Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Little Fella : Prep basketball: It’s not easy being the son of a superstar, especially when you have the same name.

Welcome to Camp Kareem, a Hawaiian summer getaway for high school athletes looking to improve their physical conditioning and skyhook. Here’s our friendly personal trainer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

But wait, kids, please be aware that there is a catch: You must be a child of Abdul-Jabbar. And such a privilege can, at times, carry a heavy price.

Believe it or not, life is not always a slam dunk for a kid named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Talk about trying to meet some high expectations.

What’s more, Abdul-Jabbar, the namesake and one of five children of the all-time leading scorer in the NBA, chose to play basketball at Brentwood High.

This has piqued the curiosity of many. And they all want to know one thing: Can he play?

One authority said yes.

“He has good instincts,” the elder Abdul-Jabbar said. “He doesn’t have to think about what to do.”

Then again, that source might be biased by fatherly pride.

Young Abdul-Jabbar, a 6-foot-5 senior center, leads Brentwood with averages of 16.5 points and eight rebounds a game. Brentwood (18-6) will play host to Calabasas Viewpoint (9-10) in a first-round playoff game tonight at 7:30.

Brentwood, however, plays in Division V-AA, the lowest division in the state, and Abdul-Jabbar is not being highly recruited. Several basketball scouts have said that Abdul-Jabbar is no second coming of his father.

“He’s a good high school player,” said David Benezra, an assistant editor for Bluechip Illustrated, a national scouting publication. “I don’t feel he’s (an NCAA) Division I level basketball player. He would be a nice Division II player for somebody.”

Even so, a story about a miniature version of Abdul-Jabbar is too tempting for the media to resist; what is it like to be the son of a living legend?

Probably not what many would imagine. Outside of one recent summer when they decided to hold a monthlong, father-and-son basketball “boot camp” at his dad’s home on Kauai, there was little time spent playing basketball together at a back-yard hoop. What’s more, until recently, there was little time spent getting to know each other at all.

*

Even though there are no names on their uniforms, there was no mistaking Abdul-Jabbar when Brentwood took the floor for a recent game.

He has a shorter build than his father, but also has a remarkable likeness to his father’s famous face, save for thick hair and no goggles. His friends even call him “Cap.”

But once he shed his warm-up jacket, there was a glaring dissimilarity: Abdul-Jabbar wears No. 40, rather than his father’s 33.

The school did not have a jersey with No. 33 in his size, but that did not really bother the younger Abdul-Jabbar--”It’s just not really my thing, I guess,” he said.

Possibly because the elder Abdul-Jabbar has not always had lots of time to devote to his son.

Young Abdul-Jabbar’s mother is Habiba Herbert, who was married to Abdul-Jabbar for seven years before they were separated in 1979 and eventually divorced. Herbert said that Abdul-Jabbar’s career took up so much of his time and energy that he had little left to devote to the three children that they share.

“You sacrifice a lot to get where he is,” said Herbert, who has since remarried. “And he, at one point, sacrificed family. I realize now it was something he had to do.”

Also, it was difficult for Abdul-Jabbar to establish a relationship with his first three children because, since the divorce, they mostly have been with their mother.

“It was very difficult for me to know them,” the elder Abdul-Jabbar said. “I think the divorce affected that more than playing with the Lakers.”

Since his retirement in 1989, after a record 20 years in the NBA, Abdul-Jabbar has tried to improve his relations with his children. He tries to watch as many of his son’s games as he can. That can be difficult, however, because he still travels frequently.

“Sometimes, I expect him and he’s not there,” the younger Abdul-Jabbar said. “Sometimes I don’t expect him and he’s right there.”

Still, there were moments when it was nice for young Abdul-Jabbar to have a pro basketball player for a father.

When he played for the Lakers, for instance, Abdul-Jabbar sometimes would bring Kareem and his younger, half-brother, Amir, to practices, where they could be found playing alongside the court.

After games, they were allowed to run wherever they wanted in the locker room.

As young Abdul-Jabbar stood in the locker room, waiting for his father, James Worthy would inevitably sneak up behind him, grab him and swing him in the air, tickling him breathless.

There also are moments, however, when it is more difficult to have a superstar dad. The toughest time for the younger Abdul-Jabbar was when other kids at his elementary school began to tease him, telling him that they didn’t believe he was really the son of the legend.

“If he’s your father, why doesn’t he ever bring you to school?” they said.

Once the elder Abdul-Jabbar heard what his son was going through at school, he picked him up one day and made a point to get out of the car and meet his son’s schoolmates, putting an end to speculation.

But for Abdul-Jabbar, the most difficult thing about being his father’s son is sharing his name. This, he said, can be confusing and inconvenient.

He first realized this might be a problem at a young age. After all, when your name is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, it’s tough to keep your father a secret. His first day of grade school, some older kids approached him with pictures of his father and asked him to get them autographed.

Another time, a teacher reached his name when taking role and stopped and said, “Wait a minute, is this a joke?”

But Abdul-Jabbar understands people’s shock when they see his name.

“I’d do the same thing if I saw a (student named) Bill Cosby,” he said.

*

While the nation celebrated Abdul-Jabbar’s farewell tour in ‘89, which marked the end of an era in basketball, his son celebrated a new beginning--a time to find out who his dad was.

“I had always been like Uncle Dad,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

The elder Abdul-Jabbar never insisted that his son play basketball, but he did insist that he learn martial arts.

Even when young Abdul-Jabbar showed an aptitude for basketball in local youth leagues, his father maintained a low-key attitude.

“For me, it has always been a question of what he wanted to do, and as long as he is enjoying himself, I don’t worry,” the elder Abdul-Jabbar said.

What the father does worry about, however, is academics. He insisted that his son improve his grades at Brentwood before allowing him to join the basketball team.

The younger Abdul-Jabbar moved in with his father in 1991 as a sophomore at Brentwood because his father lived closer to the school. He has since moved back with his mother because Abdul-Jabbar has begun to travel more. Still, living with his father was an eye-opening experience.

For a while, they lived separate lives under the same expansive roof, often not even eating dinner together. But each soon learned what the other was all about.

The older Abdul-Jabbar was not prepared for what he discovered about his son--he had a mind of his own.

Eventually, fathe r and son learned that they are more similar than not.

“He has a weird sense of humor,” young Abdul-Jabbar said about his father. “He’s like me.”

Or maybe, it’s the other way around.