Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) relates to Les Miserables in many ways. However, the clear distinction between the two is the shared theme of Outcasts. After Jean Valjean was indicted for his thievery, the rest of his life, before he changed his name, he was an outcast. None of the business or places of work wanted to hire him and he was completely shunned by his community. Similar circumstances happened to Lew. Growing up, Lew had very few friends and nearly everyone looked at him weird because of his giant-like height in proportion to the other kids. Aside from his height, Lew didn't look like your average kid. This made him become a very secluded individual and was very sad all the time. Lew, like Valjean, also changed his name when he converted to Islam. He changed it to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Islam is also not considered "normal" by American standards so Kareem was also considered an Outcast in that respect. Both people reaped rewards for their bad misfortune, however. Valjean, acting as the mayor, got to be the head of the city. However, his surely most noteworthy gain was his beautiful adopted daughter named Cosette. She was Valjean's whole world and they wouldn't have met if it weren't for Valjean changing his identity because of his misfortune. What Kareem thought was a bad thing at the beginning of his like actually turned into something amazing. His height allowed him to become one of the most dominate players of all time.