Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — NBA Star Shocks Fans

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shocked his fans as the basketball legend — now enjoying a career as novelist and essayist — promoted his new book in NYC. The athlete, 69, looked frighteningly thin just 16 months after undergoing extensive heart surgery!

Kareem, who's also taken on acting roles in films like the classic comedy "Airplane!" — had already revealed in 2009 that he suffers from chronic myeloid leukemia. In April 2015, Kareem announced that he had been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, and quickly underwent a quadruple coronary bypass surgery Thursday.

This was a rare appearance by the notoriously quiet athlete, although he recently attended the Democratic National Convention to endorse Hillary Clinton. Kareem has also avoided talking about his health — even having to clarify a statement in 2011 that he was cured of leukemia and was "100% cancer free!"

"You're never really cancer-free," Kareem said later, "and I should have known that" — although he still insisted: "My cancer right now is at an absolute minimum."

Sadly, Kareem was saying that he "should have known" about cancer because of a family history with the disease. "My grandfather died from colorectal cancer," he said. "My uncle died from colorectal cancer, and my father almost died from colorectal cancer."