In March 2022, several Snopes readers got in touch to ask about the authenticity and provenance of quotes they had read, attributed to basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in which he firmly criticized Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock at that year's Oscars.
For example, SportsKeeda.com published an article with the headline "'He did a lot more damage than just to Rock's face': Kareem Abdul Jabbar slams Will Smith over Chris Rock Oscars slap."
On social media, a lengthy message — attributed to Abdul-Jabbar — went viral. It typically began:
When Will Smith stormed onto the Oscar stage to strike Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife’s short hair, he did a lot more damage than just to Rock’s face. With a single petulant blow, he advocated violence, diminished women, insulted the entertainment industry, and perpetuated stereotypes about the Black community...
The message was especially widely shared on Facebook, and the image below shows just a selection of posts containing Abdul-Jabbar's criticisms of Smith:
Those quotations were authentic, and the message was indeed written by Abdul-Jabbar. We are issuing a rating of "Correct Attribution."
Abdul-Jabbar originally published his thoughts on his Substack page, in a March 28 post headlined "Will Smith Did a Bad, Bad Thing," which bore the sub-headline "Slapping Chris Rock was also a blow to men, women, the entertainment industry, and the Black community":
