Trump, NBA legend Jabbar clash

At left,Former NBA basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; at right, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (Reuters/AP)

Donald Trump has responded to a newspaper column accusing him of bullying and insulting the media -- by personally insulting the writer.

That's the charge from none other than basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who penned a column for the Washington Post on Wednesday that caught the attention of the GOP candidate.

In his column, Abdul-Jabbar criticized what he portrayed as Trump's disregard for the media's First Amendment rights, and cited a series of incidents involving Fox News' Megyn Kelly, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos and the Des Moines Register newspaper.

Later Wednesday, Abdul-Jabbar, who in the years since his retirement as the NBA's all-time leading scorer and six-time MVP has become a bestselling author and frequent columnist on social and political issues, published a note he said he got from Trump.

It reads: "Now I know why the press always treated you so badly -- they couldn't stand you. The fact is that you don't have a clue about life and what has to be done to make America great again! Best wishes, Donald Trump."

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Abdul-Jabbar said Trump's response is "the best, though inelegant, support for my claims."