When legendary National Basketball Association great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sets foot on Philippine soil this week, it will be his fourth trip overall to the country – once in each of the past four decades.

The 7-2, 62-year-old Abdul-Jabbar first visited the Philippines in July 1974 during the staging of the Miss Universe beauty pageant in Manila.

He was back in the country in July 1981 and stayed for a couple of days to supervise a number of basketball clinics for young student hoopsters at the University of Santo Tomas gym.

In late 1995, Abdul-Jabbar and another all-time NBA and Lakers star, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, saw action in an exhibition game against an all-Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) selection at the Araneta Coliseum.

On Friday, September 11, Kareem will be back in the Big Dome once again. This time, he will be coaching a team composed of retired NBA players and active NBA Development League products against a hodgepodge of PBA stars from the past and present in an explosive matchup dubbed as the 2009 NBA Asia Challenge by organizer Solar Sports.

Included on Abdul-Jabbar’s squad are former NBA slam-dunk champion Dominique Wilkins, 7-1 Serbian Vlade Divac, seven-time NBA championship player Robert Horry and crossover wizard Tim Hardaway.

Wilkins, 49, once captured the NBA scoring crown and, like Abdul-Jabbar, is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Horry, 39, won NBA titles with three different teams (Houston, Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio).

Divac, 41, owns a 16-year NBA career that began and ended with the Lakers. Hardaway, 43, remains the Miami Heat’s all-time assists leader until now.

The Paris-born Wilkins hung up his NBA jersey during the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. Horry retired in 2008, Hardaway in 2003 and Divac in 2005.

Suiting up for the PBA All-Star unit to be mentored by Yeng Guiao are pro icons Alvin Patrimonio, Allan Caidic, Benjie Paras, Ronnie Magsanoc and Kenneth Duremdes, current standouts Dondon Hontiveros, Joseph Yeo and Jay-R Reyes and some members of the Philippine national team that placed a disappointing eighth in the recent FIBA-Asia Championship in Tianjin, China, including the controversial Japeth Aguilar.

To date, Abdul-Jabbar remains the only player in U.S. NCAA Division I history to win three championships (1967-68-69) and earn three Final Four Most Outstanding Player awards during his sterling collegiate tenure with the UCLA Bruins.

Best known for his patented hook shot (or better known as the skyhook), the New York-born Abdul-Jabbar saw action with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA from 1969-70 through 1988-89 and is all-time leading scorer in NBA regular-season history with 38,387 points.

Kareem won six NBA championships (1971 with the Bucks and 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988 with the Lakers) and owned a league record six regular-season MVP trophies (1971-72-74-76-77-80). He also was named NBA Finals MVP twice – with Milwaukee in 1971 and with LA in 1985 (the oldest awardee ever at age 38).

Abdul-Jabbar was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995. He is currently a special coach with the Lakers whose primary task is to tutor the reigning NBA champions’ big men such as 7-foot, 21-year-old center Andrew Bynum.