Cal Bears In Hollywood: Solomon Hughes is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in new HBO Lakers show

That, and several more Cal athlete alumni are making their bones in Hollywoood.

For those wanting to see some Cal Bears on your screen this offseason, you’re in luck! The new Lakers show will feature two former Golden Bears, one in a pretty significant role.

Cal basketball alum Dr. Solomon Hughes gets to play Kareem Abdul-Jabbar! Hughes was a Cal basketball captain back in the early 2000s and was one of the most efficient scorers in the Pac-10.

This is Hughes’s first acting role. Like Kareem, Solomon Hughes is quite the academic—after playing professional ball in the USBL and ABA and in Mexico, then becoming a Harlem Globetrotter; he has a doctorate in higher education from the University of Georgia.

And he also gets to be Roger Murdock in Airplane! as well.

Lights, Camera, Pod @LightsCameraPod

Solomon Hughes, Rob Morgan, and Tamera Tomakili as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Earvin Johnson Sr. and Earlitha Kelly #WinningTime

Also a show regular will be Cal football alum Austin Aaron, who will play Lakers power forward Mark Landsberger.

austinaaron

A post shared by Austin Aaron (@austinaaron)

Aaron has been acting for awhile—many of you are probably familiar with Aaron’s work in 13 Reasons Why.

Jessica Christian @jachristian

From a Cal football player to performing as the classic jock on @13ReasonsWhy, be sure to read @TonyBravoSF’s profile on @austin__aaron in today’s @sfchronicle bit.ly/2nhL8CE Can’t wait to see what season 3 has in store!

Here is the trailer of Winning Time.

Also look out for UC Berkeley alum and former Cal hurdler Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (who you’ve probably seen in Aquaman, Candyman, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and the HBO series Watchmen) in Matrix Resurrections this coming week.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen 2 @yahya

Time To Fly! The Matrix Resurrections - Dec-22-21 You ready? 😎 #TheMatrix #Morpheus

You can see him featured in the trailer.

Cal Bears are way more than athletes! They can be stars too.