. Never mind how.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

So Lou El Sunder, by the way, we'll talk about what he did a couple of years later, but really one of the greatest schoolboy, you know, uh basketball players in the history of the game, right? Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. Did you watch him and follow his game back then? Um a little bit, not a whole lot, but a little bit, yeah. But you heard there was a party going on.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

But I heard there was a party going on.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

That was that was his name. So when you grew up, we so you were a New Yorker, were you a fan of those old Nick teams and Nick and Lich?

SPEAKER_02 3:40

You know, but we you know, I grew up on uh in the in the West Village, the lower uh east side, well, the low the West Village. Okay, and uh there's a park on Sixth Avenue, Avenue of the Americas now, but Sixth Avenue, um near Waverly. Okay that and all the games are played right there. Basketball was played at Rutgers, yeah, and at uh um at the 6th Avenue um Waverly uh courtyard. And that's what but my game was handball. I couldn't play, I couldn't, I had no game at all. If I waited for them to pick me, I'd still be out there. You weren't a hoopster. No, no, I wasn't a hoofster, but I was a hell of a handball. Were you a good handball player? I was a good handball player.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

So by the way, handball is like is is another quintessential New York game. Like people don't people don't explain what handball is.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

And we played it with a spauldine. I don't know if you know what a spauldine is. Stick ball was played with a broomstick, literally. Yeah, you know, and we played that in the streets, and the man holding covers were the bases. Yep. And uh but um but we also used that spalling for handballs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

And it was literally hand, it was it was literally, for those of you who don't know, it was literally just the big ball.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Hitting the ball up against the wall, it had to go across the line, and then you know, you had to keep your shots. Did you did you were you a two-handed handball player? Yeah, I was ambidextrous with it. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Were you just as good right and left?

SPEAKER_02 5:23

No, no, no, no, no, no. I had to count on this. Yeah, that's pretty cool, man. But that was hand, but it's a hand-eye coordination game. Right, you know, uh, I couldn't play it now. Well, we we all got now.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

So that's so you so you you grew up ahead of New York.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

But I'm grew up, I grew up in New York and New York.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

That's cool, bitch. And how long you've been out here in LA, you've been.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

Oh, but I've been out here longer than I was in New York, that's for sure. I came out here uh in the late 60s, and that's in 19. I came. This is what is this? January what? This is 26th. This is a 26th. I came out here January 17th. Wow, 1968. You've been here a couple of years, man. Yeah, 1968. I turned 21 right here, and I just had my birthday. I'm 79 now, and I just had my birthday. I said that so that you would say that. It worked, it worked. It does. You do.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

You first of all, you don't look a day over 78, obviously. No, you look fantastic, you look fantastic, man. That's a nice one.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Mark, it's been a ride, it's been a ride, but uh, I'm blessed, truly blessed.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

That's amazing. So you and that guy, Lou Alcinder, really came out here around the same time, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

We came out around the same time, right? Right. And we're good friends now and haven't had the chance to meet with him on several occasions, talk with him. You know, he's a Buffalo soldier and fanatic, so am I. History, black history. Yep. Uh he's well aware of all of the things that I grew up knowing about and and interest me and my learning spir spurts. And uh, so we've had some great, great conversations. He's a bright man. God is he bright.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Very special guy, you know, forget what he does on the court, or what he did on the court, what he does off the court, you know, speaks out on on issues that that he thinks that he believes in and that that are important. By the way, uh another thing that he's he's close to my heart, huge jazz fan. Yes, yeah. We talk about jazz too.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Well, you know, growing up like I said, I grew up in the village, so the village gate and Vanguard and all those places where Cole Train and Miles played were right in my backyard. And when I was too young to go in, my nose was pressed up against the window, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And I haven't waited to see McCoy Tyner and all of them, you know. The best, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Those those are those are those are great, great musicians. Those are unbelievable. And but and you made your career in the movies, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell us a little bit about that. So you do going strong. Tell me a little bit about that, man.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

What you've done, and well, shoot, aside from just getting the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame just uh six months ago. Yeah, congratulations! Shout out, shout out, man. Uh, you know, it's been a a heck of a ride, you know, so over 60 years in the business, 66 something like that years in the business, starting on Broadway with Sidney Poitiers, Ruby D, and Lou Gossett Jr. and some of the greats, you know, in a play called A Raisin in the Sun. Incredible. Lorraine Hansbury. Lorraine Hansbury. Well, Lorraine Hansbury lived and wrote that play in Greenwich Village. Oh, really? I lived on my mother and I, single parent. Uh we lived on 10th between Hudson and Bleaker, and Lorraine lived upstairs over the candy store that was on uh bleaker between Christopher and Tenth. Wow, that's right there. Wow, that's amazing. She and my mother were good friends. And that's how I ended up in the play on Broadway.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

That's incredible. That's an amazing play with with some with some some incredible uh actors. Oh, the best, the very best. And actresses. And and you know, since we're talking a little bit of hoops, we talked a little bit about Kareem or or Lou, as you called him. Um so you've been out here a lot of years. Are you a Lakers fan? Were you a Lakers fan? Yeah, oh yeah. Oh, are you kidding?

SPEAKER_02 8:59

The dream team, Magic? Oh just just saw Magic when we were together, unfortunately, at the uh passing and the ceremonies of life for a friend of ours who uh just passed away. Uh but he was there and he's always he brings such confidence and calm and and uh grace to any event that he attends, you know. So the uh the the the parents of this young man who passed away were really glad that he was there, you know, and he was uh you know, he's just he's an amazing cat, you know.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

He is an amazing man, right? He's he seems to be as as great as he was on the court, he's that great off the court, absolutely, and the things he does for the community. Yeah, absolutely. Was he your favorite was he your favorite player from those Showtime Lakers or Premier guy?

SPEAKER_02 9:49

I was Dr. Dr. J. Julius, man. But yeah, yeah. He another New York boy. Yeah, yeah. Roosevelt High School. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, man. So yeah, so I was Dr. J, but you know, but uh yeah, for sure. When it was the dream team, you know, with uh um Kareem and Magic and all the guys, you know, and Byron and the Cats, you know, I was there.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

That's that that that's a lot of fun. And so you you still you follow the Lakers now or not as much? LeBron?

SPEAKER_02 10:20

I'm hanging in there. I'm hanging in there, you know. I'm watching the old man run up and down the quota. I'm impressed, you know. It's pretty impressive. Yeah, I'm impressed. He he glides, man. I've been I did go to a game uh uh not too long ago that he played, and I got a chance to sit real sit uh had good seats. I had good seats, and uh I was just amazed at how graceful that massive man is. You know, he's he's uh he's built like a uh Centron, but he's uh as graceful as a as a gazelle, you know. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

It's really incredible. And and you've had the you've been blessed, I'm guessing, to to to perform and to act with with with lots of greats. Who are some of the favorite the favorite people that you got a chance to work with?

SPEAKER_02 11:10

No, you name somebody. Oh, you name the man. You go first. Well, I mean I've worked, you know, I've been like I said, I've been in the business a long time. I'm currently on a show right now, um in which uh Courtney Vance, a fine actor, is uh uh we're doing a show for Disney called Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Oh, nice and so um this is our third season and it's coming back up uh again and it's a show that's really wonderful with an amazing young cast, you know, and uh it's Disney's number one show. That's very congratulating you one of the Olympians. Um I'm I'm actually uh uh uh Chiron. Chiron, if you know anything about your your your mythology, was the uh the the trainer of all of the young Olympians. But he's half man and half horse. Yeah, so yeah, so I'm I'm on a horse when I go to work. I'm half man, half horse. I'm on a I'm on a horse on the set all day. Is that true? Yeah, it's crazy. That's pretty so they can do all that movie magic and put it all together.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Do you know how to ride? Have you ridden horses your whole life?

SPEAKER_02 12:18

I know a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Although I'm guessing you didn't ride too many horses in Greenwich Village.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Uh but I did in Central Park. Oh, wow. Yeah, I did. I used to play hooky, cut school, and go up there and tell the man I'll shovel that crap in the stall over there if you let me ride that horse. I always had a love for horses, and so I I used to do that, and it came in handy.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

It came in handy as well. Well, I really appreciate you coming and spending some time with us, man. That's it's really fun and and happy birthday. And I'm on and I was kidding, by the way, you look a ha you look 20 years younger than you claim to be.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

I'll give you that 20 bucks loop. Thanks so much, man. Thank you, buddy. Appreciate it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

All right, there you go, and that's a wrap on this week's episode. Thanks so much for watching. And since you made it this far, do me a solid. Hit the subscribe button down below, leave a review, send the episode to a buddy who you think would enjoy it. We'd really appreciate it. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.