Kareem Abdul-Jabbar joins “Together We Stand” cancer awareness initiative

Someone might call you out of the blue, and it may not be a telemarketer trying to sell unwanted services. It might be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The Lakers legend has joined the “Together We Stand” cancer awareness initiative that will entail numerous celebrities calling fans from Sept. 5 through 7th about that very issue. The only things fan have to do involves sharing their email address at this Web site.

Abdul-Jabbar represents one of many celebrities that will appear on Stand Up to Cancer’s fourth biennial fundraising telecast on Feb. 5, which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. ET/PT from the Dolby Theatre on 31 broadcast and cable channels as well as on Hulu and Yahoo. Those channels include ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, along with ABC Family, American Forces Network, Bravo, Cooking Channel, Discovery Fit & Health, E!, Encore, Encore Espanol, EPIX, ESPNEWS, FOX Sports 2, FXM, HBO, HBO Latino, ION Television, LMN, Logo TV, MLB Network, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, Palladia, Pivot, SHOWTIME, Smithsonian Channel, Starz, TNT and VH1 Other celebrities include Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Pierce Brosnan, Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Jon Hamm, Kiefer Sutherland, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Mark Harmon, Rob Lowe, Eric Stonestreet and Danny McBride.

Abdul-Jabbar has a personal stake in this initiative. He was diagnosed in Nov. 2009 with a rare form with having a rare form of leukemia. In multiple interviews since then, Abdul-Jabbar has reported staying in good health because he consistently takes antibiotics and exercises.

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com